The current process is thought to cost the industry millions of pounds a year and HMLR’s customers regularly report that it puts them under huge amounts of pressure to respond quickly.

It is also a big drain on time with approximately 20,000 calls each month made to HMLR to check on the progress of an application.

The pilot, which was launched last week, allows HMLR to provide lenders with direct access to their application data, showing the status of all applications to register their mortgage security, provided the lenders’ unique reference (known as an ‘MD’ reference) is entered into the application.

It said this will stop the chase process where lenders and lender panel managers contact conveyancers routinely to understand the progress of their many applications to register mortgages.

A weekly update will be shared with each lender to ensure their information remains up to date.

However, it noted that there may be some exceptions under which lenders still need to chase conveyancers for updates.

The pilot phase includes the ten mortgage lenders who represent over 85% of residential lending in the UK market as well as two panel managers. They include Lloyds Banking Group, Nat West Group, Nationwide Building Society, Yorkshire Building Society, Santander UK, Barclays, and HSBC Bank.

LMS and Decision First are the two conveyancing panel managers on the pilot. HMLR said it will extend the scheme to other lenders with an MD reference if the pilot is successful.

Mike Harlow, deputy chief executive and director of customer and strategy at HM Land Registry said: “Lenders want to know that their mortgages are either registered or in the proper process of being registered. This new direct service completes the picture of where the registration of their mortgage has got to. Now they do not have to chase conveyancers unless something is genuinely at risk. This should save the industry millions of pounds a year and give time back to conveyancers.”

The mortgage sector has welcomed the pilot saying that it will improve the home buying and selling process for lenders, conveyancers, and buyers.

Rob Stevens, head of property risk at Nationwide Building Society, said “Getting direct access to mortgage application data is a breakthrough moment and is the culmination of many months of work between Nationwide, HM Land Registry and other lenders. It will really help to automate the unregistered charges process and save both lenders and conveyancers time by reducing the amount of back and forth between the two.”

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Building Society said: “Conveyancing processes are notoriously complex, fast-paced and, sometimes, stressful, so any innovation which helps to make the process less time-consuming is to be welcomed.

“We are constantly looking for ways to make our processes even more efficient for customers and are looking forward to experimenting with this new system and exploring how we can maximise its potential – which includes access to real-time Land Registry updates – to help with that.”

Justin Parkinson, managing director of Decision First, which operates Lender Exchange added, “This is a very welcome initiative; we look forward to working with HM Land Registry in the coming months. Getting direct updates on the status of our mortgages will significantly streamline our work and that of the conveyancers we work with.”