The Land Registry has come under fire for announcing an increase in its fees, with paper requests being hit the hardest.
The increases have been described as “unjustified” and “harming transparency”.
Adam Hosker, chief technology officer (CTO) at Cyborg Finance, said: “Even though storage and bandwidth costs have been decreasing, the Land Registry is increasing the fees for accessing PDFs.
“HM Land Registry should generate its operating revenue via processing and updates, not by imposing unjustified fees for accessing data.
“The fee harms transparency, research, utilisation and is a barrier to innovation.”
However, some welcomed the move, saying it would allow home buying to enter the 21st century.
Gabriel McKeown, head of macroeconomics at Sad Rabbit Investments, said: “This move should be viewed as less about pinching pennies and more about propelling the industry into a paperless paradise.”
The Land Registry is raising its charge for an application to £4 per application. These include Agricultural Credits and Land Charges.
This will not apply to Land Charges applications submitted on paper. These will increase by £6 for searches and £5 for official copies and inspections to address an existing anomaly.
This reflects the Land Registry’s approach to apply higher fees for processing paper requests compared with digital requests.
The increases will take effect from Monday 9 December.
The Land Registry said the changes are in response to the increased cost of “running and improving” its services.
They are also part of its plan to “increase digitalisation and transformation of data”.
The Land Registry said that the increases were the first in more than 10 years.
It insisted that the majority of customers will still be paying less than they were in 1992.
It added that this change does not affect the longer-term review of its fees and charging model.
Under Section 102 of the Land Registration Act 2002, changes to Land Registry fees need to be set by means of a fee order.
This was laid before Parliament on 10 September this year.
Land Registry customers with automated systems are being advised to make the necessary changes to their systems ahead of the increased fees coming into effect on December 9 this year.
