Victoria - drop the fee increases - now

THE Law Institute of Victoria has called on the state Government to wind back fee increases for traditional paper-based conveyancing that were introduced to drive traffic to the Government's electronic system. Despite the fee rises, the electronic system, known as ECV, has processed just one transaction since its launch last year. It is now at risk of being superseded by the single national system that the Council of Australian Governments has promised to introduce by March 2010. LIV chief executive Michael Brett Young said the original fee structure for conveyancing should be restored because Victorians were not using ECV. "They should drop the increases because their system is not going to be used until the new national system is up and running," Mr Brett Young said. "We think they are making a windfall gain that does not reflect the take-up of the scheme. "And the reason the scheme has not been taken up is because they have not been able to get the large users on board," he said. The state opposition has estimated that the fee increases will cost Victorians who buy and sell property about $6 million a year. The major banks are boycotting ECV because they believe a network of similar state-based schemes would erode the potential efficiency gains from electronic conveyancing. The LIV has been unable to recommend that solicitors use the system because of concerns that it could expose solicitors to increased liability. Those concerns were identified by the Legal Practitioners' Liability Committee, a statutory organisation that provides the first compulsory layer of professional indemnity insurance for the state's solicitors. Mr Brett Young said COAG's endorsement of a single national e-conveyancing system would produce major gains for business. But he warned that the development of a national system could still fail unless all state governments took a realistic approach to the needs of private sector users of conveyancing. "That includes banks, because the majority of conveyancing has a bank involved. If they can get the banks on board, everyone will use it," he said. "If that happens it will be cheaper to carry out conveyancing and there will be savings for everybody."