Just a few months after the full roll-out of the controversial packs, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department revealed that some suppliers are providing insufficient copies of title deeds in their packs.
The CLG said it had discovered that some providers were opting to use ‘registry views’ obtained from Land Registry Direct rather than title deed certificates, despite regulation requiring the inclusion of an official copy of the individual register and title plan.
A statement from the CLG said: ‘Official copies are required as these are encrypted documents that the Land Registry will stand by – if there are any errors in the register, for example – and are therefore acceptable during the conveyancing process. Although the information they contain is similar, register views have no such status.’
Dominic Toller, director of marketing and new business at LMS, commented: “I have been saying since day one to mortgage intermediaries, estate agents and their clients that they should all use reputable sources for their HIPs, and this is a good example of why.
"This says you can go out, view the title deeds on a computer and print it off and put it in a HIP. This will be marginally cheaper and slightly quicker but what it means is if the Land Registry data is incorrect then it won’t cover you in any way.
"You need to be ensuring that what you have is correct. How you find this out is difficult but using a reputable provider is the right way forward.”
