A few days ago the Land Registry in the UK announced that it will accept land registration applications that are signed with Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES). This is a big deal because it is the first real shift by a government register to allow for the fully digital signing of documents….no more mandatory wet ink signatures as part of the signing process.
So what is a QES? Under eIDAS, the EU’s electronic identification, authentication and trust services regulation, QES is the highest assurance method for a signing a document digitally. The signer’s identity is verified by a “qualified trust service provider” (QTSP) with their digital signature being bound to the document being signed using a cryptographic process. By creating this biometric binding to the person, QES is the best means of protecting the integrity of the register. In this way the authority of the register is also protected.
The UK’s Land Registry has been running a QES pilot which required every signatory on a registration deed to sign with QES. Interestingly, one of the features (and benefits!) is that documents signed with QES do not require witnessing and attestation. This is a big incentive to adopt QES. The current workflow for witnessing and attesting on e-signing platforms is clunky and is likely one of the reasons why conveyancing firms have not switched enthusiastically to digital signatures.
The biggest winners of the QES switch will be the digital document signing firms, like our partner firm LuminPDF. Before long, I expect to see firms engaging Lumin to use NFC technology to verify a client’s identity in accordance with the Land Registry’s Digital Identity Standard and issue a qualified certificate to the client to sign all the required documents to enable a property transfer on the Lumin platform with QES.
It’s a very compelling use case that will be applicable very soon to every registration process across the UK and all EU Member States.