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Leading property data and service provider tmgroup have announced that just 3 weeks after launching their new LR extract property portfolio tool they have made further improvements to save conveyancers even more time.

The Land Registry Register Extract Tool helps conveyancing firms save days of administrative processing when bulk ordering registers and plans from the Land Registry as part of a property portfolio.

It was created by tmgroup after they found that bulk ordering OC1 documents was an arduous and time-consuming task for many property solicitors and were able to take advantage of their access to the Land Registry’s Business Gateway to create this unique service.

Daniel Berger, a partner at BBS Law - a commercial property lawyers in Manchester – said this after using tmgroup’s LR Extract Tool:

"We instantly saved more than half a day of processing time and received the information online in one go in a really easy-to-use format which did away with all of the hassle usually involved with interpreting the data. I would absolutely recommend tmgroup’s LR Extract Portfolio Service to any conveyancing firm undertaking a property portfolio.”

When initially launched, the tool was designed for conveyancers to upload any number of postcodes or addresses before checking them against the Land Registry’s database and returning title information.

However, after early feedback suggesting an enhancement that would save conveyancers even more time, tmgroup reacted to customer requests to allow conveyancers to upload title numbers where known as well and then simply order registers and plans against those.

Ben Harris said:

“We met with our prime commercial customers and then developed this tool to meet their needs and in the first three weeks since launch over half the firms we have met with have signed up to use the service straight away, confirming that our customer led innovation is as strong as ever.”

If you would like to learn how you could save time on a commercial property portfolio, visit http://www.tmgroup.co.uk/convey/LRExtractTool

A Manchester Law Firm, BBS Law, has saved days of intensive administrative work by using tmgroup’s Land Registry Register Extract Tool when processing property portfolios. BBS Law are a boutique commercial law firm of choice and provide proactive, lateral thinking, efficient and cost-effective advice.

Partner Daniel Berger (pictured) heads up the property department, which has acted for substantial real estate clients for many years. The highly skilled property team delivers advice on a wide variety of property transactions and issues.

However, with the undertaking of property portfolios, there was one particular process which caused BBS Law problems. Daniel said:

“Whenever we’ve undertaken a property portfolio, we’ve always found the bulk order of title information from the Land Registry to be a tiresome and repetitive job.

Ordering title information from the Land Registry for just one or two properties can sometimes be a cumbersome affair, let alone when processing a portfolio of 50, 100 or 1000 properties. Daniel continued:

“The process generally holds up one of our secretaries for at least half a day to work on it and that’s just for a relatively small portfolio.”

With larger portfolios the administrative work scales dramatically because much of Daniel’s time was taken up by manually interpreting the initial plans and deciding which title numbers to order registers against.

The Land Registry tool, which was created by tmgroup as part of a collaborative development with existing clients, helps solve this issue by integrating with the Land Registry to bulk order title information and export it in a manageable, easy to use format. Speaking about his initial experiences with the unique service, Daniel said:

“We instantly saved more than half a day of processing time and received the information online in one go in a really easy-to-use format which did away with all of the hassle usually involved with interpreting the data. I would absolutely recommend tmgroup’s LR Extract Portfolio Service to any conveyancing firm undertaking a property portfolio.”

The service has also been independently verified by Legal Eye, a leading provider of best practice, risk management and compliance services to the legal services market. Managing Director, Jaunita Gobby said:

"Legal Eye (subsidiary of ULS Group) conducted an extensive audit of the tm LR Register Extract Service. The information was cross-referenced with the Official Copies (OC1s) and the data was 100% accurate. The audit has shown that the service is able to accurately pull through the exact information from the registers onto its portal so as to make it more user friendly and accessible to its clients. The tm summary screen gives a helpful indicator to detailed information contained within the OC1 which lawyers can then refer to. In our opinion lawyers should feel satisfied that the information provided on screen via the LR feed matches the information relied upon in the OC1s."

The tool is available now for commercial conveyancers through tmconvey. Learn more

tmgroup have announced the release of the “most comprehensive mapping capability in the conveyancing industry”, including content from Land Registry’s National Polygon Service.

In addition to the data provided by the Land Registry, tmgroup have announced that their new mapping will feature market-leading functionality including complex data layers, automatic property & road outlining and improved usability.

Data layers
Conveyancers are now able to filter complex data layers over maps when plotting properties, giving them access to more information straight away. With aerial imagery and Local Authority boundaries layered over the map, conveyancers can make informed decisions on a property from the outset, saving time and hassle. See the video below for a demonstration:

Automatic property outlining
Once a property location has been identified, tmgroup will automatically present the user with an outline of that property where possible, based on the Land Registry’s dataset.

Automatic road outlining
Once a property location has been identified, tmgroup enables automatic outlining of the adjoining roads where possible.

Improved usability
Designed so you can use it across desktop and mobile devices, tmgroup’s new mapping is completely responsive and has a full screen capability, allowing you to access more of the map on one screen.

This follows tmgroup’s rebrand in November 2015 when the company revealed three new services for property professionals: tmconvey, tmcore and tmconnect. The mapping will be available as part of tmconvey – tmgroup’s comprehensive conveyancing platform, giving property solicitors everything they need to manage a property transaction.

tmgroup Sales & Marketing Director Ben Harris said:
“We’re delighted to bring our new mapping to conveyancers with market-leading functionality and more features to follow. We took the time to review feedback from our customers and make this a user-led development to ensure that users can enjoy the very best mapping available to conveyancers today. We will be rolling out more enhancements to our service for conveyancers which will help join up the property transaction for all parties.”

Existing tmgroup customers should speak to their account manager to enable this functionality, whilst conveyancers not currently using tmconvey can sign up for a free, no-obligation trial. Contact us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk to get started.

The Land Registry has announced that there will be a period of extended maintenance between Friday 4th March until Monday 7th March.

As such they say that some services will be unavailable for the specified time period:

"The portal, Business Gateway and Find a property will be unavailable from 6:30pm on 4 March to 6am on 7 March. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

For further information please see the Schedule 2 and 3 notices on GOV.UK

If you are using our Land Registry Register Extract Service, orders will be queued as usual and processed automatically once the Land Registry's Business Gateway is operating again from 6am onwards on March 7th. Learn more about LR Register Extract Service.

With Russel Tinnion, Spatial Team Lead

As part of the regular improvements to our search order platform, we are delighted to announce that we have added a free automatic boundary outlining feature to our mapping.

What does that mean for me?
When you locate a property as part of your case creation, either by entering an address or by positioning a red dot on the map, we’ll then present a boundary outline for you automatically, sourced from the Land Registry.

So it’s a good thing?
Absolutely, it will now be much easier & quicker for you to mark-up case plan maps.

What if the boundary outline is wrong or needs editing?
Generally the boundary outline should be a faithful representation of the property extent but, if you would like to make any amends, you can edit the boundary outline in the usual way before proceeding.

Are there any instances in which I won’t be presented with an outline automatically?
Currently we can only access data for freehold properties and therefore a boundary outline will not be presented to you automatically for: leasehold properties; manually-entered addresses; unregistered property; or properties made up of multiple separate boundaries. On these occasions, you are free to draw or upload your plan as you have done in the past.

Where are you getting the data from?
We’re working with the INSPIRE Index Polygons dataset which is an open source dataset from the Land Registry, developed to comply with the European Union INSPIRE Directive. Read more about INSPIRE

Does this INSPIRE Index polygon represent the Registered Title extent?
No, the extent of the land contained in any registered title cannot be established from the INSPIRE Index Polygons. This can only be identified from the individual title plan.

Land Registry Offices, Croydon - Image © Clare Forster

March 9th 2014 saw the closure of the consultation on the Land Registry’s proposal to be granted wider powers and become the sole registering authority for Local Land Charges and a provider of Local Land Charge searches.

It has been seen as a controversial proposal throughout the conveyancing profession with a mix of governing bodies and practitioners having been to oppose it and expose the flaws in the justification.

The debate, on whether personal searches are ‘worth the risk’ for solicitors, continues to rage, as it did most recently in the Conveyancing Quality Standard debate forum on LinkedIn. 

For many conveyancers, particularly those who have had a great many years’ experience in the profession, official searches are the ‘Gold Standard’. Certainly there is the perception that going straight to source reduces the risk of anything getting lost in translation.