|
submit an econveyancing deed by just pressing a button
20 June 2008
Every year the Dutch Cadastre, Land Registry & Mapping Agency processes 1 million deeds relating to real estate. These deeds could only be submitted by post or in person resulting in manual copying of data into the registration with various disadvantages. An unnecessary delay before the deed was recorded caused a short period of legal uncertainty.
Moreover, the manual copying was a potential source of errors and management didn’t have workload information. Lastly, for information requests, the deeds had to be scanned or copied first. These documents can now be submitted digitally through the electronic conveyancing portal, ELAN, where the digital signature is checked.
Reply messages are also equipped with a digital signature. The deed is automatically given a unique identification code and displayed digitally. Proof of receipt and registration are created automatically. The process is entirely transparent for the end-user. Apart from the installation of the software, it is exceptionally easy to use.
In addition to savings in terms of time and money (no paper or courier costs), the processing is no longer delayed. Because the deed can be registered by the cadastre within five minutes of being sent, the risk of premature seizure of the house is substantially reduced. House buyers have access to their money sooner and have more legal certainty about the status of their purchase when executing the deed. Now it takes hours instead of days.
As the Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment stated in October 2005, “This is a breakthrough in digital legal traffic.” In fact, electronic conveyancing fits very well into the cadastre’s strategic objectives, task and mission:
Electronic conveyancing became operational in September 2005. Since then the digital submission has grown by leaps and bounds. By 1 May 2007 over 90% of the deeds were received digitally. The fact that a high percentage of the cadastre’s clients have switched to the use of the web application in a short space of time is a clear sign of the high level of appreciation amongst notaries and bailiffs.
For each deed, the Dutch Cadastre receives approximately €70, adding up to €70,000,000 in turnover per year. There is a direct saving of 2.64 minutes for each document submitted electronically. The user receives a discount of €10 per submitted document. Clients are now, in close collaboration with notaries, helping to further develop the eConveyancing system.
Achievements attained until now are an important step on the path to a fully digital land registry.
The Netherlands, Kadaster, www.kadaster.nl
Click here for original article
|
