Caveats Online

Electronic Conveyancing: "Saving you time, money and effort". Well that's the official spin from ECV. For the moment that is hollow rhetoric. It might save your client the odd $20 on statutory fees. But it is questionable when it comes to saving time and effort. This is demonstrated by the process for lodging one of the simplest of instruments – a caveat

How much time did it take above the manual system when lodging caveats online? I estimate it took over 20 minutes of additional time (which would be better spent on hold trying to book a settlement with the banks). In the old fashioned manner of paper and print, a simple purchaser's caveat takes just a few minutes to print, sign and post. The electronic alternative takes over 20 minutes. The couple of caveats we lodged online each took well in excess of 20 minutes to complete. One took 26 minutes, the other about 25 minutes. With repetition, you might just get it under 20 minutes, but I don't think I will be persevering too much longer because of the time factor. Unless it saves you time, using the system will translate into higher costs to the client. Still, if the matter was one of urgency, I would lodge electronically, but not otherwise. The irony is to lodge a caveat online, first I printed out the caveat to assist me in completing the fields online. In addition, the process is simply bewildering.