Privatisation of Land Registery and Office Closures

CLAPTON

well, it's difficult to see why a computer produced copy of a land registry document, delivered over the internet cost over £40.

chris_m

stator wrote: »

The whole reason you pay stamp duty is for the government to recognise your claim to the land.

Er no, the whole reason you pay stamp duty is to raise revenue for the Exchequer - in the same way that there is stamp duty payable on other things apart from houses, like stocks & shares.

If SDLT was solely to get "the government to recognise your claim to the land", why do you think there is no SDLT due on property purchases less than £125K in value and on a sliding scale for higher value purchases?

chewmylegoff

stator wrote: »

75 year payback? I don't think so.
More like Mr Osborne sells it on the cheap, as the Tories always do, for let's say £10 million to some rich friends in the city, terms "Long term stable partners"
Then the private operator cuts staff, closes offices. Outsources and Offshores IT.
They make a lot of money for a while.
Queue times increase. IT systems crash. The government has to step in and force them to clean up their act, introducing minimum standards (possibly paying them tax payers money to do so, depending on how badly the original contract was written)
Private company slowly increase service until it meets that absolute minimum standard. Private company keeps making money.
Meanwhile general public gets screwed over. Hundreds of thousands of transactions delayed or compromised because of inept handling.

The Land Registry have a very important job to do. It should be honest, reliable and impartial. It should not be run by a private company anymore than our court system should be privatised. There are some things that the government should always keep control of.
The whole reason you pay stamp duty is for the government to recognise your claim to the land. If you're paying a private company to process your claim instead, the tax is unjustifiable.

You do realise that the "friends in the city" are actually asset management institutions who are investing the pension assets of pretty much every UK person with a pension fund and that we are all therefore the beneficiaries of any lo-ball pricing of a privatisation?

Stamp duty isn't a payment to recognise your "claim to the land", it is a tax levied on a change of ownership. You pay a separate fee to the land registry for the purpose of transferring the title into your name.

westv

CLAPTON wrote: »

well, it's difficult to see why a computer produced copy of a land registry document, delivered over the internet cost over £40.

A comment by someone who has no idea how the LR operates or exactly what it does??

chewmylegoff

westv wrote: »

A comment by someone who has no idea how the LR operates or exactly what it does??

You seem to be taking this situation very personally. Are you in a relationship with the land registry?

CLAPTON

westv wrote: »

A comment by someone who has no idea how the LR operates or exactly what it does??

It is true I don't know how 99.9999% of businesses operate nor do I know EXACTLY what most businesses do.


However, to provide a copy of a computer document doesn't seem very onerous especially when delivered over the internet.


However, I am willing to learn exactly what it does and exactly how it operates and how it costs over £40 to produce a copy of a document that it holds on a computer system.

westv

chewmylegoff wrote: »

You seem to be taking this situation very personally. Are you in a relationship with the land registry?

:rotfl:

........

westv

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/land-registry-privatisation-back-on-reports/5052249.fullarticle

"Proposals to create a ‘service delivery company’ published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills met with an overwhelmingly critical response."

"....the plans, which the Law Society warned could ‘undermine the register’s integrity and introduce conflicts of interest with potentially adverse economic results’."

CLAPTON

westv wrote: »

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/land-registry-privatisation-back-on-reports/5052249.fullarticle

"Proposals to create a ‘service delivery company’ published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills met with an overwhelmingly critical response."

"....the plans, which the Law Society warned could ‘undermine the register’s integrity and introduce conflicts of interest with potentially adverse economic results’."

how exactly is that relevant to the cost of £40 to email a copy of a electronically held document?

wotsthat

I wonder if Land Registry should merge with the DVLA - SDLT might then become optional like car tax is for 500,000 people.