Guidance

HM Land Registry Business e-services: manage your organisation’s portal accounts

Business e-services customers can manage their portal accounts at any time.

From:
HM Land Registry
Published
31 August 2017
Last updated
9 November 2020 — See all updates

Applies to England and Wales

Overview

Organisations that use Business e-services will have signed the Conditions of use: Portal and Business Gateway (COU). Conveyancers may also have signed the Network Access Agreement (NAA). These agreements set out the obligations that organisations must comply with.

Each organisation that uses our Business e-services via the portal, our online channel for transactions, or via Business Gateway, automatically through a case management system, has at least one person who’s responsible for understanding our security policies and making sure their organisation adheres to them. They are called the responsible person. An organisation can also have as many deputy responsible persons as they need.

These roles were created to assist organisations in fulfilling their obligations under their regulatory Codes of Conduct, and the Legal Services Act 2007 and to make sure their users are given access to the Business e-services corresponding to their ability, experience and qualifications, and so their work can be supervised by a qualified conveyancer if necessary.

If you are the responsible person or a deputy responsible person for your organisation, you must make sure your organisation adheres to the user account provisions, and you play your part in protecting the security and integrity of the network.

You need to make sure:

  • you do not allow users (all roles) to share accounts
  • you do not allow your administrators to create ‘generic’ accounts to be shared by multiple authorised users
  • your administrators delete authorised user accounts that are no longer needed
  • you contact us to delete responsible person, deputy responsible person and administrator accounts that are no longer needed

If you become aware of any unauthorised use of or access to Business e-services you must take reasonable steps to stop such activity and prevent it happening again.

Account sharing

A user account is personal to the user for whom it is set up, and only that person should use the User ID (login name), password and any security token. This ensures that HM Land Registry knows who is using the system, and that it is being used with the authority and under the supervision of a registered customer.

You must not allow simultaneous access to services using the same login, or the transfer or sharing of a User ID. For example, administrators must not create ‘generic’ accounts to be used by more than one person, such as for an ‘Accounts Team’.

If you allow administrators to do this, users may be able to access services after they leave your organisation and you will have no easy way of identifying transactions they submit.

Account deletion

You should regularly review your organisation’s Business e-services accounts to make sure that no former employees continue to have access to services using security credentials requested or issued by you. If you do not do this, you are putting your business and the integrity of the register at risk.

There have been instances where staff have left organisations who used Business e-services but whose accounts have not been deleted. Individuals have assumed that user accounts were theirs personally, where in fact they belong to the organisation who set them up. The major consequence of this has been that services have been ordered and paid for using the account of a previous employer.

This highlights the importance of maintaining your organisation’s accounts and ensuring the accounts of people who leave or move onto other roles are deleted. This applies to all staff including the responsible person, any deputy responsible persons and administrators as well as authorised users.

Find more information on managing the different types of account in:

Monitoring your organisation’s use of Business e-services

HM Land Registry has created several reports to help responsible persons and deputy responsible persons to supervise the actions of administrators and authorised users:

  • the ‘Administrator Report’ includes details of your administrators’ actions during the last 31 calendar days (access it from the ‘My Portal homepage’, under ‘Administrative Services’)
  • the ‘VDD information’ provides you with access to details of transactions on your organisation’s variable Direct Debit (VDD) accounts (access it from the ‘My Portal homepage’, under ‘Administrative Services’)
  • the ‘Services Requested’ report provides you with access to details of services requested by users during the last 7 days (access it from the My Portal Home page under the heading, ‘General Facilities’)

Responsible persons, deputy responsible persons and administrators should:

Manage your organisation’s portal accounts

Additional services

If your organisation is an existing Business e-services customer, you can apply for additional services Business e-services.

Update organisation account

An administrator can update an organisation’s contact details including address, email address, landline, mobile telephone number and fax number. Find out more in the guide Update a business unit account.

Change of organisation name

Business e-services customers must notify us if an organisation name changes because of a change of legal entity or rebranding. Find out more in the guide Change of organisation name.

Agreements

A responsible person should contact us in writing, by post or email, to request the suspension or termination of an organisation’s NAA or Memorandum of Understanding.

Closure of an organisation’s Business e-services account

A responsible person should contact us in writing, by post or email, to notify us of the closure of an organisation or to request termination of a Business e-services account.

Manage the variable Direct Debit accounts

Apply for an additional VDD account

Complete the application form and mandate on pages 13, 14 and 15 of our VDD guide, Paying for HM Land Registry services by variable direct debit to apply for an additional VDD account.

Update the bank details of an existing VDD account

Complete a variable Direct Debit mandate form to tell us about changes to the bank account details of a VDD account.

Update the name of a VDD Account Holder or to close a VDD account

A responsible person should send details of the change to:

HM Land Registry Accounts Receivable
PO Box 2079
Trafalgar House (6th Floor)
Croydon
CR90 9NU

DX 8888
Croydon 3

Manage responsible persons

Reset, suspend or unsuspend a responsible person account

A responsible person can change or reset their password if they have set their Shared Secrets, or they must contact the Service Access Team.

Requests to suspend or unsuspend a responsible person account or to update contact details should be made to Service Access Team by the responsible person who can:

Update the personal details of a responsible person

A responsible person can only update their Preferred Contact Method by logging on to the portal and selecting Administrative Services > Personal Details.

Change a responsible person

A request for a new responsible person must be made by the existing responsible person or, if they have already left the organisation, from a duly authorised person within the organisation such as a company director, company secretary, partner or equivalent.

Requests should be made using form AFS6 or electronically.

If you confirm that your existing responsible person has left the organisation and they had an administrator account we will also delete that account.

Please return their security token to the Service Access Team or dispose of it in accordance with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) environmental legislation.

If they were also an authorised user, you should direct one of your administrators to delete that account.

More information about the role of a responsible person is available in the HM Land Registry Business e-services technical manual.

Manage a deputy responsible person

The role of deputy responsible person has been created to assist organisations with the proper supervision of their employees’ use of our services. Deputy responsible persons can be nominated to cover for the responsible person when they are not available or to manage a particular group or office within your organisation.

Create a deputy responsible person account

Requests to create deputy responsible person accounts must be made to the Service Access Team by a responsible person who must fill in form AFS5a or make a request electronically.

Reset a deputy responsible person password

A deputy responsible person can reset a deputy responsible person password if they have set their Shared Secrets, otherwise they must contact the Service Access Team.

Update the personal details of a deputy responsible person

A deputy responsible person can update their Preferred Contact Method by logging on to the portal and selecting Administrative Services > Personal Details.

Suspend, unsuspend or delete a deputy responsible person account

Requests should be made to the Service Access Team by a responsible person or a deputy responsible person (only if they are dealing with their own account) who can:

  • submit an electronic request using Administrative Services
  • submit a request in writing by email or post
  • make a verbal request by telephone

More information about the role of a deputy responsible person is available in the HM Land Registry Business e-services technical manual.

Manage administrators

Create administrator account

A responsible person or deputy responsible person should complete form AFS4a or make a request electronically.

Reset an administrator’s password or security token

Administrators can reset or change a password or reset their security token by following the onscreen prompts in the Login Problem section on the HM Land Registry Portal Login page. They must have set their Shared Secrets, otherwise, they should contact our Service Access Team.

Suspend, unsuspend, update or delete an administrator account

Requests to update or delete administrator accounts must be made to the Service Access Team by a responsible person or a deputy responsible person who can:

  • submit an electronic request using Administrative Services
  • submit a request in writing by email or post
  • make a verbal request by telephone

Manage authorised users

Your organisation’s administrators are responsible for managing all aspects of your authorised user accounts. HM Land Registry does not manage authorised user accounts.

Update authorised user accounts

An authorised user can:

  • change or reset their password if they have set their Shared Secrets; otherwise they must refer to their organisation’s administrator.

  • set an alternative despatch address by logging into the portal and selecting Administrative Services.

Update authorised user role

The role associated with an authorised user account can be changed by their organisation’s administrator to control which services they have access to.

If your organisation applies for additional services, then your administrators must update authorised users roles in order for them to access those services. Find out more in the guide Update a user account.

The roles and associated privileges for authorised users can be found in the HM Land Registry Business e-services technical manual.

Contact

Send our Service Access Team a message if you have a query about managing HM Land Registry Business e-services accounts. Alternatively you can contact us by phone or post.

Service Access Team

PO Box 650
Southfield House
Southfield Way
Durham
DH1 9LR

DX313201
Durham 24

Contact form https://customerhelp.l...

Telephone 0300 006 0411

Published 31 August 2017
Last updated 9 November 2020 + show all updates

  1. Added links to submit requests to update or create Business e-services accounts electronically.

  2. We've added guidance to help customers meet their obligations to monitor their organisation's use of Business e-services.

  3. First published.

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