Two of the key players in property and conveyancing searches will be joining forces at a major legal exhibition in London this month. 

The Association of Independent Personal Search Agents (IPSA) will be joined by HM Land Registry at LegalEx, which brings together lawyers and the businesses behind the law at ExCel from November 22-23. 

They will be chatting to delegates about what IPSA can offer to conveyancers and solicitors, backed by the HMLR’s specialist knowledge of land and property ownership. 

IPSA chairman Andrew Prismall said: “I’m delighted that the Land Registry will be joining us on our stand at LegalEx. HMLR’s support for independent search agents is a huge endorsement of the quality services our members provide to the legal community working in property. 

“We are really looking forward to meeting everyone at LegalEx and demonstrating the benefit of using IPSA members for conveyancing searches. 

“The event will give us a great opportunity to remind solicitors and conveyancers that choosing an IPSA member for their searches is a guarantee of quality local knowledge wherever they are in the UK. 

“We’re expecting a busy two days meeting as many people working in property and conveyancing law as possible. It’s going to be a great event!” 

HM Land Registry is the government agency which safeguards land and property ownership valued at £8 trillion. The Land Register contains more than 26 million titles showing evidence of ownership for more than 88 per cent of the land mass of England and Wales.  

Callum Moffat, customer and local authority delivery executive, local land charges programme at HM Land Registry, said: “LegalEx represents the highlight of the legal events calendar. We are proud to share an exhibition space with IPSA. As our 2022+ Business Strategy sets out, we are committed to working in partnership with organisations across the conveyancing sector to build a shared vision for the property market, research collaboratively and co-design changes to our systems. IPSA’s input and counsel designing and iterating our local land charges service has been invaluable. 

“Through our local land charges programme, we are digitising and centralising millions of local authority charges and records across England and Wales. Our new service provides the conveyancing sector with immediate access to property information, enabling informed decisions and more robust housing chains.” 

IPSA is a not-for-profit membership organisation which represents and supports search companies across the UK. It provides a wide range of services to educate, inform and support members, including a dedicated website and telephone helpline. 

Members of IPSA are regulated by the industry-leading IPSA code of practice and accreditation is a guarantee of quality to conveyancing professionals. 

The association works with government departments, mortgage lender groups and legal societies on relevant issues and advised the government on access to local authority data as part of the Conveyancing and Property Searches Working Group. They were also heavily involved in the campaign under the Environmental Information Regulations to open up access to local authority data via the Information Commissioner (ICO).