A petition has launched asking for the Land Registry to give an opt-out to home owners who do not want their property purchase price to be made public.

So far, just eight people have signed it so it has hardly got off the ground.

It is also unlikely to succeed, as the Land Registry is legally obliged to note price paid information on a register of all residential properties sold for full market value.

The register of the title is a public document, so it would be breaking the law if it failed to allow access to the register or exclude the information.

However, the petition appears actually to be raising the issue of online valuation tools on property websites.

The person who launched it explains: “For those home owners, such as ourselves, that have made significant home improvements to your property, the public websites such as Zoopla do not reflect the TRUE VALUE. The price you paid for your house is made public by the Land Registry Office of the UK Government. We want you to be able to chose to ‘opt out’ of having your purchase price made public.

“Thereby stopping property websites from sharing what should be private information and setting an expectation as to what the market will pay for your home. Please sign our petition and get the Land Registry to offer a choice to share your purchase information with the public.”

Heaven only knows what they would make of Houser’s valuation tool!

Meanwhile, Rightmove continues to quietly trial its offering, which gives a range of prices rather than an exact valuation and is, says Rightmove, designed to drive sellers to estate agents.

OnTheMarket does not offer a valuation tool at all, saying that they are not helpful to agents.

The petition is here