Planning information, building regulations, alterations, guarantees, energy information, searches and other important records could all sit together in one place. Instead of starting from scratch every time the property changes hands, much of its history could travel with it.
It sounds like a sensible idea. Yet it raises one very important question.
Who makes sure the information is right?
The Government’s plans to reform the home buying and selling process include a greater role for Digital Property Logbooks.
The idea is to create a secure digital record containing current and historic information about a property, which could be shared more easily when that property is eventually sold.
For buyers and sellers, there are obvious attractions.
We have spoken many times on IPSA Kind Of Magic about reaching the point of sale and only then beginning the process of gathering information. If some of that information already existed, was accessible and could be trusted, transactions could potentially become quicker.
The interesting question for IPSA members is what happens to the search.
Traditionally, searches have largely been commissioned for a particular transaction. A buyer is found, a conveyancer is instructed and searches are ordered.
A property passport begins to turn that idea on its head.
Could searches and other information increasingly become part of the property’s ongoing record?
There is, of course, a problem. Properties change, and so do the areas around them.
A planning application might appear. A road scheme could be proposed. Building work may take place. Local authority records are updated. Something completely accurate today may no longer tell the full story several years from now.
That is where the human element becomes extremely important.
The future role of an independent search professional may increasingly be about understanding where information came from, whether it remains current and when something needs another pair of experienced eyes.
That is something IPSA members have been doing for years.
This week we’ll also be joined by Mahesh Kerai, who brings another interesting perspective to the conversation. Mahesh works in Wales, giving us the opportunity to consider what these reforms could mean for independent search professionals on both sides of the border.
The Government expects the majority of its home buying and selling reform measures to apply across England and Wales, although individual measures will depend on future legislation. That makes Mahesh’s practical experience particularly useful when we ask how a more standardised digital system might work in the real world.
Government is also looking at making more local authority property information digitally available, including building control and highways information. Alongside the continuing migration of Local Land Charges information to HM Land Registry, the pieces of a much more digital property information system are gradually coming together.
Perhaps the question for IPSA should therefore be less about whether property passports threaten the traditional search and more about where independent search professionals fit within them.
Who verifies the information? Who decides when it needs updating? And who carries responsibility when supposedly trusted information turns out to be wrong?
Those are questions worth asking now, rather than once the system has already been built.
This Wednesday on IPSA Kind Of Magic, Gareth Wax, Mahesh Kerai and Hamish McLay will be asking what Digital Property Logbooks could mean for our profession and whether they could actually create a new role for independent search professionals.
Technology can certainly make property information easier to find.
Making sure it can be trusted may still require something rather more traditional.
People. Knowledge. Experience.
Join us live this Wednesday at 1pm on the Spilling The Proper-Tea YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@SpillingTheProper-Tea
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