online financial property settlement system

Building an online property settlement system

SFE Austraclear is the central settlement facilitator between Land Exchange, Resrve Bank and financial institutions (FI).

Briefly:

SFE Austraclear receives the financial settlment data related to each Electronic Lodgement File (ELF) marked as ready for settlement. This is sent in batches by Land Exchange.

After validating each file (including the sender, file contents and associated digital certificates), Austraclear repackage it and calculate the aggregate position of each FI involved in the batch.

Once this is complete, Austraclear will send the financial details of each FI's aggregate position to the bank responsible for the ultimate settlement. Simultaneously they send the aggregate position batch of all FI's to the RBA for processing. Once authorised by the RBA, Austraclear advises Land Exchange that final and irrevocable settlement of the ELF's contained in the batch has been achieved and that the transfers can occur.

At this point RBA confirms settlement, the banks are able to post the cleared funds across their various customer and internal settlement bank accounts.

A full description is contained in the December 05 newsletter of Land Exchange

UK EasyConvey secures GBP 3M in funding

Easy Convey secures GBP 3 million investment from RemoteLaw Online Systems Corporation (Canada)

Funding will allow for additional recruitment, further expansion, and a more aggressive product development programme

The investment will provide RemoteLaw with a local presence in the UK and an established customer base in both England and Wales. Easy Convey plans to use the funds for additional recruitment, customer management, product development, and marketing.

"Canada is probably two or three years ahead of the UK in terms of e conveyancing, which means that RemoteLaw can offer us a peek into the future, whilst also giving us the benefit of hindsight," says Dominic Cullis, Managing Director, East Convey Ltd. "Although there are some differences, the opportunity for e-conveyancing is very similar in both countries. RemoteLaw's extensive experience of this market will be invaluable to us, both in terms of knowing what to do, and also what not to do."

Press Release details

E-transfers a threat to legal-aid funding

THERE is an unannounced sting in the tail of electronic conveyancing that is likely to shake up the funding of legal aid, legal education, the functions of regulators, complaint handlers and law foundations.

It arises from the nature of e-conveyancing, which, although intended and promoted by state attorneys-general as a means of improving administrative efficiency and reducing the cost of conveyancing, will also progressively cripple the funding source of the above public operations.

Adrian Evans - The Australian 25 Nov 205

Sometimes rivers dry up

Global media baron Rupert Murdoch says his $1 billion hunt for internet assets was strategic spending, not panic buying in the face of a gloomy outlook for newspapers.He said it was a "very careful strategy" to go for the largest sites for people under 30 years old.

The News Corp chief this month shareholders that newspaper profits were good overall and that the company would continue to reinvest in its newspapers and improve their performance.

But he indicated to UK Press Gazette that newspaper classifieds no longer provided "rivers of gold" for their owners.

"Sometimes rivers dry up," he said.

"This is a generational thing ... certainly I don't know anybody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified advertisement in a newspaper."

A classic quote from the master of media as reported by The Age

Digital Electronic Conveyancing Users Group

Invitation to join the Digital / Electronic Conveyancing Users Group

It’s official. Implementation of the National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS) is four years away. NECS deals with electronic settlements and E-dealings with the State Land Registries. That’s the back end.

What about the front end? 247legal.com.au & GlobalX are partners in creating the digital conveyancing network between lawyers & estate agents, vendors & buyers, financial institutions & Land Registries. It’s online and it’s digital.

247legal is inviting legal practitioners, law firms and para-legals to join the Digital / Electronic Conveyancing Users Group to establish industry standards for online digital conveyancing. We are seeking representation from city, country and suburban law firms.

To join complete the online application form.

Licensed Service Providers

What is a Licensed Service Provider?

Licensed Service Providers, or LSPs, are included in the National Business Model for electronic conveyancing to ensure that users in all industry sectors can receive the service and attention they need to get their conveyancing work done conveniently and efficiently.

Just as law agents, settlement agents, information brokers and client service providers meet the various needs of conveyancing practitioners and the general public in property transactions today, LSPs will provide similar services in an electronic conveyancing environment. They will be private sector businesses providing services to private sector clients under conditions in some instances set out in a license agreement with Lands.

What will LSPs do?

LSPs are likely to offer a range of services to conveyancing firms and practitioners, such as solicitors, conveyancers, mortgage processors, law firms and financial institutions. Among their services are likely to be:

• connection to electronic conveyancing by browser or web services
  
• specialised browser interfaces suited to particular client groups
  
• integration of electronic conveyancing with other business services (eg title searches and electronic stamping)
  
• accreditation training for new users and refresher training for all users, particularly infrequent users
  
• distribution to users of alert and general information bulletins
  
• technical and applications support to users for problem resolution
  

LSPs will enter into commercial arrangements with their clients for these services.

Source Electronic Conveyancing NSW Newsletter Nov 05

Serviced Apartments - Traps & Pitfalls

Investors can be attracted to Serviced Apartments for many reasons. One reason is higher than average returns - often resales are on yields of 6 to 6.5%. Two, they are told they are a set & forget style investment. Three, there is a long term lease. Four, the tenant pays the body corporate fees. Five, there are no management fees. Six, I can claim excellent depreciation deductions. All these things may or may not be correct. I should know I own more than one serviced apartment. I even have a solid capital gain on paper on the one I own in Townsville.

However, in the re-sale market the above sales pitch needs to be tested. Not all serviced apartments or the individual operator or the body corporate management are equal. If you want to know what due diligence you ought to conduct before you buy a "second hand" Serviced Apartment, you need to ask a few questions rather than just listen to what you are told.

This advice is not saying "dont ever buy a serviced apartment" as I and many of my clients own one or more serviced apartments and they form an integral part of a balanced property portfolio, balanced between capital growth and yield.

cafe barrista

Cheap online conveyancing - Fin Review

Five major banks will participate in a major Victorian pilot project of "e-conveyancing", which could eventually slash costs by $400 on a typical house purchase.
The paperless project could in time provide a single national system that would harmonise the eight different conveyancing systems around Australia.
The launch of the project follows an inter-governmental agreement between NSW and Victoria to establish a national office in Melbourne to co-ordinate a nation-wide system
Westpac, ANZ Bank, Suncorp, St George and Bendigo Bank will participate in the pilot project, to be conducted next year.

national standard

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls announced the establishment of a new national office in Melbourne to coordinate a nationwide system, with the participation of five major banks.
But John McIntyre, president of the Law Society of NSW and a member of the project's steering committee, said harmonising property law would not be necessary to get the e-conveyancing project off the ground.
"All the states run a Torrens title system, so we still all have the same gauge railway," Mr McIntyre said. "Some might be in red trains and some might be in blue trains but at least we're all on the same track."
The only immediate change needed to the law, Mr McIntyre said, would be slight legislative changes to accommodate the move from paper to electronic data.
The e-conveyancing project, which will provide a national electronic system for property settlements, will initially be restricted to mortgage transactions between banks

Electronic conveyancing - UK

The UK Government’s electronic conveyancing initiative could, in the words of one prominent lawyer, make property as tradeable as stocks and shares. But up to the time of writing, e-conveyancing has been something of a damp squib for entrepreneurial law firms that thought they could steal a march on the market by tooling up and embracing online property information services, XML data standards and other aspects of e-conveyancing.

However, when e-conveyancing really does kick off — which is now likely to be sooner rather than later — there will be a scramble to exploit its potential. Law firms and IT developers that know their way around the PISCES standard and the National Land Information Service will be best placed to take advantage. The move to full e-conveyancing in England and Wales will undoubtedly increase the suitability of case management systems for this type of legal work.

Currently, the best source of information on the Government’s strategy for e-conveyancing and its vision of a ‘chain matrix’ is to be found on the website of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister ( see www.odpm.gov.uk)

Kieran Flatt Legal Week

Fountain Pens, originally uploaded by tow.zwierz.

The Australian: Colliers in Docklands dock [November 17, 2005]

The Australian: Colliers in Docklands dock [November 17, 2005]

THE Docklands apartments misleading conduct and contracts allegations saga has resurfaced in the Victorian Supreme Court, but this time commercial agents Colliers International are in the firing line.

Misrepresentation is the classic out clause when you dont have an exit clause under the contract. The outcome will be interesting

GlobalX / 247 Legal

247Legal is pleased to have a new Official Partner GlobalX. GlobalX is the technical leader in the title search and certificate provisioning business. Both companies will dedicate rolling out digital conveyancing solutions for lawyers & estate agents, vendors & buyers across Australia.



globalx.com.au
247legal.com.au

NZ - eDealings - case study

Wellington law firm Foot Law received e-dealing training in January this year. Ten months on, Landwrap spoke to Solicitor Rosemary Tomlinson and Legal Executive Jan Prankerd to hear their views of Landonline.

Rosemary is impressed at the ability that Landonline gives her to prepare documents and complete a transfer and registration for a single-party transaction in under 10 minutes.

"In the paper environment I relied on our secretary to type up and prepare the documents but there's no need for me to wait around now," she says. "With e-dealing I have the flexibility to get on with the job and achieve instant registration. I can push my work through more quickly too. Internal transactions such as refinancing or trust set-ups are a good example.

"I'd like to be able to use it more," says Jan. "I had a couple of months where we only had paper transactions and when I finally did receive an e-dealing, I felt rusty. It would be so much better if all law firms were e-dealing."

"It's great to be doing a transaction with another e-dealing party. In a multi-party transaction I prepare my documents in advance so they are ready for the other side to complete their documents. It's a lot faster and the registration fee is a lot cheaper for the client."






NZ Landonline

NZ Landlonline

E-conveyancing does work. In New Zealand, there is a Landonline system of eDealing which has some of the characteristics that are envisaged for e-conveyancing(UK). Those of you that are interested should look at www.landonline.govt.nz. The New Zealand experience may provide you with some comfort.

Landonline may also enable us to identify how e-conveyancing is going to work in practice. Those participating in eDealing are divided into those holding digital certificates who can sign documents on behalf of clients (and are called conveyancing professionals) and primary contacts who would have day-to-day control of the conveyancing transaction and who would be named users of the landonline system. Only one primary contact can be nominated for each transaction.

Thus the primary contact prepares documentation, undertakes relevant searches and so on, while the conveyancing professional signs contracts, transfers and mortgages on behalf of the client and must have sufficient knowledge of the transaction to make informed and factually accurate certifications. Authority is given by the client to the conveyancing professional when instructions are received and great care is taken to ensure that informed consent is provided when the client gives authority to the conveyancing professional; care is also taken to verify the identity of the client.
It is interesting to note that emphasis is placed on the responsibility of the conveyancing professional and primary contact rather than a firm.

eDealing includes pre-validation which is similar to the creation of the notional register proposed in e-conveyancing transactions. It also includes a process of electronic payment, which we may see when the Electronic Funds Transfer Service is introduced. Documentation is signed and certified by the conveyancing professional using the digital certificate. Signature and certificate are displayed on the electronic document. The process takes three to five minutes and can be done before exchange or completion. Registration is an automatic process.

Ian Quayle is a lecturer, consultant, trainer with Central Law Training Limited

Source ILEX UK Institute of Legal Executives

Electronic Signatures - British Columbia

Juricert was created to validate the identity of persons using the internet for professional communications. Juricert Services Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Law Society of British Columbia.

Juricert provides registration services which establish the identity and professional credentials of the registrant. This process creates a Trusted Digital Credential record that can be used to validate online identity in a variety of products and services, including the Law Society of British Columbia's new Trust Reports Online.


Juricert

Electronic Filing - British Columbia

Electronic Filing System (EFS)

The Land Title Division's Electronic Filing System (EFS) enables authorized users to electronically submit Land Title documents for registration. This eliminates the need to attend the Land Title Office for this purpose and means that all clients have the same level of service no matter where they live in British Columbia.

EFS involves the electronic submission of land title instruments to the land title office. The Registrar and the land title staff will continue to examine all applications submitted and be responsible for the final registration.

The process starts with the EFS form templates which will be used to generate an electronic land title form. With the templates downloaded to your personal computer all work creating the documents is done offline. Once the form is completed and a paper copy has been executed, the Lawyer or Notary will apply their digital signatures (based on a digital signing certificate acquired from the Law Society) to the electronic form. The completed form, with the digital signature can then be submitted electronically to the Land Title Office through BC OnLine. When the form is submitted, land title fees will be deducted from the user’s BC OnLine deposit account and property transfer tax (if applicable) will be collected from a bank account via an electronic funds transfer. EFS will assign document number(s), date and time of receipt, and then send a notice to the person submitting which includes this information and all pertinent financial information.

Initially EFS includes the Form A Transfer, Form B Mortgage, Form C Charge and Release, the Property Transfer Tax Return, and the Claim of Builders Lien. Electronic filing of other applications will be added after the initial release of EFS

bc - Land Title & Survey

eConveyance - British Columbia Canada

The company’s web-based system, known as econveyance™, links all participants in the property transfer process with a secure and efficient means of seamlessly completing and monitoring the transaction online.

There were approximately 160,000 standard buy/sell real estate transactions conducted in BC during the last twelve months. Working through BC OnLine, econveyance™ provides electronic production and delivery of property transfer data between all participants. Lawyers and notaries are our primary revenue sources but the benefits extend to all parties participating in the conveyance process, including real estate agents.

eConveyance

Legal Technology - 1996 to 2005

A look back at the last decade's winners and losers in the battle for lawyers' hearts, minds and technology dollars

By Michael Aneiro
The American Lawyer
October 31, 2005


When The American Lawyer published its first AmLaw Tech Survey in 1996, legal technology was on the cusp of drastic changes. Some lawyers had started to tote laptops; most still didn't bother. Some were getting comfortable with e-mail, but when it came to voice communication, the landline telephone still ruled. In their offices, attorneys were making their first forays into cyberspace, aboard bulky desktop machines powered by 486 chips, while on the other side of the door their secretaries were busy typing documents in WordPerfect and crunching numbers in Lotus 1-2-3.



What a difference a decade makes. Where firms were first dabbling in mobile tools in 1996, they are now armed with full arsenals of on-the-road productivity devices -- cell phones, PDAs and laptops that keep lawyers connected at all times. Despite the explosion of cell phone use, e-mail's impact may have been even greater. For proof, just visit any law firm conference room, where BlackBerrys discreetly tap out volumes of timely information during even the most eventful meetings. The Internet, meanwhile, has gone from uncharted curiosity to vital information source, with a full boom-and-bust cycle in between. And that 1-2-3 spreadsheet? It probably got thrown out with the SyQuest 88MB disk it was saved on.

Technology has matured, and a lot of trends and products have come and gone since the first AmLaw Tech Survey. On the occasion of our 10th survey, we look back at the biggest technological shifts over the past decade, while using this year's results to gather some clues about where legal technology may be headed.

GhostDigest - Conveyancing News & Views website

South African based website
Conveyancing News & Digest

Online warning for papers - Employment Classifieds

Online warning for papers - www.seek.com.au
Paul Bassat - "In simple terms, online is a better medium both for the job seekers to find jobs and for the advertiser to find staff."

About 15 per cent of classified employment ads are online and Seek has a 48 per cent share of this market.

Mr Bassat said the Australian market would soon match the United States, where 22 per cent of job ads are online, resulting in a 50 per cent increase in revenue for Seek.

He tipped that in 5-10 years more than half of the jobs ads would be on the internet.

Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd has a 25 per cent stake in Seek and James Packer chairs the board.

Planet PDF - PDF is 4 foot 8.5 inches

PDF is 4 foot 8.5 inchesTom Carson - Director of Technology Curriculum Development, The New Economy Institute

"To keep my students on their toes, I often have a riddle that will reward them with a free lunch. One of my favorites is that PDF is 4 foot 8 1/2 inches and that 4 foot 8 1/2 inches is one of the most important numbers in American History (and world history). The answers to this question have been very intriguing. One student said that Napoleon was 4' 8 1/2", although I really do now know this was important to American History."

Buyer beware - Buyers Advocates

Buyer beware - Buyer Advocates smh.com.au 7 Nov 2005

Alan Kohler "What is amazing is that almost all buyers' advocates charge a percentage of the sale price; and even more astonishing is that clients are paying it.

Assuming the non-disclosers also charge a percentage, which is a pretty safe assumption, it means that more than 90 per cent of buyers' advocates actually have a stake in driving the price paid by their clients higher.

Vendors paying a percentage of the value to their agent is understandable: you want to give your agent an incentive to get the price up. But on the buying side as well?

Why on earth would you pay your negotiator more for failure - for failing to get the property for a cheaper price?

By paying a percentage of the value of the house, buyers are ensuring that the more they pay for the property, the better their advocate does."

Cheap online conveyancing?

According to the Financial Review "the mooted National Electronic Conveyancing System will mean cheaper conveyancing because of national competition".

My response is there's plenty of competition already. Conveyancing is more complex than the arranging of physical settlements. An online E-Lodgement system (which is what NECS is) will make the complex settlement arrangments easier (theoretically) but I dont agree it will make it any cheaper. There is an argument lawyers will have a larger liability exposure as they will be "signing the transfer"

Read the article FinReview 4 Nov 05

Links to Electronic Commerce Acts - worldwide

Links to Electronic Commerce Acts unverified

Imitation - sincerest form of flattery

Lexus Conveyancing Melbourne has published a vendors statement online for download by the agent or prospective purchaser. This is virtually a copy and paste of the original idea pioneered by Hayton Kosky Lawyers. Since then my belief is there will be an industry model for online publishing of legal documentation via a single portal such as 247legal.com.au

Pelikan M200

Pelikan M200
Originally uploaded by tow.zwierz.

Owner Builders Warranty Insurance - What's its value?

If you are a purchaser of a home from an owner-builder and there are a number of defects that come to light and you want them fixed. Do you claim under the Warranty Insurance? No - not if the owner builder is not dead, bankrupt or missing

Well what do you do? For full deails read a case study by Brett Hayton of Hayton Kosky Lawyers

Victorian property trends by turnover

The Victorian Land Registry regularly reports the number of property dealings they process. The most common land dealings are transfers, new mortgages and discharge of mortgages. As most property sales have settlement periods of 60 to 90 days, the lodgements and reporting is always historic and never current. Property data from land registry therefore only gives you a rear view perspective.

Looking back however you can get some perspective to overall property trends on a Statewide basis.



The peak in the property market by number of sales was December 03. Whereas turnover in 2004 was down on 2003 by 9.2%. Turnover bottomed out by the end 2004 and beginning of 2005.

The figures in July 05 give the impression we have seen the bottom of the market by turnover. The good news being the figures tell us volumes are rising with the turnover in the July 05 quarter exceeding those in July 03.

Most agents are reporting listings are tight and that tells me that the spring sales of 2005 won’t match those in spring 2003 which exceeded 20,000. BH

Estate Agents Right to Claim Commission

The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court Victoria determined in favour of a real estate agent to claim a commission of $16,650.

The case involved the agent procuring an offer from a buyer for $450,000, in accordance to the Authority, but the Vendor refused to accept the offer. No contract resulted.

The REIV Authority was endorsed with

"NO SALE NO CHARGE" and
"NO SALE - NO CHARGE FOR CONVEYANCING."

Question. Was the agent entitled to his commission?

A summary of the case can be found here Moustafa

The full text of Court of Appeal case of Real Estate City vs Moustafa 2005 can be found here

e-Conveyancing UK

The strategy for the implementation of e-conveyancing in England and Wales can be found on this website at

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/e-conveyancing/publications/

definition of conveyancing

Conveyancing is the act of transferring the ownership of a property from one person to another. The buyer needs to ensure that he or she gets good 'title' to the land; i.e., that the person selling the house actually has the right to sell it. The system of conveyancing is designed to ensure that the buyer gets the land together with all the rights that go with it, and knows about any restrictions in advance.

A typical conveyancing transaction, whether a sale or purchase, contains two major 'landmarks', which are exchange of contracts and completion, plus the three stages: before contract, before completion and after completion.

source Wikipedia

Owner Builders - Traps & Pitfalls

In Victoria, it is imperative that a vendor who has performed building works as an owner builder, if selling, must provide a defects report and warranty insurance before the execution of a Contract of Sale.
A couple of recent case studies of "the owner builder who wouldn't" and "the owner builder who didn't" can be read here case studies

Full Steam Ahead for EC (Victoria) !!

"Following a lull during the winter months, the EC project has come out of hibernation and is gearing up for the next challenging phase, with two of the country’s major banks agreeing to pilot the system in Victoria."

The EC system will be piloted in two phases:
· Stage 1 will see the processing of limited transactions(discharges and mortgages)by selected pilot subscribers in the latter half of 2006;
· Stage 2 will provide electronic settlement and a fully functional system. It will also include the processing of transfer transactions by the Financial Settlement Manager and pilot users in 2007.

Land Exchange EC Newsletter Oct 05

You have to ask yourself about the credibility of any timeline announcements coming from EC Vic. BH

The Lending Industry XML Initiative

The Lending Industry XML Initiative (LIXI) is a non-profit, independent industry organisation established to utilise new technologies for the removal of barriers to data exchange within the Australian lending industry. Through the work of LIXI it is intended that member organisations will be able to provide better and faster services to their customers at lower cost. This is being achieved through the ongoing development of platform independent, open standards for the exchange of lending-related data to replace numerous incompatible and proprietary approaches. As LIXI's name suggests, these standards are being built upon XML (eXtensible Markup Language), an enabling technology generally accepted as a vital component in the future of electronic commerce.

To subscribe to their newsletter www.lixi.org.au

Hobart Company Develops Unique Electronic Conveyancing System

Minister for Economic Development Lara Giddings presented Hobart Company Capital 3 with an Innovations Grant of $150,000 to further develop a fully electronic property conveyancing system, ConveyIT.

“ConveyIT is a unique tool believed to be the first in the world that takes conveyancing from a paper based system to an online process,” Ms Giddings said.

“ConveyIT provides solicitors and others involved in property conveyancing such as Real Estate Agents with instant access to information required to complete a conveyance.

“This ensures that it can be done quicker and cheaper.

“The beauty of ConveyIT is that it can communicate online with other third parties integral to the process,” she said.

ConveyIT developers have worked closely the Law Society of Tasmania, Real Estate Institute of Tasmania the Lands Titles Office, and other key third parties to ensure the solution meets the requirements of the marketplace.”

“ConveyIT represents a unique first with significant growth opportunities, a proven market, quantifiable customer benefits and high potential returns,” Ms Giddings said.

Capital 3 CEO Paul Gregg said, “We are thrilled to be launching ConveyIT right here in Tasmania. Other Australian states and territories and potentially other countries that have a common law legal system will be targeted shortly.”

“We expect significant growth in the years ahead and its success should enhance employment opportunities in Tasmania,” Mr Gregg said.

ConveyIT is available online at www.conveyit.com.au

UK eConveyancing - Steve Kelway Land Registry

2005 October: After a long wait, the Land Registry has reached a stage where it has a clear vision of what it intends to introduce and when it thinks it will be able to do this. The first element, the chain matrix, is likely to be piloted next year, with a basic electronic conveyancing service and an electronic lodgement facility being introduced in 2007. We are still looking for volunteers to take part in the pilots, but even if you decide to take no part in the trials it will not be long before electronic conveyancing will be available to all. You will need to start making decisions soon about how you intend to deal with these new ways of working. Of course, for some time it may be possible for you to keep to the old paper-based system, but this cannot go on forever. Electronic conveyancing, if successful, could be made compulsory sooner rather than later, and you may find that even before it is compulsory other players in the process may force you to move. Lenders may insist that if you want to remain on their panels you adopt a system that fits in with their electronic processes. And clients may question why a modern system of property transfer is not available in your firm.

Missing Links:

electronic funds transfer (EFT) "We are not convinced that introducing a new method of moving conveyancing funds around the country at the same time as establishing a new electronic conveyancing service is such a good idea. We are therefore still, going ahead with seeking a new money transfer system for conveyancing, but we intend to proceed slowly and ensure that all options are fully considered."

electronic signatures "We know that many practitioners would not be happy to sign documents in this way. However this is the way electronic conveyancing is carried out in many commonwealth jurisdictions, especially in Canada and Australia, and the idea is gaining support here. What would be needed is a standard “representation arrangement”, probably embodied in something like a client care letter and signed by the conveyancer’s client authorising him to sign in this way. If we were to proceed in this way, electronic signatures could be cheaper, because signatures would need to be issued only to known conveyancers, perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 of them, whereas if the general public can sign we would be looking at signatures coming in from over 30 million members of the public. Obviously the risk of fraud is then much greater, as is the corresponding cost of insurance against it. So, it is possible that in the e conveyancing pilot mentioned below documents might need to be signed by practitioners only. However, our pilot for e signatures is examining how members of the public might be issued with e signatures, and I am confident that as the electronic conveyancing programme is further “rolled out” clients will be able to sign documents themselves."

Full e conveyancing Pilot. The aim is to start a pilot for the full service in the second half of 2007. The first essential component is a fully secure system linking practitioners to the Land Registry’s central conveyancing service. Practitioners will have signed up to a network access agreement, setting out the rights and obligations of both users and the Land Registry and a procedure will be in place establishing how to go about electronic transactions

Extracts from paper given by Steve Kelway

Interview: Alan Ramage : The Journal Magazine : The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland

Interview: Alan Ramage: Scotland electronic conveyancing

online real estate revenue growth

Revenue growth for www.realestate.com.au

realestate.com.au has 50% market share

realestate.com.au has a dominant 50% market share versus domain.com.au that trails with a 30% market share, the market basically being a duopoly.
The trend would suggest that this gap is ever widening.
reference BRW Oct 05
REA will be targeting to have 100% real estate listings in Australia.(75-80% of Australian real estate agencies advertise with REA)

Injunction granted against a conveyancing company

On Friday 16 September 2005 the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) made
application to the Supreme Court for an injunction against Home Conveyancing and Probate Services Pty Ltd pursuant to s316 of the Legal Practice Act 1996
(unqualified practice).

Justice Hanson granted an interim injunction in the following terms:

"Until the trial of the proceeding or further Order the defendant be
restrained from engaging in legal practice in Victoria and in particular
without limiting the generality of the foregoing be restrained from
preparing vendors statement pursuant to s32 of the Sale of Land Act 1962."

The application by the LIV followed receipt of a complaint about this
conveyancing company.

It should be emphasised that the injunction is an interim injunction and
there was an Order that the matter be referred to the listing master to be
fixed for hearing on the basis that it warrants priority.

We anticipate that the matter will be listed for final hearing in 3-4 months
time when the matter will be the subject of a full hearing before the Court.

We will be providing more information on the outcome of the matter once it
has been dealt with by the Court.



John Cain
CEO
Law Institute of Victoria

200

247legal.com.au has published its 200th property profile in less than 12 months. From a zero base to 200, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Estate agents that have been the early adopters continue to refer vendors to Hayton Kosky Lawyers.

The next 12 months will be interesting. Digital Conveyancing rules!

247legal.com.au

National Electronic Conveyancing

Australia’s joint government and industry initiative to create a more efficient and convenient way of completing property transfers and registering land title changes

NECS

Headed up by Simon Libbis

Good luck - I dont envy the task ahead - BH

Fraud and the Abolition of the duplicate certificate of title

C Hammond, 'The abolition of the duplicate certificate of title and its potential effect on fraudulent claims over Torrens land' (2000) 8 Australian Property Law Journal 115, where the author looked at whether the abolition of the certificate of title increases the potential for fraud to occur and concluded that the "production of a duplicate certificate of title operates as an effective safeguard against third party fraud. The extremely rare cases of fraud by third parties across all three jurisdictions bears this out. However, the existence of a duplicate certificate of title is less effective as a safeguard where 'trusted agents', friends or family are involved in the fraud. In these cases, access to the duplicate certificate of title by the fraudulent party makes it easier for them to perpetrate fraud and to obtain registration of the fraudulent dealing": at 130.

Sharon Christensen LLB (Hons), LLM

Electronic Land Dealings in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom: Lessons for Australia

E LAW | Electronic Land Dealings in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom: Lessons for Australia
The physical immediacy of paper - its touch and smell - are reassuring proof of our existence and of our past

"Electronic commerce offers new ways of conducting commercial transactions. Changes in the way commerce is undertaken nationally and internationally has placed greater reliance on technology and increased the use of the Internet as an interactive medium. The nature of the Internet as "a decentralised, global medium of communication comprising a global web of linked networks and computers"[2] has created issues for the formation of common contracts, given rise to complex jurisdictional problems, ignited debate on privacy and defamation issues, created new intellectual property rights which require protection and created a variety of complex consumer protection issues which may not be covered by present legislation."




The full paper gives an excellent expose on eConveyancing dealings in Ontario Canda, British Columbia, New Zealand, UK and Australia
Author Sharon Christensen
Gadens Professor in Property Law, Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Law

National Electronic Conveyancing Office

Pelikan Shanghai M620, originally uploaded by Wil Lau.

Newsletter No. 9 (6 October 2005)

Start-up of the National Office


With broad agreement among the Land Registries in all States and Territories on what needs to be done, the first steps have been taken to put national governance arrangements in place, with the aim to define and implement a National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS).


A National Office has been established and an Executive Director appointed to get things underway. The Executive Director is Simon Libbis, who until recently was Registrar-General in South Australia. Simon is a legal practitioner with considerable experience in conveyancing and real property law. He will have a small number of contract staff assisting him as his work increases. Under initial arrangements, the National Office is operating in Melbourne at Level 40, 140 William Street and can be contacted through its website at www.necs.gov.au, or by telephone on (03) 9607-8470.


To oversee the start-up of the National Office, an interim National Steering Committee has been formed by the Deputy Director General of the NSW Department of Lands and the Deputy Secretary of the Victorian Department of Sustainability & Environment. The interim Steering Committee has given the National Office a starting work program consisting of eight tasks:


Task 1: Establish Interim Governance Arrangements

This involves completing the National Steering Committee membership, fully resourcing the National Office and setting up the National Consultation Forums.


Task 2: Confirm Business Model

This involves presenting the National Business Model to the Consultation Forums, incorporating any enhancements or changes brought forward and getting their endorsement to take it forward to the Steering Committee with a recommendation to implement.


Task 3: Obtain Independent Risk Assessment

This involves engaging an experienced financial and operational systems risk assessor to identify, document and assess all of the risks inherent in the National Business Model and to recommend how risk should be shared among the stakeholders and managed. The outcome of the work will be reviewed with the Consultation Forums and considered by the Steering Committee, with adjustments made if necessary to the business model.


Task 4: Obtain Independent Regulatory Review

In parallel with the risk assessment, independent advice will be obtained on the National Business Model’s compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements. This will ensure compliance with National Competition Policy as well as trade practices and financial services regulation generally. The advice and any implications will be reviewed with the Consultation Forums.


Task 5: Obtain Independent Governance Advice

This involves getting expert advice on the most appropriate ownership, governance and control arrangements for the NECS once it becomes operational. The advice will be reviewed with the Consultation Forums and recommendations for implementation put to the Steering Committee.


Task 6: Obtain a Preliminary Evaluation of the Victorian System

This is intended to get an early indication of how much of the NECS can be provisioned from the system developed in Victoria and shortly to be pilot tested there. The outcome may enable implementation of the NECS to be fast-tracked.


Task 7: Develop a Funding Model

This involves modelling expected costs and fee revenue for the NECS so as to be confident of its commercial viability.


Task 8: Prepare Detailed Implementation Plans

This involves preparing detailed plans for everything necessary to provision, test and commission the NECS and to progressively set it to work in each jurisdiction, including converting users from paper to electronic conveyancing.

Electronic Land Registration Hits the Three Million Mark in Ontario

The world's first electronic land registration system, developed by Teranet, continues to change the real estate landscape in Ontario. On May 31, 2004 in Toronto, the 3 millionth document was registered using the Teraview software. In the counties where electronic land registration is available, 95% of all registrations are now submitted electronically.

The system handled a new record of close to 17,000 electronic land registrations in one day on April 30, 2004. That represents an average of 33 transactions per minute or 0.55 transactions per second. Clearly, the Teraview software is capable of handling multiple registrations at the same time.

"This, combined with an operating uptime record of 99.9%, demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the system is available and operating to meet our customers' needs," said Mike Sliwinski, Vice President, Information Services at Teranet.

The volume of registrations will increase as the roll-out of electronic land registration continues and implementation begins in Northern Ontario with Sudbury, Rainy River and Cochrane scheduled to come online in August 2004. Automated records are now available in 27 of the province's 54 land registry offices.

Real estate law is about more than land registration and the Teraview software takes that into account. Feedback from the legal community is constantly being incorporated into upgrades with the newest version being Teraview 5.2. Among other things, upgrades have given lawyers the ability to view imaged documents referenced in the legal description immediately online.

Aside from being a tool to prepare and submit documents for registration, Teraview software gives lawyers the ability to conduct database searches and view and print official parcel registers. Documents pertaining to writs of execution can also be obtained without leaving the office.

Teranet develops business-to-business and business-to-government e-services solutions. With a unique combination of capabilities and state-of-the-art systems, Teranet is at the forefront of delivering service potential in the land, legal and financial services industries as well as enabling electronic government service delivery

http://www.teranet.ca/corporate/news/threemillion.html

National Electronic Conveyancing 2005 timeline

Electronic Conveyancing in NSW - Newsletter No. 8

Electronic Conveyancing in NSW - Newsletter No. 8

Please find following the eighth of Lands' regular newsletters on electronic conveyancing in NSW (ECNSW), intended to keep you informed of developments towards electronic conveyancing in NSW. The newsletter provides an updated path to a National Electronic Conveyancing System as outlined in three draft documents recently updated and re-published. These include the National Business Model, National Governance Arrangements and National Implementation Strategy.

Newsletter No. 8

Electronic Conveyancing in NSW

Updated Roadmap Documents Now Available

The path to a National Electronic Conveyancing System is described in three documents recently updated and re-published.

The National Business Model (NBM) describes the roles, relationships and rules of all of the key participants and contributors to electronic settlement of property transactions and lodgment of dealings and related information with the appropriate Land Registry or other government agency.

The NBM provides the business context in which the National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS) will be used by practitioners, banks and mortgage processors. In particular, the NBM describes:
• the roles of users and subscribers, and the part each will play in preparing and certifying dealings
• the role of licensed service providers in integrating use of the NECS with other services used in the conveyancing process
• how heavy users will be able to integrate access to the NECS into their existing systems for increased convenience
• the functions the NECS will provide to facilitate settlement and lodgment, including payment of duties and disbursements
• the security arrangements that will ensure users can have confidence in using the NECS
• the way in which each jurisdiction’s Land Registry and Revenue Office requirements will be satisfied
• the arrangements that will provide electronic financial settlement at the Reserve Bank
• the ways in which users will be supported in their use of the NECS.

The National Governance Arrangements (NGA) describes the organisational and administrative arrangements that will supervise development and implementation of the NECS and the National Business Model generally. It describes:

• the role of a National Steering Committee in supervising the development and implementation work
• the inclusion of government and industry representatives on the Steering Committee
• the participation of government representatives from all States and Territories on the Steering Committee
• the creation of National Consultation Forums to get detailed input from industry and government participants
• the establishment of a National Office to support the Steering Committee and Consultation Forums.

The National Implementation Strategy (NIS) describes the way in which the NECS will be created and set to work. It describes the following four stages:

• Setting-Up, in which the National Governance Arrangements and the National Business Model will be confirmed
• Building, where the NECS will be provisioned from the best available resources, thoroughly tested and commissioned
• Readying, where each jurisdiction will prepare for its participation in the NECS while the NECS is being built
• Converting, where each jurisdiction will keep its local constituencies informed on progress and convert users from paper to electronic conveyancing when the NECS becomes available in its jurisdiction.

The NIS describes what is intended in each of these stages and emphasises:

• the role of the National Office in directing the Setting-Up and Building stages
• the role of each State and Territory in ensuring the complementary delivery of the Readying and Converting stages.

The latest versions of these Roadmap documents have been published on http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ecnsw/publications
and all industry participants are invited to review them and provide comments and feedback.

Your Questions Answered
You can have your questions on electronic conveyancing in NSW answered now by completing the feedback form at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW. Let us know what you think, what issues concern you and what things we should pay particular attention to in taking the initiative forward.

Public Consultation Document (May 2004) available at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW
PCD Feedback Report (March 2005) available at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW
Information Session Presentation (April 2005) available at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW
National Business Model, Governance Arrangements & Implementation Strategy at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW
Glossary of Conveyancing Terms and Newsletter Archive available at http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/ECNSW

The information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of publication but may change as the project develops.
Published by the NSW Department of Lands, GPO Box 15 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
Libby Abraham
Client Service Manager - Commercial
Land and Property Information
Department of Lands
Tel 02 8258 7462
Fax 02 9236 7611
Web : www.lands.nsw.gov.au