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Proctor : December 2014
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Features Proctor | December 2014 24 | Property law Econveyancing – just around the corner | Property law Queensland to go ‘live’ in May The new electronic face of property conveyancing begins in Queensland in May, with registration opening in February. Jo Waldon explains the benefits that practitioners can look forward to. Buying and selling property will become much easier with the unveiling of Australia’s first national econveyancing platform, PEXA (Property Exchange Australia). Just as the ASX facilitated the exchange of shares, PEXA will remove the manual processes and paperwork associated with the exchange of property by allowing land registries, financial institutions and practitioners to transact together online for the first time. Developed by PEXA Ltd – formally known as National E-Conveyancing Development Ltd (NECDL) – in response to a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) microeconomic reform initiative, PEXA supports the exchange of property through the ability to perform lodgements and property settlements online in a simple transaction. This includes new mortgages, mortgage discharges, transfers of ownership, settlements, caveats and notices in one easy-to-use electronic platform. How does PEXA work? In short, PEXA subscribers (property lawyers and conveyancers) will open an online workspace in which registry documents and the settlement schedule are pre-populated and information is shared with all parties to the transaction. Once preparation is complete and the settlement date and time reached, PEXA will automatically lodge documents with the land registry, exchange loan funds electronically and pay stamp duty and other disbursements. The ability to complete property transactions online offers significant time and cost savings. Practitioners will have more control. As dealings can be arranged online, they will no longer rely on the phone or fax to complete a transaction, and geographical constraints will no longer exist. There will also be greater visibility through each stage of the transaction due to the ability to monitor the progress of all parties, specifically the banks. National law To get to this stage, a national law was required, outlining the operating and participation requirements and regulations. The Electronic Conveyancing National Law is the cornerstone of this initiative, forming the basis of a national scheme for the electronic lodgement and settlement of conveyancing transactions in Australia. Importantly, it also provides for the electronic signing and lodgement of documents, authorising lawyers to digitally sign documents on behalf of clients. As of June 2014, all states and territories (excluding ACT, which works on leasehold rather than Torrens) have passed the Electronic Conveyancing National Law. Verification of identity Under this law, changes were made to verification of identity ( VOI). The registrars have made sensible modifications, giving the industry a workable solution with guidelines that basically provide clarity, protection and balance of risk around what was previously a fairly interpretive aspect of identification. One of the major concerns was that practitioners in regional areas would have difficulty visually identifying their client. The law allows for accredited third parties such as Australia Post to perform verification of identity services on behalf of the lawyer, making this requirement far simpler than initially perceived. With more than 1200 locations Australia-wide, 95% of the population live within 5km of an Australia Post outlet. Lawyers may also complete the VOI themselves and further accredited providers of this service will be announced over the coming months. Features back to contents
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