News story

Updates to online services on 13 March

From 13 March portal users will receive more email correspondence and can be more specific about the type of document they are sending us.

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As we continue to move towards becoming a more digital and data driven registration business, we are introducing two changes to the portal, our online transactional channel on 13 March.

We expect these changes will improve our customers’ experience of working with us and help to improve the speed of service they receive. They are designed to complement our wider changes to our customer support.

Changes to emailing correspondence

From 13 March, whenever a customer submits a registration application via the portal with our electronic document registration service (e-DRS), we will email them any correspondence related to their application.

We will typically send correspondence to the email address associated with the customer’s individual portal ID.

Portal users should make sure that the email address associated with their portal ID is up to date.

There may be instances where customers want to receive correspondence at a different email address. Customers can specify a different email address on an application-by-application basis.

Some customers’ organisations may prefer to use a single email address for all correspondence, rather than separate email addresses for each individual user. The organisation’s Business Unit Administrator will be able to assign a single correspondence email address for all portal users within their organisation via the new ‘Manage business unit’ option within their Administrative Services menu.

Once a collective email address has been assigned to the organisation’s account, our system will use this as the default email address each time a customer sends us an application online.

Up until 13 March, customers will need to continue to write their email address on each application to receive correspondence by email. Automating this process will make it more accurate and efficient, and is a response to customer feedback.

We prepared for this change when we published Schedule 2 notice 20: Electronic Document Registration Service through the portal in October, which states that portal users must specify an email address before they can send us their application via e-DRS.

New option to specify the type of document you are sending us

On 13 March, we will add a new option to the list of documents that customers can send us online to support their registration applications.

We are responding to customer feedback by adding a new option ‘JP Cancellation of Default Form A restriction’ to the dropdown list of documents in the e-DRS submission screen.

When land has more than one owner, customers don’t always specify how the owners hold the land when they apply to us to update the register. We need to know this before we can update the register so we place a restriction in the register which protects it until the ownership status is established.

When we place this restriction in the register, we send customers a letter to notify them. The restriction is not always necessary, so customers may want to cancel it.

The new option means customers will be able to select ‘JP Cancellation of Default Form A restriction’ online when they send us the documentation to cancel this type of restriction. This makes it more straightforward for customers, while making sure it reaches the right person in Land Registry as quickly as possible.

If customers want to cancel this type of restriction before 13 March, they will need to continue to complete the certificate section in the letter and return it to us within 30 days as an ‘application form’ via e-DRS or through the post.

Find out more about joint ownership.

Published 6 March 2017