Page 1 of Monday was a quiet day for news obviously (Land Registry Rant follows)

Breakfast news on Monday (followed up in written press on Tuesday)

Shock. Horror. Something must be done! Guess what, the Land Registry registers details of deeds! It does. Honest. And whats worse it lets people look at it. Shocking. A public register that the public are allowed to access. What were they thinking of?

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous "stories" of the year. I felt sorry for the guy from the Land Registry who was dragged out to defend the Agency. He looked, justifiably, bemused.

Accused of helping identity theft on the back of an admissionby the "journalist" that there is no evidence to support this view he could only say something along the lines of we`re not aware of a problem.

Full access to the Land Registry started in the nineties, but in Scotland it started in 1617 and so far it hasn`t caused any problems that I am aware of.

Aaaaargh!

Some `journalist` misunderstanding the Data Protection Act presumably...

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News Editor and Reviewer
www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk

Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn...

And those who dance will spin and turn,
And those who wait will wait no more,
And those who talk will hear the words,
And those who see will fade and die,
And those who laugh will surely fall,
And those who know will always feel their backs against the thin wall...

How exactly can the `public` have access to the information when one has to cough up at least £3 for every enquiry about who own a particular house (according to landregistry website).

Not exaclty available for "free" to the Joe Public.
Granted that criminals could spend monies to find out who owns what property.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 15th August 2007, 13:36

Quote:
Some `journalist` misunderstanding the Data Protection Act presumably...

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News Editor and Reviewer
www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk

ha ha..

Quote:
ha ha..

Something`s tickled you, but damned if I know what...

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News Editor and Reviewer
www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk

Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn...

And those who dance will spin and turn,
And those who wait will wait no more,
And those who talk will hear the words,
And those who see will fade and die,
And those who laugh will surely fall,
And those who know will always feel their backs against the thin wall...

I thought the problem was that they now make scans of the actual documents available - including mortgage account details, amount of mortgage, and teh bit that was causing the fuss - signatures. At least that was my understanding from the bit I caught on 5 live.

Probably was, but they have done that in Scotland for ever. And before someone points out theat forever is factually incorrect, I mean they have had a public register since at least 1617, copies have been available of the content of deeds since the invention of the xerox (1940s?), doesn`t seem to have done anyone any harm. If we accept the principle that a government held register of property is to be a public register (I think it should) then we have to let people look at it.

If you don`t like people seeing your signature sihgn things in invisible ink or change your signature for every thingh you sign. If you incorporated the place and date in your signature you would be able to identify which of your signatures had been copied whioch would be of great assistance in tracking down fraudsters, perhaps we should adopt 3d bar codes as sigs?