The first digital mortgage deed has been entered into the Land Register, under a new service to speed up the signature process.

Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing lodged the first digitally signed mortgage for a house in Rotherhithe, London. This was completed without the need for a witness to watch as the homeowner applied an ink signature to a paper mortgage deed.

The registration of the deed follows months of collaboration and testing with Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing. The system uses GOV.UK Verify to enable borrowers to securely verify their identity before digitally signing their mortgage deed online.

HM Land Registry chief executive and chief land registrar Graham Farrant said he was looking forward to rolling the service out nationally and will be working with more conveyancers and lenders to do so.

The initiative is currently only available for remortages, but Coventry Building Society’s chief operating officer Peter Frost said he was excited about the potential for it to be extended to purchases in the future.

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