Lodging my application

I am a retired solicitor and the trustee of a club, which is completing a new lease. I will need to register the lease through the Citizen Centre and I am concerned that I have heard that the Land Registry will not accept a certified copy of the lease (it will be certified by the landlords' solicitors) and will destroy the original lease. Is this true? Why will the Land Registry refuse to return the original lease to me? I understand that Rule 203 of the Land Registration Rules 2003 says that LR may destroy original documents which are not considered "requisite" but if the tenants' solicitor or applicant requires the lease to be returned it is "requisite" so the rule does not apply. In any case the Lord Chancellor is not a professional thief and so is not qualified to act as a thief. He is not authorised and regulated by the professional thieves network service provider. The Land Registration Rule Committee would not have intended to do anything illegal like purporting to legalise theft of leases or other original documents by the Land Registry and so the Rules cannot be interpreted as authorising that. I could try to register as a freelance solicitor but that could be very expensive as the SRA could insist that I take out indemnity insurance with run off cover, even though I will only occasionally be acting for myself or a few friends without charging any fees. If I am not authorised and regulated by the SRA I suspect the LR will not allow me to become a "conveyancer" and use the portal to register the lease.  

Removed as incorrect information provided - see below for clarity

If you wish to apply to use our business e-services then you may. Being a retired solicitor does not preclude you from making such an application and using our business e-services

Adam - Thank you, that is very helpful and I am relieved to hear that. It seems clear that there are some unwritten rules or practice policies that the Citizen Centre follows which are different from those applying where "conveyancers" are acting. There does not seem to be a guidance note explaining these for "do-it-yourselfers" and as Rule 203 does not provide any assurance that original documents will not be destroyed, if a copy certified by a solicitor has been provided, it would be helpful if what you have told me could be put into a guidance note and published on the LR website. Rule 203 could also be made more explicit and thereby relieve such worries for people who value original documents and never feel that a copy is really necessarily 100% accurate or as quite as good as the original .  

Michael - I shall pass on your feedback re the online guidance for colleagues to consider an amendment/update. A Rule amendment is a much tougher ask as I am sure you will appreciate but will share also with other colleagues to add to any future review of our legislation 

Michael - profuse apologies as I need to back track a little for you on the forum as I have been in discussion with one of our lawyers who is dealing with an earlier contact from you, by letter, dated 1st July for which a reply was being drafted
Our discussions have shown that I was wrong to provide the advice I have and that if you did submit the original deed then it would be destroyed and not returned.
We ask applicants to not submit original deeds as a result although the option remains to do so as per the above comment. 
Our form AP1 covers this in the explanatory note to panel 5 and our guidance on how to complete panel 5 of the form goes further to help with lodgement 
I'll amend my previous post to make that clear to anyone else reading this thread. once you have confirmed you have read this post as well
I am also arranging with our lawyer to issue a response to your more detailed written enquiry so please bear with us 
Once again apologies for the misinformation provided yesterday

Hello Adam

Thank you for letting me know. I will read the guidance and the letter from your Croydon Head Office legal team. It seems clear that there is some confusion here and that wrong information has been given in the past that you will not accept a certified copy of the lease from a "do-it-yourself" conveyancer even if it is certified by a practising solicitor or legal executive or licensed conveyancer. Also there does not seem yet to be a recognition that the 2018 amendment rules are ultra vires as the original documents being destroyed are not the property of the Land Registry and LR Rules cannot legalise what is fundamentally unlawful under the general law of the land that applies to everyone including Government departments. I have raised this issue with the Law Society rep on the LR Rules Committee who will consider his response in due course.

Hello Adam

The guidance note on completing form AP1 states that it assumes the person lodging the application is not a professional conveyancer, and the instructions for completing panel 5 just say that "you" must certify the copy of the transfer or lease. So "do-it-yourself" conveyancers will be following this guidance and there seems to be no safeguard against fraud and/or error as anyone could knowingly or otherwise certify a copy that is not correct and the original would then be destroyed so there would be no proof that the certified copy was falsified. Is that really the situation that we have? One would assume reading this quickly that it applies where the person lodging the application is a professional conveyancer, as otherwise it does not seem to make sense as there is no safeguard against fraud or mistake. There does not appear to be a guidance note designed for professional conveyancers if this one is designed for "do-it-yourselfers".      

Hello Michael - a reply to your letter should be issued shortly so hopefully that will address the issues as raised