"Imagine a computer that never crashes, or gets infected by a virus. Imagine a computer onto which you never have to install any application. Imagine a computer that follows you wherever you go, be it at school, at work, abroad, or back home. This computer does not exist today, but it will in the future, and this future might be much closer than you think".
This is not a bad descriptor for the digital conveyancing project being undertaken by 247legal. Simple online collaboration between conveyancers and estate agents, vendors and buyers. And why stop there? The collaboration can be extended even further.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
res ipsa loquitur or why cant the govt leave our beaches alone
If the Bayside Council and Department of Sustainability & Environment are allowed to get away with the destruction of the Sandringham foreshore it will be a great tragedy.
The Royal Avenue groyne is one tragedy that has been allowed to remain for too long, the Southey Street groyne is an outrage. The damage to the Southey Street to Tennyson Street beach has been quick and swift with an entire beach being swept away in less than 2 months and that has been over the relatively quiet summer period. In simple terms, the groyne has been over-engineered and the results are obvious.
Quoting Wikipedia -
“The purpose of a groyne is to create and maintain a healthy beach on its updrift side, which in turn provides protection to the land behind. These effects are achieved through two main processes. First, groynes act as a barrier to physically stop sediment transport (sand) in the direction of longshore transport through the system. This causes a build-up of the beach on the groyne's updrift side. Secondly, groynes interrupt the tidal flow forcing the tidal current further offshore beyond the groyne end. This slows the tidal current inshore causing the deposition of heavier sediments and encouraging the beach to grow in size.
However, this is often accompanied by accelerated erosion of the downdrift beach, known as terminal groyne syndrome, as it occurs after the terminal groyne, which receives little or no sand via longshore transport. (It is important to realize that groynes do not add any new sand to the beach, but merely retain some of the existing sand on the updrift side of the groin.) If a groyne is correctly designed, then the amount of material it can hold will be limited, and excess sediment will be free to move on through the system. However, if a groyne is too large it may trap all sediment reaching it and this can cause severe beach erosion problems on the down-drift side, which in turn can result in coastal erosion problems.”
I can just hear DSE saying, well lets build another groyne. No. No. NO NO. Let mother nature care for herself with little or any guidance. REMOVE THE GROYNES. Renourish the beaches every few years if you have to. The GROYNES ARE AN EYESORE. I can hear the Heidelberg artists, Streeton, Roberts, McCubbin, Condor mourning the lost natural vistas.
In the eyes of the law, Bayside Council and Department of Sustainability & Environment are guilty of gross negligence. Res ipsa loquitur. This is the legal term from the Latin meaning literally, "The thing itself speaks" but is more often translated "The thing speaks for itself". The doctrine is applied to tort claims which, as a matter of law, do not have to be explained beyond the obvious facts.
Under the old common law rule, to use res ipsa loquitur in the context of negligence the plaintiff must prove that:
The Plaintiff here is the beloved Sandringham foreshore.
The defendants are the Bayside Council and Department of Sustainability & Environment.
The damage is not irreparable. But action must be swift. The two groynes need to be removed immediately. This is not a case of lets consult for the next 3 years. I don’t recall any public consultation before works started.
Please be put on notice, that if the work to remove the groynes is not begun by 30 June 2007, legal action will be instituted in the Supreme Court of Victoria by public outrage.
The Royal Avenue groyne is one tragedy that has been allowed to remain for too long, the Southey Street groyne is an outrage. The damage to the Southey Street to Tennyson Street beach has been quick and swift with an entire beach being swept away in less than 2 months and that has been over the relatively quiet summer period. In simple terms, the groyne has been over-engineered and the results are obvious.
Quoting Wikipedia -
“The purpose of a groyne is to create and maintain a healthy beach on its updrift side, which in turn provides protection to the land behind. These effects are achieved through two main processes. First, groynes act as a barrier to physically stop sediment transport (sand) in the direction of longshore transport through the system. This causes a build-up of the beach on the groyne's updrift side. Secondly, groynes interrupt the tidal flow forcing the tidal current further offshore beyond the groyne end. This slows the tidal current inshore causing the deposition of heavier sediments and encouraging the beach to grow in size.
However, this is often accompanied by accelerated erosion of the downdrift beach, known as terminal groyne syndrome, as it occurs after the terminal groyne, which receives little or no sand via longshore transport. (It is important to realize that groynes do not add any new sand to the beach, but merely retain some of the existing sand on the updrift side of the groin.) If a groyne is correctly designed, then the amount of material it can hold will be limited, and excess sediment will be free to move on through the system. However, if a groyne is too large it may trap all sediment reaching it and this can cause severe beach erosion problems on the down-drift side, which in turn can result in coastal erosion problems.”
I can just hear DSE saying, well lets build another groyne. No. No. NO NO. Let mother nature care for herself with little or any guidance. REMOVE THE GROYNES. Renourish the beaches every few years if you have to. The GROYNES ARE AN EYESORE. I can hear the Heidelberg artists, Streeton, Roberts, McCubbin, Condor mourning the lost natural vistas.
In the eyes of the law, Bayside Council and Department of Sustainability & Environment are guilty of gross negligence. Res ipsa loquitur. This is the legal term from the Latin meaning literally, "The thing itself speaks" but is more often translated "The thing speaks for itself". The doctrine is applied to tort claims which, as a matter of law, do not have to be explained beyond the obvious facts.
Under the old common law rule, to use res ipsa loquitur in the context of negligence the plaintiff must prove that:
- The harm would not ordinarily have occurred without someone's negligence
- The instrumentality of the harm was under the exclusive control of the defendant at the time of the likely negligent act
- The plaintiff did not contribute to the harm by his own negligence.
The Plaintiff here is the beloved Sandringham foreshore.
The defendants are the Bayside Council and Department of Sustainability & Environment.
The damage is not irreparable. But action must be swift. The two groynes need to be removed immediately. This is not a case of lets consult for the next 3 years. I don’t recall any public consultation before works started.
Please be put on notice, that if the work to remove the groynes is not begun by 30 June 2007, legal action will be instituted in the Supreme Court of Victoria by public outrage.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Archiving
How many law firms think about archiving beyond long term off-site archiving of the physical file?
Having recently lost access to a store room where I retained completed files, I was compelled to turn to a commercial alternative for long term off-site archiving. I made the decision there was no economic incentive or benefit to retain files older than 7 years. These older files are now shredded land fill. Lost for all eternity. When a client rings wanting to know whether the contract date for a purchase was pre-September 1985 all I can do is shrug. On this point I am researching this actual point to determine if their purchase was pre-Sep 85. The answer may lie with one of the statutory authorities who record such things.
Or you simply keep paying the ongoing price of paying monthly archive storage fees and offset the price by charging clients with a retrieval fee.
The problem of physical archives is universal for all law firms.
A better solution lies in digitising legal records on a continual ongoing daily basis. In other words maintain a digital archive, at least for all deeds and important documents like the contract of sale. Every small law firm should start by buying 1 or 2 desktop document feed scanners. The payback is not just short term but long term as there is close to a zero cost to maintaining a long term digital archive.
The NYT published an interesting article on the issue of archives contained in libraries and other important collections. History, Digitized (and Abridged)
Having recently lost access to a store room where I retained completed files, I was compelled to turn to a commercial alternative for long term off-site archiving. I made the decision there was no economic incentive or benefit to retain files older than 7 years. These older files are now shredded land fill. Lost for all eternity. When a client rings wanting to know whether the contract date for a purchase was pre-September 1985 all I can do is shrug. On this point I am researching this actual point to determine if their purchase was pre-Sep 85. The answer may lie with one of the statutory authorities who record such things.
Or you simply keep paying the ongoing price of paying monthly archive storage fees and offset the price by charging clients with a retrieval fee.
The problem of physical archives is universal for all law firms.
A better solution lies in digitising legal records on a continual ongoing daily basis. In other words maintain a digital archive, at least for all deeds and important documents like the contract of sale. Every small law firm should start by buying 1 or 2 desktop document feed scanners. The payback is not just short term but long term as there is close to a zero cost to maintaining a long term digital archive.
The NYT published an interesting article on the issue of archives contained in libraries and other important collections. History, Digitized (and Abridged)
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
US mortgage crisis looming
First the New York Times
While real estate prices were rising, the market for home loans operated like a well-oiled machine, providing ready money to borrowers and high returns to investors like pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and other institutions. Now this enormous and important machine is sputtering, and the effects are reverberating throughout Main Street, Wall Street and Washington.
Already, more than two dozen mortgage lenders have failed or closed their doors, and shares of big companies in the mortgage industry have declined significantly. Delinquencies on loans made to less creditworthy borrowers — known as subprime mortgages — recently reached 12.6 percent. Some banks have reported rising problems among borrowers that were deemed more creditworthy as well.
Like worms that surface after a torrential rain, revelations that emerge when an asset bubble bursts are often unattractive, involving dubious industry practices and even fraud. In the coming weeks, some mortgage market participants predict, investors will learn not only how lax real estate lending standards became, but also how hard to value these opaque securities are and how easy their values are to prop up.
Mortgages requiring little or no documentation became known colloquially as “liar loans.” An April 2006 report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a consulting concern in Reston, Va., analyzed 100 loans in which the borrowers merely stated their incomes, and then looked at documents those borrowers had filed with the I.R.S. The resulting differences were significant: in 90 percent of loans, borrowers overstated their incomes 5 percent or more. But in almost 60 percent of cases, borrowers inflated their incomes by more than half.
Is Australia insulated against the cracks in the mortgage market that are widening in the US?
No, not whilst Australia's median house prices continues to be increasing. And certainly easy credit like the lo doc loan products keeps fueling the price increases.
crikey.com.au weighs in on the same topic
Glenn Dyer writes:
Some of the biggest names in US finance have been caught up in the spreading collapse of the so-called sub-prime mortgage market.
These include Citigroup, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, GMAC and General Electric's finance arm, GE Money which operates in Australia and aggressively markets similar loans through the Wizard Home Loans operation it bought in late 2004.
The crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market (that's what we call no doc/low doc housing loans with no deposit) is worsening with the second biggest lender in the area likely to go bankrupt very shortly.
It's just not an isolated event: the sub-prime mortgage market in the US has been responsible for much of the boom in home prices over the past two years as more and more money has been lent. Some US analysts say that it has been the single most important factor in the US housing boom, which peaked last year and then collapsed, threatening the rest of the US economy.
Now billions of dollars of mortgages are going bad as default rates skyrocket, people lose their homes and new lending dries up.
GE Money bought a small sub-prime lender called WMC Mortgage Corp (US) in April 2004, fed it billions of dollars and watched it jump from number 12 to number five among sub-prime lenders.
Last Friday it shut off new loans, closed several offices and laid off at least 20% of its staff, some 450 people, as the realisation grew that it is going to lose a lot of money for GE.
The reason for the problems is that many loans were sold not only as 100% financings with no deposit and no or low documentation, but they contained cheap starter rates where the initial interest rate was held down for six months to more than a year.
Those higher rates are now kicking in and many people can't afford them: as well as the value of their houses being dragged down by the fall in the overall housing market. It's a horrible double whammy that has seen the industry contract and turn off the lending tap in the space of a month.
And why is this important in Australia? The purchase of WMC gave GE Money a taste for similar businesses and six months later it bought Wizard Home Loans and its parent, from a group of investors which included PBL, founder Mark Bouris and ABN Amro.
Last weekend saw Wizard advertising a new offering of a no doc/low doc loan with 100% finance (ie, no deposit), the very product it has stopped offering in the US because the business is imploding. Here's the Wizard website with its 100% finance offered in the banner headline at the top of the page.
There are growing problems with no doc/low doc/no deposit loans here, especially in the suburbs of western and southwestern Sydney where foreclosures are still rising and house prices are falling.
It's not the crisis it is in the US but it makes you wonder how GE can continue to offer this sort of finance here, with our problems, and knowing the problems that it has got itself into in the US.
While real estate prices were rising, the market for home loans operated like a well-oiled machine, providing ready money to borrowers and high returns to investors like pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and other institutions. Now this enormous and important machine is sputtering, and the effects are reverberating throughout Main Street, Wall Street and Washington.
Already, more than two dozen mortgage lenders have failed or closed their doors, and shares of big companies in the mortgage industry have declined significantly. Delinquencies on loans made to less creditworthy borrowers — known as subprime mortgages — recently reached 12.6 percent. Some banks have reported rising problems among borrowers that were deemed more creditworthy as well.
Like worms that surface after a torrential rain, revelations that emerge when an asset bubble bursts are often unattractive, involving dubious industry practices and even fraud. In the coming weeks, some mortgage market participants predict, investors will learn not only how lax real estate lending standards became, but also how hard to value these opaque securities are and how easy their values are to prop up.
Mortgages requiring little or no documentation became known colloquially as “liar loans.” An April 2006 report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a consulting concern in Reston, Va., analyzed 100 loans in which the borrowers merely stated their incomes, and then looked at documents those borrowers had filed with the I.R.S. The resulting differences were significant: in 90 percent of loans, borrowers overstated their incomes 5 percent or more. But in almost 60 percent of cases, borrowers inflated their incomes by more than half.
Is Australia insulated against the cracks in the mortgage market that are widening in the US?
No, not whilst Australia's median house prices continues to be increasing. And certainly easy credit like the lo doc loan products keeps fueling the price increases.
crikey.com.au weighs in on the same topic
Glenn Dyer writes:
Some of the biggest names in US finance have been caught up in the spreading collapse of the so-called sub-prime mortgage market.
These include Citigroup, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, GMAC and General Electric's finance arm, GE Money which operates in Australia and aggressively markets similar loans through the Wizard Home Loans operation it bought in late 2004.
The crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market (that's what we call no doc/low doc housing loans with no deposit) is worsening with the second biggest lender in the area likely to go bankrupt very shortly.
It's just not an isolated event: the sub-prime mortgage market in the US has been responsible for much of the boom in home prices over the past two years as more and more money has been lent. Some US analysts say that it has been the single most important factor in the US housing boom, which peaked last year and then collapsed, threatening the rest of the US economy.
Now billions of dollars of mortgages are going bad as default rates skyrocket, people lose their homes and new lending dries up.
GE Money bought a small sub-prime lender called WMC Mortgage Corp (US) in April 2004, fed it billions of dollars and watched it jump from number 12 to number five among sub-prime lenders.
Last Friday it shut off new loans, closed several offices and laid off at least 20% of its staff, some 450 people, as the realisation grew that it is going to lose a lot of money for GE.
The reason for the problems is that many loans were sold not only as 100% financings with no deposit and no or low documentation, but they contained cheap starter rates where the initial interest rate was held down for six months to more than a year.
Those higher rates are now kicking in and many people can't afford them: as well as the value of their houses being dragged down by the fall in the overall housing market. It's a horrible double whammy that has seen the industry contract and turn off the lending tap in the space of a month.
And why is this important in Australia? The purchase of WMC gave GE Money a taste for similar businesses and six months later it bought Wizard Home Loans and its parent, from a group of investors which included PBL, founder Mark Bouris and ABN Amro.
Last weekend saw Wizard advertising a new offering of a no doc/low doc loan with 100% finance (ie, no deposit), the very product it has stopped offering in the US because the business is imploding. Here's the Wizard website with its 100% finance offered in the banner headline at the top of the page.
There are growing problems with no doc/low doc/no deposit loans here, especially in the suburbs of western and southwestern Sydney where foreclosures are still rising and house prices are falling.
It's not the crisis it is in the US but it makes you wonder how GE can continue to offer this sort of finance here, with our problems, and knowing the problems that it has got itself into in the US.
Monday, February 26, 2007
MyHome
Crikey has been at its rumour mongering again -
MyHome feeling a bit homeless?
Now that only one franchise group (Elders) has signed up to the PBL-backed real estate website, the reality seems to be hitting home for many others. Why have LJ Hooker and others backed out? MyHome plans to go direct to the vendors of agents who use MyHome – that’s right, going "around" the real estate agent. Ray White has also said "no thank you" for the same reason. To make matters worse, MyHome is now suing Ray White (the largest franchise group in Australia) for deciding not to use MyHome. The only group promoting MyHome seems to be Raine & Horne in NSW, whose agencies are being told by Max Raine that they should stop advertising on all other real estate websites and only advertise on MyHome.
I did a quick side by side comparison for postcode 3204 - Bentleigh
MyHome - 50 entries - mostly Hocking Stuart
Realestate - 110 entries - supported by all agents
And the winner is - the punters will always decide that - and lets face facts - there is room only for two plus a number of specialty sites
Update as of March 13, 2007, Syney Morning Herald
Realestate.com.au has helpfully provided SMH with traffic figures for property classifieds in the first 10 days of March.
And it seems PBL's new site, myhome.com.au, is struggling to get off the ground, failing to reach 100,000 unique visitors despite the recent marketing drive.
Realestate.com.au had 1.6 million unique visitors over the period, followed by Fairfax Media's Domain.com.au with 852,000, according to the data from Nielsen/NetRatings.
Realestate.com.au also notes that users stayed on its site an average 11 minutes, compared to just 2 minutes for myhome.com.au.
I don't doubt the statistics
MyHome feeling a bit homeless?
Now that only one franchise group (Elders) has signed up to the PBL-backed real estate website, the reality seems to be hitting home for many others. Why have LJ Hooker and others backed out? MyHome plans to go direct to the vendors of agents who use MyHome – that’s right, going "around" the real estate agent. Ray White has also said "no thank you" for the same reason. To make matters worse, MyHome is now suing Ray White (the largest franchise group in Australia) for deciding not to use MyHome. The only group promoting MyHome seems to be Raine & Horne in NSW, whose agencies are being told by Max Raine that they should stop advertising on all other real estate websites and only advertise on MyHome.
I did a quick side by side comparison for postcode 3204 - Bentleigh
MyHome - 50 entries - mostly Hocking Stuart
Realestate - 110 entries - supported by all agents
And the winner is - the punters will always decide that - and lets face facts - there is room only for two plus a number of specialty sites
Update as of March 13, 2007, Syney Morning Herald
Realestate.com.au has helpfully provided SMH with traffic figures for property classifieds in the first 10 days of March.
And it seems PBL's new site, myhome.com.au, is struggling to get off the ground, failing to reach 100,000 unique visitors despite the recent marketing drive.
Realestate.com.au had 1.6 million unique visitors over the period, followed by Fairfax Media's Domain.com.au with 852,000, according to the data from Nielsen/NetRatings.
Realestate.com.au also notes that users stayed on its site an average 11 minutes, compared to just 2 minutes for myhome.com.au.
I don't doubt the statistics
Saturday, February 03, 2007
SPEAR - Electronic Subdivision
SPEAR covers the approval process for a number of Subdivision Act plans and includes the application for a planning permit, council certification and lodgment in Land Registry.
SPEAR allows applications to be electronically submitted to council, referred electronically for comment and tracked online from the initial planning stage through to lodgment and registration of the plan at Land Registry.
SPEAR is an internet system that enables a subdivision application to be lodged, managed, referred and tracked online. The system was developed by Land Victoria as part of its Land Exchange program.
SPEAR is comparable to an electronic mail box that stores data and allows subscribers to access this data. Its aim is to reduce the delays, duplication of data, double handling of documents and high administrative overheads that are characteristic of the current manual, paper based development approval process.
Source - Customer Information Bulletin DSE Jan 2007
SPEAR is up and running. The Plan is electronically uploaded to the Land Registry imaging system and digitally signed by Council and the Surveyor. Council digitally signs the Statement of Compliance.
The same principles that SPEAR is applying are the same as for the Electronic Conveyancing project and 247Legal is using with its Digital Conveyancing project.
SPEAR allows applications to be electronically submitted to council, referred electronically for comment and tracked online from the initial planning stage through to lodgment and registration of the plan at Land Registry.
SPEAR is an internet system that enables a subdivision application to be lodged, managed, referred and tracked online. The system was developed by Land Victoria as part of its Land Exchange program.
SPEAR is comparable to an electronic mail box that stores data and allows subscribers to access this data. Its aim is to reduce the delays, duplication of data, double handling of documents and high administrative overheads that are characteristic of the current manual, paper based development approval process.
Source - Customer Information Bulletin DSE Jan 2007
SPEAR is up and running. The Plan is electronically uploaded to the Land Registry imaging system and digitally signed by Council and the Surveyor. Council digitally signs the Statement of Compliance.
The same principles that SPEAR is applying are the same as for the Electronic Conveyancing project and 247Legal is using with its Digital Conveyancing project.
Home Buyers stamp duty relief ----- Not
Which home buyers are saying thanks Bracks for the stamp duty relief you have given us?
For a start you dont qualify for the Principal Place Residence concession for homes over $500K. That cuts out my electorate where median prices for homes is now well over $500K.
Think about this, you are eligible if your home costs between $115K and $500K. No-one can buy a home for $115K. I would have thought the majority of established home buyers is now pretty much above the $500K mark
And get this, those it might be targeting being the First Home Buyers, well think twice, they dont get it. The first home buyers elects which "benefit" they will take - the PPR concession or the First Home Bonus. No double dipping boys and girls.
And if you haven't already seen the new form, well the SRO has been busy designing forms that should be a simple one page document. Well those days as we all know are well past us. The PPR stat dec is 3 pages plus the explanatory notes.
You can download a copy here.
And for the sheer hell of it, I have redesigned a user friendly one pager, just like the good old days when the chattels stat dec was introduced. Feel welcome to download it and use it with my blessing. If you can ever find an occasion to ever use it.
For a start you dont qualify for the Principal Place Residence concession for homes over $500K. That cuts out my electorate where median prices for homes is now well over $500K.
Think about this, you are eligible if your home costs between $115K and $500K. No-one can buy a home for $115K. I would have thought the majority of established home buyers is now pretty much above the $500K mark
And get this, those it might be targeting being the First Home Buyers, well think twice, they dont get it. The first home buyers elects which "benefit" they will take - the PPR concession or the First Home Bonus. No double dipping boys and girls.
And if you haven't already seen the new form, well the SRO has been busy designing forms that should be a simple one page document. Well those days as we all know are well past us. The PPR stat dec is 3 pages plus the explanatory notes.
You can download a copy here.
And for the sheer hell of it, I have redesigned a user friendly one pager, just like the good old days when the chattels stat dec was introduced. Feel welcome to download it and use it with my blessing. If you can ever find an occasion to ever use it.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
PM announces Federal control over the Murray-Darling
Will the States accede control over inland water rights of the Murray-Darling to the Federal government?
Constitutional law experts questioned whether the PM had the legal power to take control of the system, which apparantly supplies water to 85% of Australia's irrigated crops.
20 odd years ago the Federal Government passed laws that overrided the Tasmanian government's plan to dam the Gordon Franklin. Then they used the external affairs power .
If the States dont hand over their power, Mr Howard will have three choices
The Commonwealth could use a range of powers to cover many of the areas covered in the Governments blue-print
All this points more and more to the people of this country understanding that State Governments are past their use by date. Federal Government needs to be linked to strong regional / local government.
Ditto for a centralised Australian property register with uniform property laws.
Constitutional law experts questioned whether the PM had the legal power to take control of the system, which apparantly supplies water to 85% of Australia's irrigated crops.
20 odd years ago the Federal Government passed laws that overrided the Tasmanian government's plan to dam the Gordon Franklin. Then they used the external affairs power .
If the States dont hand over their power, Mr Howard will have three choices
- he could drop the plan
- take it to the High Court, or
- seek a mandate for change through a referendum
The Commonwealth could use a range of powers to cover many of the areas covered in the Governments blue-print
- the corporations power could be used to provide legislation surrounding business using water in the basin
- the external affairs power could be used to write legislation concerning treaties that cover the environment and water quality.
- apparently it would be difficult to use the trade and commerce power, thanks to section 100 (this says states have the right to reasonable use of water for conservation and irrigation
All this points more and more to the people of this country understanding that State Governments are past their use by date. Federal Government needs to be linked to strong regional / local government.
Ditto for a centralised Australian property register with uniform property laws.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Ever lost a settlement bank cheque?
Conveyancing is a serious adult game of pass the parcel. Come settlement you hand over the title and the other side collects the sale proceeds by bank cheque. Losing the title or losing the bank cheque comes at a cost.
Well only the other day we handed over settlement bank cheques and collected the title, transfer and discharge. Our firm personally handed over to the NAB a bank cheque for $53,317 being part of the funds required to settle.
Just before 5pm we get a phone call from NAB settlement department - "We have lost or misplaced the bank cheques; did our settlement clerk take the cheque(s) by mistake?"
We checked and no, our settlement agent did not have the cheques. Rightly so the NAB asked "Can you please stop the bank cheques?"
Next morning I went to the Commonwealth and without a problem they stopped the cheque and re-issued a fresh bank cheque for $53,317. Again all this comes at a cost, being time and bank charges and for the party losing the cheque the frustration and questions will I recover the lost money. I have sent NAB an invoice for our time spent in stopping and re-issuing the bank cheque on the 9th Jan, but funny thing is they haven't paid the invoice, thus I am still sitting on their funds pending payment.
Again when the era of electronic settlements and electronic registration of titles office dealings begins, such incidents as described will hopefully become a thing of the past
Well only the other day we handed over settlement bank cheques and collected the title, transfer and discharge. Our firm personally handed over to the NAB a bank cheque for $53,317 being part of the funds required to settle.
Just before 5pm we get a phone call from NAB settlement department - "We have lost or misplaced the bank cheques; did our settlement clerk take the cheque(s) by mistake?"
We checked and no, our settlement agent did not have the cheques. Rightly so the NAB asked "Can you please stop the bank cheques?"
Next morning I went to the Commonwealth and without a problem they stopped the cheque and re-issued a fresh bank cheque for $53,317. Again all this comes at a cost, being time and bank charges and for the party losing the cheque the frustration and questions will I recover the lost money. I have sent NAB an invoice for our time spent in stopping and re-issuing the bank cheque on the 9th Jan, but funny thing is they haven't paid the invoice, thus I am still sitting on their funds pending payment.
Again when the era of electronic settlements and electronic registration of titles office dealings begins, such incidents as described will hopefully become a thing of the past
ANZ announces major mortgage IT project
ANZ has announced two major IT projects. One is the way it deals with corporate customers that will move corporate and business accounts online in a way that mirrors systems running the personal banking portal.
The other major technology project planned for 2007 year involves introducing software to help automate mortgage processing in the ANZ's personal banking division.
Mr Dalton, who was appointed ANZ CIO in 2006 has announced another important IT project, which affects mortgage processing, is a mortgage automation program, which involves introducing workflow decision software to help automate the back-office component of our mortgages business.
But will it create a portal giving lawyers and conveyancers –
It would be a real coup if it does.
Source Australian IT 16 Jan 07
NYT Study Says Computers Give Big Boosts to Productivity
The other major technology project planned for 2007 year involves introducing software to help automate mortgage processing in the ANZ's personal banking division.
Mr Dalton, who was appointed ANZ CIO in 2006 has announced another important IT project, which affects mortgage processing, is a mortgage automation program, which involves introducing workflow decision software to help automate the back-office component of our mortgages business.
But will it create a portal giving lawyers and conveyancers –
- Online tracking of client’s mortgage status
- Online booking of settlements
- Online advice of available funds
- Online settlement cheque details
It would be a real coup if it does.
Source Australian IT 16 Jan 07
NYT Study Says Computers Give Big Boosts to Productivity
Sunday, January 07, 2007
What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate
2007 New Year’s Resolution
I was thinking what realistic contribution could the major banks make to the mortgage and conveyancing industry that could make a real difference in 2007?
Not unlike most new year’s resolutions, I am giving up cigarettes or I am going to lose 10 kilos such lame resolves get confined to the waste bin for another year.
The great crime the banks repeat ad nauseum and to quote Cool Hand Luke “What we've got here is failure to communicate”.
Communication – or actually the lack of it. That is the problem. And if any of you bankers want to leave a great legacy this is one area you need to fix and everyone would be eternally grateful. I know the State Government’s eConveyancing is on the agenda and is happening but we cannot afford to wait another 10 years for this to kick in.
You can easily fix the problem now.
What needs to be done? – Give lawyers and conveyancers -
That’s it – simple. Think how much more streamlined settlements would become. Your settlement staff could be redployed to deal with the real issues and problems that arise. The frustration of putting law clerks and conveyancers on hold would dry up. You get the picture.
Look at what you achieved when you introduced ATMs and online banking.
The dollar investment in making this one new year resolution happen would be very low and your ROI would be quickly recouped. Maybe you are ready to surprise us and you are all poised to release such a service. Gadens, I understand, has already started down this path and they need to be applauded.
There are a whole lot of law clerks and conveyancers fed up and frustrated with the system.
Law clerks and conveyancers are like Luke slumped in the culvert beside the roadway, the frustrated Captain recovers his composure and delivers the line “What we've got here is...failure to communicate.”, pronouncing his summary judgment of the problem: that it can be nothing more than a matter of Luke failing to understand the one-way nature of the communication that is incumbent on his present demotion in social status.
I was thinking what realistic contribution could the major banks make to the mortgage and conveyancing industry that could make a real difference in 2007?
Not unlike most new year’s resolutions, I am giving up cigarettes or I am going to lose 10 kilos such lame resolves get confined to the waste bin for another year.
The great crime the banks repeat ad nauseum and to quote Cool Hand Luke “What we've got here is failure to communicate”.
Communication – or actually the lack of it. That is the problem. And if any of you bankers want to leave a great legacy this is one area you need to fix and everyone would be eternally grateful. I know the State Government’s eConveyancing is on the agenda and is happening but we cannot afford to wait another 10 years for this to kick in.
You can easily fix the problem now.
What needs to be done? – Give lawyers and conveyancers -
- Online tracking of client’s mortgage status
- Online booking of settlements
- Online advice of available funds
- Online settlement cheque details
That’s it – simple. Think how much more streamlined settlements would become. Your settlement staff could be redployed to deal with the real issues and problems that arise. The frustration of putting law clerks and conveyancers on hold would dry up. You get the picture.
Look at what you achieved when you introduced ATMs and online banking.
The dollar investment in making this one new year resolution happen would be very low and your ROI would be quickly recouped. Maybe you are ready to surprise us and you are all poised to release such a service. Gadens, I understand, has already started down this path and they need to be applauded.
There are a whole lot of law clerks and conveyancers fed up and frustrated with the system.
Law clerks and conveyancers are like Luke slumped in the culvert beside the roadway, the frustrated Captain recovers his composure and delivers the line “What we've got here is...failure to communicate.”, pronouncing his summary judgment of the problem: that it can be nothing more than a matter of Luke failing to understand the one-way nature of the communication that is incumbent on his present demotion in social status.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Fraud and Identity
The enemy of any titles registration system is fraud. Students of property law learn that the major exception to indefeasibility of title is fraud (section 41 Transfer of Land Act).
In the absence of title insurance, who bears the cost of fraud on the register? The Registrar of Titles? The Lawyer? The Rightful Owner? The Mortgagee?
I am personally convinced the electronic conveyancing initiative will reduce the incidence of fraud. There are several initiatives, which combined together will produce a superior registration system:
I am concerned that today’s current systems is open to abuse. This is evidenced by reported frauds in North America and close to home New South Wales. Undoubtedly there are the unreported frauds that don’t get any publicity. As a property lawyer I can see various lines of weakness. Not so much fraud but as I have mentioned before you don’t need a 100 point check to be registered on title. How piss weak is that.
The sooner duplicate titles are made redundant as with the paper registration system the better off we will be.
Identity - I strongly support lawyers, conveyancers and mortgagees having to identify clients. This will be a giant step forward. It simply cant be a retrograde step. Could someone produce a wad of concocted bogus identity documents. No doubt. And if you have any doubts there are or will be separate independent checks you can make.
Two factor digital signatures. EC is introducing a digital signature which can only be applied to an instrument provided the Subscriber can only sign documents on a particular computer. Thus it will be difficult for the Subscriber to deny that it was or was not his signature. Yes, the system could be open to a rogue Subscriber, and that is a risk. Bruce Schneier has published an interesting article that questions the efficacy of digital signatures. In isolation I would agree with his arguments. And yet Bruce provides some contradictory remarks to his main argument against digital signatures -
“This is not to say that digital signatures are useless. There are many instances where the insecurities discussed here are not relevant, or where the dollar value of the signatures is small enough not to warrant worrying about them. There are also instances where authenticating to the signing computer is good enough, and where no further authentication is required. And there are instances where real-world relationships can obviate the legal requirements that digital signatures have been asked to satisfy.
Digital signatures prove, mathematically, that a secret value known as the private key was present in a computer at the time Alice's signature was calculated. It is a small step from that to assume that Alice entered that key into the computer at the time of signing. But it is a much larger step to assume that Alice intended a particular document to be signed. And without a tamperproof computer trusted by Alice, you can expect "digital signature experts" to show up in court contesting a lot of digital signatures.”
Because the digital signature / private key will need to be used on a particular computer with password security the opportunity for your average fraudster to have access is remote.
But as I said in the introduction the system of electronic registration is the sum of the parts.
Multiple parties. Every transaction will have at least two parties and in many cases there will be 4 parties to any sale and purchase. That in its own right will produce large hurdles for fraud.
Paper audit Trail. Paper trails have not been eliminated from e-conveyancing. There will still be a requirement for paper contracts. Paper loan documentation. And even paper Representation Agreements and copies of identity documents. The combination of the described paper audit trails, identity requirements and e-conveyancing authentication methods, I believe lowers the risk of fraud on the register.
Is there a perfect system? No. Bruce Schneier’s article on fraud is essential reading. “Fraud has been perpetrated against every commerce system man has ever invented, from gold coin to stock certificates to paper checks to credit cards. Electronic commerce systems will be no different”
Should there also be compulsory title insurance? I cant see why not. That way everyone pays.
Bruce Schneier’s articles:
Digital Signatures
Fraud
In the absence of title insurance, who bears the cost of fraud on the register? The Registrar of Titles? The Lawyer? The Rightful Owner? The Mortgagee?
I am personally convinced the electronic conveyancing initiative will reduce the incidence of fraud. There are several initiatives, which combined together will produce a superior registration system:
- Identity requirements
- Two factor digital signatures
- Multiple parties to the settlement and registration
- Paper audit trails
I am concerned that today’s current systems is open to abuse. This is evidenced by reported frauds in North America and close to home New South Wales. Undoubtedly there are the unreported frauds that don’t get any publicity. As a property lawyer I can see various lines of weakness. Not so much fraud but as I have mentioned before you don’t need a 100 point check to be registered on title. How piss weak is that.
The sooner duplicate titles are made redundant as with the paper registration system the better off we will be.
Identity - I strongly support lawyers, conveyancers and mortgagees having to identify clients. This will be a giant step forward. It simply cant be a retrograde step. Could someone produce a wad of concocted bogus identity documents. No doubt. And if you have any doubts there are or will be separate independent checks you can make.
Two factor digital signatures. EC is introducing a digital signature which can only be applied to an instrument provided the Subscriber can only sign documents on a particular computer. Thus it will be difficult for the Subscriber to deny that it was or was not his signature. Yes, the system could be open to a rogue Subscriber, and that is a risk. Bruce Schneier has published an interesting article that questions the efficacy of digital signatures. In isolation I would agree with his arguments. And yet Bruce provides some contradictory remarks to his main argument against digital signatures -
“This is not to say that digital signatures are useless. There are many instances where the insecurities discussed here are not relevant, or where the dollar value of the signatures is small enough not to warrant worrying about them. There are also instances where authenticating to the signing computer is good enough, and where no further authentication is required. And there are instances where real-world relationships can obviate the legal requirements that digital signatures have been asked to satisfy.
Digital signatures prove, mathematically, that a secret value known as the private key was present in a computer at the time Alice's signature was calculated. It is a small step from that to assume that Alice entered that key into the computer at the time of signing. But it is a much larger step to assume that Alice intended a particular document to be signed. And without a tamperproof computer trusted by Alice, you can expect "digital signature experts" to show up in court contesting a lot of digital signatures.”
Because the digital signature / private key will need to be used on a particular computer with password security the opportunity for your average fraudster to have access is remote.
But as I said in the introduction the system of electronic registration is the sum of the parts.
Multiple parties. Every transaction will have at least two parties and in many cases there will be 4 parties to any sale and purchase. That in its own right will produce large hurdles for fraud.
Paper audit Trail. Paper trails have not been eliminated from e-conveyancing. There will still be a requirement for paper contracts. Paper loan documentation. And even paper Representation Agreements and copies of identity documents. The combination of the described paper audit trails, identity requirements and e-conveyancing authentication methods, I believe lowers the risk of fraud on the register.
Is there a perfect system? No. Bruce Schneier’s article on fraud is essential reading. “Fraud has been perpetrated against every commerce system man has ever invented, from gold coin to stock certificates to paper checks to credit cards. Electronic commerce systems will be no different”
Should there also be compulsory title insurance? I cant see why not. That way everyone pays.
Bruce Schneier’s articles:
Digital Signatures
Fraud
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Buyers Beware
Will the buyers agent become more and more prevalent? Buyers are at a distinct disadvantage in the negotiation stakes. The agent is acting first for the seller and secondly for himself.
The local agent gets to know what buyers are out there. They see them at the inspections, at auctions, and they learn a great deal from these interactions. The buyer may have been the underbidder. He knows the price range the buyer is looking at and roughly what the maximum that buyer can pay. And it is this information the agent uses "against you".
Whereas the buyer doesn't know or meet the vendor or what is motivating the vendor to sell.
domain.com.au published this advice: Real-estate agent Peter Dempsey, director of The Dempsey Agency
"Play your cards close to your chest. The agent is not working on your behalf but should be acting in the seller's best interests, so you don't want to give them too much information. Otherwise it could work against you in the negotiation process. The agent may ask you if you have your finance arranged. Confirm you have but don't tell the agent about your buying ability. Certainly, don't say you can go to $410,000 or borrow up to $450,000. That sort of information should never be revealed. Don't disclose your profession either. Reveal nothing more than scant details so the agent can simply narrow down the purchase for you.
"If the agent offers properties beyond your price range, then you can acknowledge that. You can't keep money out of the equation all of the time. When you are negotiating over the last $20,000, you may say you don't have the ability to go further and your mortgage offer is set at X amount. First-time buyers often allow the real estate agent to control the conversation and negotiation. You have to take that control out of the hands of the agent. This slow market allows buyers to do that."
Or just use a Buyers Agent.
The local agent gets to know what buyers are out there. They see them at the inspections, at auctions, and they learn a great deal from these interactions. The buyer may have been the underbidder. He knows the price range the buyer is looking at and roughly what the maximum that buyer can pay. And it is this information the agent uses "against you".
Whereas the buyer doesn't know or meet the vendor or what is motivating the vendor to sell.
domain.com.au published this advice: Real-estate agent Peter Dempsey, director of The Dempsey Agency
"Play your cards close to your chest. The agent is not working on your behalf but should be acting in the seller's best interests, so you don't want to give them too much information. Otherwise it could work against you in the negotiation process. The agent may ask you if you have your finance arranged. Confirm you have but don't tell the agent about your buying ability. Certainly, don't say you can go to $410,000 or borrow up to $450,000. That sort of information should never be revealed. Don't disclose your profession either. Reveal nothing more than scant details so the agent can simply narrow down the purchase for you.
"If the agent offers properties beyond your price range, then you can acknowledge that. You can't keep money out of the equation all of the time. When you are negotiating over the last $20,000, you may say you don't have the ability to go further and your mortgage offer is set at X amount. First-time buyers often allow the real estate agent to control the conversation and negotiation. You have to take that control out of the hands of the agent. This slow market allows buyers to do that."
Or just use a Buyers Agent.
Termites
This list of cover-ups and estimated costs to repair is based on the findings of Archicentre conducting pre-purchase housing inspections in Australia and the Archicentre Cost Guide.
Should changes in legislation be debated to make Building Inspection Reports mandatory disclosure when a property is put up for sale? I believe the ACT has such a regime. The Vendor foots the cost of the Inspection Report and is reimbursed by the ultimate buyer.
Here's a link to an article "What lies beneath" by Robyn Willis published in the Daily Telegraph
- Illegal building. Up to $100,000.
- Cracking. Up to $50,000. About $3000 to repair. Internal walls patched and painted, external walls concealed behind plants or trellis.
- Roof problems. Up to $20,000. Rusty metal roofs painted, tile roofs patched with lead. Damaged roof framing propped up in roof space.
- Termites, borers, and timber rot. Up to $20,000. On average $5000 to repair. Floor damage patched and concealed under carpets.
- Rotten weatherboards and windows. Up to $10,000. Rot patched with filler or covered with tin then painted.
- Rotten stumps. On average $8000 to repair. Floors temporarily propped to prevent bouncing.
- Faulty/illegal wiring. About $6000 to repair.
- Faulty/illegal plumbing. Same as previous.
- Damp. On average $5000 to repair. Walls painted or furniture placed against damaged walls.
- Guttering/downpipes. About $3000 to repair. Rusty gutters patched and painted.
Should changes in legislation be debated to make Building Inspection Reports mandatory disclosure when a property is put up for sale? I believe the ACT has such a regime. The Vendor foots the cost of the Inspection Report and is reimbursed by the ultimate buyer.
Here's a link to an article "What lies beneath" by Robyn Willis published in the Daily Telegraph
Investing for Income or Capital Gain?
The quandry for many investors is devising a strategy for property investment and sticking to it. Do you invest for positive cash flow and what is positive cash flow? For the purists positive cash flow does not mean taking into account depreciation and income tax benefits.
Almost a given is both positive and negative gearing primarily require a long-term commitment in order to maximise gains. However, they don’t really go hand in hand.
Michael Yardney of Metropole Properties says, “Properties that tend to have positive cash flow have poorer capital growth, whereas properties that have good capital growth in general have poorer cash flow."
Bronwyn Davis writing for realestate.com.au gives a thorough insight on the subject of buying for income or buying for capital gain; positive cash flow or negative gearing.
However for most early investors, their choices will be limited by what they can afford to commit. Their affordability limit will be dictated by two factors: how much equity they have in the properties they own and what is their disposable income that can be committed to the new investment.
And for the majority of the population, such constraints puts the $1M property in Brighton beyond their reach. Happy searching.
Almost a given is both positive and negative gearing primarily require a long-term commitment in order to maximise gains. However, they don’t really go hand in hand.
Michael Yardney of Metropole Properties says, “Properties that tend to have positive cash flow have poorer capital growth, whereas properties that have good capital growth in general have poorer cash flow."
Bronwyn Davis writing for realestate.com.au gives a thorough insight on the subject of buying for income or buying for capital gain; positive cash flow or negative gearing.
However for most early investors, their choices will be limited by what they can afford to commit. Their affordability limit will be dictated by two factors: how much equity they have in the properties they own and what is their disposable income that can be committed to the new investment.
And for the majority of the population, such constraints puts the $1M property in Brighton beyond their reach. Happy searching.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Certification of Transfers under EC - the 4 tick boxes
Under EC the lawyer / conveyancer will need to tick 4 check boxes certifying
Sample of an EC(Vic) Discharge Mortgage with the 4 tick boxes
In more detail
Certifying compliance with identity verification requirements
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has followed the prescribed procedures in verifying the identity of his/her client, including where necessary meeting the client face-to-face, sighting the originals of all identity documents and verifying the authenticity, and retaining all prescribed documentation. It is a certification of having followed a prescribed procedure and may protect the practitioner from a negligence claim if the identity is subsequently proven to be false.
Certifying holding a properly completed Client Authorisation
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has entered into a sufficient and properly documented agreement with his/her client to represent their interests in signing and lodging the instrument. The certifications will give all practitioners in the same transaction confidence they can rely on the other practitioners’ having the authority to sign on behalf of their respective clients.
Certifying having examined all necessary supporting documentation
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has thoroughly and carefully examined and retained copies for the prescribed period of all documentation necessary to support the instrument. Depending on the circumstances, the supporting documentation might be a probate or death notice, a statutory declaration, a certificate of title, or a marriage certificate, for example.
Certifying correctness to the best of the practitioner’s knowledge
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has checked all of the information presented in the instruments and to the best of his/her knowledge believes it to be correct and not misleading.
Source EC NSW newsletter Nov 06
Observation.
Identification. Isn’t it about time that land registries and practitioners address the question and issue of identity. Under current rules there is no requirement to identify our client. We can represent any client, prepare and lodge a transfer without checking their identity. Lets say a client pays cash for a property, no mortgage. This client can use any name or alias. No 100 point check required.
Ditto if a client was to act for him or herself. The Land Registry and State Revenue Office don't require proof of identity. Yet you need 100 point proof of identity to open a simple bank account.
And yet going forward, it is still clear parties can elect to go electronic or stick with the manual paper system. Will 100 point ID be required if you still decide to lodge a Transfer over the counter?
- You have verified the identity of his/her client
- You hold a properly completed and signed authorisation to sign and lodge the instrument on the client’s behalf
- You have thoroughly examined and retained copies of all documentation necessary to support the instrument
- You believe to the best of his/her knowledge at the time that all of the information provided in the instrument is correct.
Sample of an EC(Vic) Discharge Mortgage with the 4 tick boxes
In more detail
Certifying compliance with identity verification requirements
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has followed the prescribed procedures in verifying the identity of his/her client, including where necessary meeting the client face-to-face, sighting the originals of all identity documents and verifying the authenticity, and retaining all prescribed documentation. It is a certification of having followed a prescribed procedure and may protect the practitioner from a negligence claim if the identity is subsequently proven to be false.
Certifying holding a properly completed Client Authorisation
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has entered into a sufficient and properly documented agreement with his/her client to represent their interests in signing and lodging the instrument. The certifications will give all practitioners in the same transaction confidence they can rely on the other practitioners’ having the authority to sign on behalf of their respective clients.
Certifying having examined all necessary supporting documentation
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has thoroughly and carefully examined and retained copies for the prescribed period of all documentation necessary to support the instrument. Depending on the circumstances, the supporting documentation might be a probate or death notice, a statutory declaration, a certificate of title, or a marriage certificate, for example.
Certifying correctness to the best of the practitioner’s knowledge
This certification will give all other practitioners and the Land Registry confidence that the practitioner has checked all of the information presented in the instruments and to the best of his/her knowledge believes it to be correct and not misleading.
Source EC NSW newsletter Nov 06
Observation.
Identification. Isn’t it about time that land registries and practitioners address the question and issue of identity. Under current rules there is no requirement to identify our client. We can represent any client, prepare and lodge a transfer without checking their identity. Lets say a client pays cash for a property, no mortgage. This client can use any name or alias. No 100 point check required.
Ditto if a client was to act for him or herself. The Land Registry and State Revenue Office don't require proof of identity. Yet you need 100 point proof of identity to open a simple bank account.
And yet going forward, it is still clear parties can elect to go electronic or stick with the manual paper system. Will 100 point ID be required if you still decide to lodge a Transfer over the counter?
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Agents push their own expensive barrows
The Business Age published an article that doesn't exactly help them sell more expensive property classified advertisements. Maybe that's why it is in the business section and not the property section.
Mark Armstrong & David Johnston neatly sum up what we already know, buyers use the internet as their first source of property information. And agents convince vendors to part with their hard earned to spend on expensive print advertising to boost the agents own profile.
The article makes a neat summation -
"Ultimately, neither print nor online advertising has more than a marginal influence on the sale price the agent achieves for the vendor. This has far more to do with the quality of the property, the degree of competition among buyers, and the agent's auctioneering or negotiation skills.
Why if such a high proportion of buyers use the internet to research the property market, and the advertising method has virtually no impact on the sale price, do real estate agents continue to recommend the vendors spend thousands on print advertising as a matter of course?
The answer to this apparent relic of a bygone era is simple - branding."
Read the full article
Mark Armstrong & David Johnston neatly sum up what we already know, buyers use the internet as their first source of property information. And agents convince vendors to part with their hard earned to spend on expensive print advertising to boost the agents own profile.
The article makes a neat summation -
"Ultimately, neither print nor online advertising has more than a marginal influence on the sale price the agent achieves for the vendor. This has far more to do with the quality of the property, the degree of competition among buyers, and the agent's auctioneering or negotiation skills.
Why if such a high proportion of buyers use the internet to research the property market, and the advertising method has virtually no impact on the sale price, do real estate agents continue to recommend the vendors spend thousands on print advertising as a matter of course?
The answer to this apparent relic of a bygone era is simple - branding."
Read the full article
Friday, November 17, 2006
AG Phil Ruddock weighs in on eConveyancing
Media Release 207/2006
9 November 2006
E-CONVEYANCING TO STREAMLINE LAND PURCHASES
A national electronic conveyancing system has the potential to simplify land purchases and provide significant consumer benefits, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today.
Mr Ruddock said each state and territory had its own conveyancing procedures, with different rules covering issues from the terms and conditions of sale through to the exchange of contracts.
“A national system for electronic conveyancing will streamline settlements for individuals and businesses buying and selling land, including across State borders,” Mr Ruddock said.
Mr Ruddock’s comments followed a briefing from Mr Simon Libbis, the Executive Director of the National Electronic Conveyancing Office to today’s meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General in Perth.
Mr Libbis outlined recent developments in the establishment of a national electronic conveyancing system and the progress of a pilot program in Victoria.
As an electronically based system, it will operate in real-time and be more efficient than current paper-based processes.
“The lack of uniformity with existing State and Territory conveyancing and real property laws can increase the complexity and costs associated with land transactions, especially where transactions have an interstate element,” Mr Ruddock said.
The establishment of a national system for electronic conveyancing will also complement the initiative to develop a single national register for security interests in property other than land.
The Attorneys-General agreed to continue to monitor this initiative, particularly in relation to its effect on the legal profession.
Media Contact: Michael Pelly Parliament House Phone: 02 6277 7300 Fax: 02 6273 4102
9 November 2006
E-CONVEYANCING TO STREAMLINE LAND PURCHASES
A national electronic conveyancing system has the potential to simplify land purchases and provide significant consumer benefits, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today.
Mr Ruddock said each state and territory had its own conveyancing procedures, with different rules covering issues from the terms and conditions of sale through to the exchange of contracts.
“A national system for electronic conveyancing will streamline settlements for individuals and businesses buying and selling land, including across State borders,” Mr Ruddock said.
Mr Ruddock’s comments followed a briefing from Mr Simon Libbis, the Executive Director of the National Electronic Conveyancing Office to today’s meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General in Perth.
Mr Libbis outlined recent developments in the establishment of a national electronic conveyancing system and the progress of a pilot program in Victoria.
As an electronically based system, it will operate in real-time and be more efficient than current paper-based processes.
“The lack of uniformity with existing State and Territory conveyancing and real property laws can increase the complexity and costs associated with land transactions, especially where transactions have an interstate element,” Mr Ruddock said.
The establishment of a national system for electronic conveyancing will also complement the initiative to develop a single national register for security interests in property other than land.
The Attorneys-General agreed to continue to monitor this initiative, particularly in relation to its effect on the legal profession.
Media Contact: Michael Pelly Parliament House Phone: 02 6277 7300 Fax: 02 6273 4102
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Best Invention 2006 - YouTube
Time Magazine nominated YouTube best invention of the year.
What happened? YouTube's creators had stumbled onto the intersection of three revolutions.
Its not hard to figure out the common thread for what works on the net. What works on the net is where simple solutions create both community and collaboration. And YouTube has these elements in spades.
What happened? YouTube's creators had stumbled onto the intersection of three revolutions.
- First, the revolution in video production made possible by cheap camcorders and easy-to-use video software.
- Second, the social revolution that pundits and analysts have dubbed Web 2.0. It's exemplified by sites like MySpace, Wikipedia, Flickr and Digg—hybrids that are useful Web tools but also thriving communities where people create and share information together. The more people use them, the better they work, and more people use them all the time—a kind of self-stoking mass collaboration that wouldn't have been possible without the Internet.
- The third revolution is a cultural one. Consumers are impatient with the mainstream media. The idea of a top-down culture, in which talking heads spoon-feed passive spectators ideas about what's happening in the world, is over. People want unfiltered video from Iraq, Lebanon and Darfur—not from journalists who visit there but from soldiers who fight there and people who live and die there.
Its not hard to figure out the common thread for what works on the net. What works on the net is where simple solutions create both community and collaboration. And YouTube has these elements in spades.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
digital health - digital property
The whole world is turning digital. It is just a matter of time for the circle to turn.
The holy grail is to convert mountains of paper into digital electronic paper. It is so much easier to search and access digital records & archives than to make a request for a paper copy.
Human Services Minister Joe Hockey last week said his department would look at destroying 275km of paper records held by Centrelink and three square kilometres of Medicare records as part of the access card project. That means Centrelink alone would require at least 69TB to store all of its paper-based records. The systems required to undertake such a project would be several thousand digital cameras, printers and scanners. For a copy of the story Australian IT
Property is not a dissimilar story. Conveyancing from end to end is the story of pass the bits of paper around. And kick my butt if you or the client or the bank or the settlement agent or australia post should lose one of those bits of paper. The whole process can be digitised and think how better off we all would be.
And how much paper is consumed in Victoria for property transactions? For residential conveyancing I estimate that we use 52km of paper every year. Across Australia that figure would multiply out to 173km of paper consumed per year. Mmmmmmmmm
The holy grail is to convert mountains of paper into digital electronic paper. It is so much easier to search and access digital records & archives than to make a request for a paper copy.
Human Services Minister Joe Hockey last week said his department would look at destroying 275km of paper records held by Centrelink and three square kilometres of Medicare records as part of the access card project. That means Centrelink alone would require at least 69TB to store all of its paper-based records. The systems required to undertake such a project would be several thousand digital cameras, printers and scanners. For a copy of the story Australian IT
Property is not a dissimilar story. Conveyancing from end to end is the story of pass the bits of paper around. And kick my butt if you or the client or the bank or the settlement agent or australia post should lose one of those bits of paper. The whole process can be digitised and think how better off we all would be.
And how much paper is consumed in Victoria for property transactions? For residential conveyancing I estimate that we use 52km of paper every year. Across Australia that figure would multiply out to 173km of paper consumed per year. Mmmmmmmmm
Sample Electronic Title Search & Instruments
Titles can now be either electronic (eCT) or paper (pCT)
In the latest Titles Office Customer Information Bulletin (October 2006) samples of an electronic title search and Discharge of Mortgage. View samples
Under the EC regime, a title can flip flop between an eCT and a pCT.
An example is given that when a paper instrument is lodged affecting an eCT, if the controlling party of the Certificate of Title after the instrument is registered is not a Subscriber, a pCT will issue.
It is early days, the only current Subscribers are a handful of Financial Institutions during the current Phase 1 testing. FIs potentially are the biggest beneficiaries given the volume of paper titles and securities they must track and hold, which they potentially could convert to eCT.
In the latest Titles Office Customer Information Bulletin (October 2006) samples of an electronic title search and Discharge of Mortgage. View samples
Under the EC regime, a title can flip flop between an eCT and a pCT.
An example is given that when a paper instrument is lodged affecting an eCT, if the controlling party of the Certificate of Title after the instrument is registered is not a Subscriber, a pCT will issue.
It is early days, the only current Subscribers are a handful of Financial Institutions during the current Phase 1 testing. FIs potentially are the biggest beneficiaries given the volume of paper titles and securities they must track and hold, which they potentially could convert to eCT.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Sell my castle - bidding for a listing
Vendors can bid for an agent's business by providing a description of their home they are about to sell.
The blurb on the Sell my Castle website is "Our goal is to help sellers get the best deal when they sell their property and provide a platform for agents to find prospective sellers".
Agents will bid for the business by quoting their estimated selling price +/- 15% and their commission rates across that range. Thus the agent might quote 2% for the expected selling price, a lower commission if the final price comes in at the lower end and a higher commission if they achieve over the expected selling price.
Agents will also get feedback from buyers and be star rated.
Click here to view their demo
Sell my Castle has been advertising on domain.com.au
The blurb on the Sell my Castle website is "Our goal is to help sellers get the best deal when they sell their property and provide a platform for agents to find prospective sellers".
Agents will bid for the business by quoting their estimated selling price +/- 15% and their commission rates across that range. Thus the agent might quote 2% for the expected selling price, a lower commission if the final price comes in at the lower end and a higher commission if they achieve over the expected selling price.
Agents will also get feedback from buyers and be star rated.
Click here to view their demo
Sell my Castle has been advertising on domain.com.au
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Renters hit by excessive body corporate utility costs
crikey.com.au 11/11/06 Corporate lawyer Adam Schwab writes:
If you thought owners were the only people being rorted by body corporate managers you are wrong – renters are also falling victim to controversial practices being undertaken by body corporates and their managers. Most notably, the dubious practice (by a relatively small number) of body corporates avoiding residential tenancies and gas industry laws to charge renters exorbitant amounts for utilities.
In a recent submission to the Victorian Essential Services Commission, the Tenants Union of Victoria has claimed that certain Victorian building complexes (including several Docklands developments and one development in St Kilda) supply and charge for hot water to individual apartments through a central boiler rather than through individual meters (this is also known as an embedded network). The body corporate effectively purchases the hot water (well, they actually purchase the gas and re-sell the hot water) and proceed to charge renters a significantly inflated price for any "hot water" or electricity purchased. Body corporates are able to charge inflated prices for hot water because only gas prices (not hot water prices) are regulated by the Gas Industry Act.
Further, according to the TUV, the metering systems in these embedded networks are not required to adhere to legal standards existing for normal gas and electricity distributors, raising serious doubts about the accuracy and reliability of billing systems.
As the tenants are required to use the "embedded network" in their building, they have no choice but to pay the massively inflated monopoly rates charged by the body corporate (for example, tenants are not able to change to the supplier of their choice like Origin, TXU or Victoria Electricity to obtain the regulated rate paid by everyone else). Some utility bills are believed to be as high as three or four times the rates charged by utility companies billing tenants directly.
It is also alleged that at the time of entering into leases, tenants are not made fully aware that the utility rates charged by body corporate will be far greater than if the tenant were able to go direct to the retailer.
While the TUV have recently been successful before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in having certain charges relating to embedded networks reversed, it is believed that the practice is still continuing – with some tenants being unaware that they are being charged grossly inflated amounts for basic utilities.
If you thought owners were the only people being rorted by body corporate managers you are wrong – renters are also falling victim to controversial practices being undertaken by body corporates and their managers. Most notably, the dubious practice (by a relatively small number) of body corporates avoiding residential tenancies and gas industry laws to charge renters exorbitant amounts for utilities.
In a recent submission to the Victorian Essential Services Commission, the Tenants Union of Victoria has claimed that certain Victorian building complexes (including several Docklands developments and one development in St Kilda) supply and charge for hot water to individual apartments through a central boiler rather than through individual meters (this is also known as an embedded network). The body corporate effectively purchases the hot water (well, they actually purchase the gas and re-sell the hot water) and proceed to charge renters a significantly inflated price for any "hot water" or electricity purchased. Body corporates are able to charge inflated prices for hot water because only gas prices (not hot water prices) are regulated by the Gas Industry Act.
Further, according to the TUV, the metering systems in these embedded networks are not required to adhere to legal standards existing for normal gas and electricity distributors, raising serious doubts about the accuracy and reliability of billing systems.
As the tenants are required to use the "embedded network" in their building, they have no choice but to pay the massively inflated monopoly rates charged by the body corporate (for example, tenants are not able to change to the supplier of their choice like Origin, TXU or Victoria Electricity to obtain the regulated rate paid by everyone else). Some utility bills are believed to be as high as three or four times the rates charged by utility companies billing tenants directly.
It is also alleged that at the time of entering into leases, tenants are not made fully aware that the utility rates charged by body corporate will be far greater than if the tenant were able to go direct to the retailer.
While the TUV have recently been successful before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in having certain charges relating to embedded networks reversed, it is believed that the practice is still continuing – with some tenants being unaware that they are being charged grossly inflated amounts for basic utilities.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Why selling online is taking off
Jeni Harvie. The Australian 28 October 2006
“I just sold my house. No big deal really, except that it was done entirely online. The buyer is an Australian living in England who is returning to take up an academic posting in a few months.
She found the house through the internet, she contacted the real estate agent by email, she downloaded the virtual tour, we haggled over the price (via email) and the deal was closed.”
It is the age of ecommerce and it is booming. Australians are logging on and buying up big. And they can almost anything their heart desires, from a magnificent Wallypower motor yacht ($37M) to a bottle of 1951 Penfold Grange ($69,500).
Last year researchers ACNeilsen estimated that Australian online shopping market was worth $7.6 billion and growing at about 40% per year. The survey showed the highest sales were airline tickets, not far behind were DVDs, games and books. The research group Forrester estimates that by 2010, nearly 46% of total travel sales will be booked online, second only to computer hardware/software at 55%.
Lastminute.com.au is riding the wave in the travel industry. Established in 2000, it has doubled its turnover in the past two years. Their general manager says lastminute’s main demographic is 35-45 year old females earning more than $80,000 a year.
“They are not looking for a bargain but want something reasonably priced,” she says. “They want to do something spontaneous and fun. They can log on at night after work and everything is at their fingertips.”
Aggregration trend.
Jeni’s article also highlights the trend that consumers want ease of access to information at one or two sites, thus the popularity of lastminute.com.au and wotif.com.au. The same can be said for real estate, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au dominate the category.
The article continues
Technology analyst Bruce McCabe calls this “aggregation” where consumers have all the information they need at one site, and says the concept has been highly successful in boosting sales.
“Businesses now understand that people don’t like to go to a lot of sites,” he says. “They realize the internet is a very efficient avenue [for selling products]. The real power is having a single place for people to start. In terms of sophistication, Australian consumers and businesses are right up there”
The Lesson for Lawyers and Conveyancers. 247legal provides the consumer and the agent with a single portal for the sales documentation for real estate sales.
“I just sold my house. No big deal really, except that it was done entirely online. The buyer is an Australian living in England who is returning to take up an academic posting in a few months.
She found the house through the internet, she contacted the real estate agent by email, she downloaded the virtual tour, we haggled over the price (via email) and the deal was closed.”
It is the age of ecommerce and it is booming. Australians are logging on and buying up big. And they can almost anything their heart desires, from a magnificent Wallypower motor yacht ($37M) to a bottle of 1951 Penfold Grange ($69,500).
Last year researchers ACNeilsen estimated that Australian online shopping market was worth $7.6 billion and growing at about 40% per year. The survey showed the highest sales were airline tickets, not far behind were DVDs, games and books. The research group Forrester estimates that by 2010, nearly 46% of total travel sales will be booked online, second only to computer hardware/software at 55%.
Lastminute.com.au is riding the wave in the travel industry. Established in 2000, it has doubled its turnover in the past two years. Their general manager says lastminute’s main demographic is 35-45 year old females earning more than $80,000 a year.
“They are not looking for a bargain but want something reasonably priced,” she says. “They want to do something spontaneous and fun. They can log on at night after work and everything is at their fingertips.”
Aggregration trend.
Jeni’s article also highlights the trend that consumers want ease of access to information at one or two sites, thus the popularity of lastminute.com.au and wotif.com.au. The same can be said for real estate, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au dominate the category.
The article continues
Technology analyst Bruce McCabe calls this “aggregation” where consumers have all the information they need at one site, and says the concept has been highly successful in boosting sales.
“Businesses now understand that people don’t like to go to a lot of sites,” he says. “They realize the internet is a very efficient avenue [for selling products]. The real power is having a single place for people to start. In terms of sophistication, Australian consumers and businesses are right up there”
The Lesson for Lawyers and Conveyancers. 247legal provides the consumer and the agent with a single portal for the sales documentation for real estate sales.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Sustainable housing
Stuart Maguire, a local environmentalist, demonstrates that it is possible to build a green sustainable suburban house in Melbourne.
Their nett electricity consumption from the grid is zero.
Plus their mains water consumption used only for drinking purposes is a meagre 23 litres per day. Water for the garden, toilets, showers, washing etc is either rain water or recycled grey water.
Stuart has demonstrated many of the problems making todays front page news can be solved through local individual action. So true and Stuart and his family ought to be commended.
The Age has a short video.
Their nett electricity consumption from the grid is zero.
Plus their mains water consumption used only for drinking purposes is a meagre 23 litres per day. Water for the garden, toilets, showers, washing etc is either rain water or recycled grey water.
Stuart has demonstrated many of the problems making todays front page news can be solved through local individual action. So true and Stuart and his family ought to be commended.
The Age has a short video.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A Home Valuation Web Site Is Accused of Discrimination
Zillow.com, the Web site that provides free home valuations, has been accused by a coalition of community activist groups of undervaluing the homes in black and Latino neighborhoods.
Zillow said the charges were groundless. Zillow collects data from public sources on a home’s characteristics, tax assessments and recent sales and uses computers to make its estimate. It has not disclosed the algorithm that it uses, but the company, which is based in Seattle, said it did not use demographic data in the calculations. On its site, it notes that the estimate is not an appraisal, but a free research tool.
A Zillow spokeswoman, Amy Bohutinsky, said the site’s valuations, which it calls Zestimates, were intended for consumers and had never been marketed to real estate professionals. The company sees the tool as a way to empower consumers who in the past would have to rely on a real estate agent to make an estimate based on the sales of comparable homes in a neighborhood.
The company has said that estimates of homes at the high end and low end of the market tend to be less accurate because there are fewer sales to use as comparisons.
New York Times - full story
Zillow said the charges were groundless. Zillow collects data from public sources on a home’s characteristics, tax assessments and recent sales and uses computers to make its estimate. It has not disclosed the algorithm that it uses, but the company, which is based in Seattle, said it did not use demographic data in the calculations. On its site, it notes that the estimate is not an appraisal, but a free research tool.
A Zillow spokeswoman, Amy Bohutinsky, said the site’s valuations, which it calls Zestimates, were intended for consumers and had never been marketed to real estate professionals. The company sees the tool as a way to empower consumers who in the past would have to rely on a real estate agent to make an estimate based on the sales of comparable homes in a neighborhood.
The company has said that estimates of homes at the high end and low end of the market tend to be less accurate because there are fewer sales to use as comparisons.
New York Times - full story
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Land Exchange - EC News
Stage 1 Electronic Conveyancing Pilot starts
Property transactions in Victoria entered a new era on 21 August 2006 when Stage 1 of the Electronic Conveyancing (EC) Pilot began with the first ever electronic lodgement of a discharge of mortgage. Westpac and ANZ were the first of the pilot group to lodge transactions online. Other financial institutions including the Bendigo, Commonwealth, Macquarie and National Australia banks, mecu Limited and Suncorp Metway will follow shortly. The pilot will enable the financial institutions to process mortgages and discharges of mortgage, removing the need for some paper documents to be lodged at Land Registry. Stage 1 of the pilot will continue in 2007 to enable a thorough analysis of the application and allow familiarisation with new processes. The Land Exchange Project Team would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the development of electronic conveyancing to date. We look forward to your continued support and to strengthening relationships with you as the system develops. When Stage 2 of the EC Pilot starts in 2007, the system will again break new ground by becoming the first e-conveyancing system in the world to include electronic financial settlement.
Impact of pilot on solicitors and conveyancers
Stage 1 of the EC Pilot is not expected to impact on the operations of solicitors or conveyancers. The only time solicitors or conveyancers will be affected is if they are involved in a dealing for a Volume/Folio where the paper Certificate of Title (pCT) has been converted to an electronic Certificate of Title (eCT) and left that way by one of the financial institutions participating in the pilot. When processing a transaction (discharge or mortgage) in Stage 1 of the pilot, the financial institution needs to convert the pCT to an eCT. However, the institutions are currently converting the eCTs back to paper after lodgement. In the unlikely event that a Certificate of Title is in electronic form when a solicitor or conveyancer starts a paper transaction, (possibly because a financial institution is in the process of dealing with it in EC), the folio search will clearly indicate that the title is electronic and give details of the financial institution controlling it. In these circumstances, when settlement arrangements are made, the financial institution controlling the title should be reminded to produce it in a paper format at the physical settlement
ANZ acknowledges benefit of EC system
The ANZ and Westpac banks are the first of the financial institutions to take part in Stage 1 of the Electronic Conveyancing (EC) Pilot. Head of ANZ's Mortgages Documentation and Settlements branch, Allen Gilgen, said staff involved in the pilot found the system intuitive and had experienced no operational issues. He said staff had also commented on the high standard of support provided by the Land Exchange Implementation Team. "The time savings associated with using an electronic system for all transactions could be substantial and will hopefully be realised once a greater volume of transactions is being put through the EC system," Mr Gilgen said. Allen said the benefits arising from the Victorian EC system would provide an opportunity to totally change the way financial institutions operated. He said streamlining the entire mortgage process could be achieved via EC and that the Victorian pilot was a good first step towards this. Commenting on the future for EC, Allen noted that the challenge for Stage 2 was to identify processes acceptable to a wide range of disparate stakeholders. He said the continuation of groups such as Financial Institutions Operations Group and the ongoing dedication of the EC Project Team would help achieve this goal.
EC Key dates
Land Exchange News
Property transactions in Victoria entered a new era on 21 August 2006 when Stage 1 of the Electronic Conveyancing (EC) Pilot began with the first ever electronic lodgement of a discharge of mortgage. Westpac and ANZ were the first of the pilot group to lodge transactions online. Other financial institutions including the Bendigo, Commonwealth, Macquarie and National Australia banks, mecu Limited and Suncorp Metway will follow shortly. The pilot will enable the financial institutions to process mortgages and discharges of mortgage, removing the need for some paper documents to be lodged at Land Registry. Stage 1 of the pilot will continue in 2007 to enable a thorough analysis of the application and allow familiarisation with new processes. The Land Exchange Project Team would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the development of electronic conveyancing to date. We look forward to your continued support and to strengthening relationships with you as the system develops. When Stage 2 of the EC Pilot starts in 2007, the system will again break new ground by becoming the first e-conveyancing system in the world to include electronic financial settlement.
Impact of pilot on solicitors and conveyancers
Stage 1 of the EC Pilot is not expected to impact on the operations of solicitors or conveyancers. The only time solicitors or conveyancers will be affected is if they are involved in a dealing for a Volume/Folio where the paper Certificate of Title (pCT) has been converted to an electronic Certificate of Title (eCT) and left that way by one of the financial institutions participating in the pilot. When processing a transaction (discharge or mortgage) in Stage 1 of the pilot, the financial institution needs to convert the pCT to an eCT. However, the institutions are currently converting the eCTs back to paper after lodgement. In the unlikely event that a Certificate of Title is in electronic form when a solicitor or conveyancer starts a paper transaction, (possibly because a financial institution is in the process of dealing with it in EC), the folio search will clearly indicate that the title is electronic and give details of the financial institution controlling it. In these circumstances, when settlement arrangements are made, the financial institution controlling the title should be reminded to produce it in a paper format at the physical settlement
ANZ acknowledges benefit of EC system
The ANZ and Westpac banks are the first of the financial institutions to take part in Stage 1 of the Electronic Conveyancing (EC) Pilot. Head of ANZ's Mortgages Documentation and Settlements branch, Allen Gilgen, said staff involved in the pilot found the system intuitive and had experienced no operational issues. He said staff had also commented on the high standard of support provided by the Land Exchange Implementation Team. "The time savings associated with using an electronic system for all transactions could be substantial and will hopefully be realised once a greater volume of transactions is being put through the EC system," Mr Gilgen said. Allen said the benefits arising from the Victorian EC system would provide an opportunity to totally change the way financial institutions operated. He said streamlining the entire mortgage process could be achieved via EC and that the Victorian pilot was a good first step towards this. Commenting on the future for EC, Allen noted that the challenge for Stage 2 was to identify processes acceptable to a wide range of disparate stakeholders. He said the continuation of groups such as Financial Institutions Operations Group and the ongoing dedication of the EC Project Team would help achieve this goal.
EC Key dates
- 5 October 2006: legal framework consultation began.
- Late 2006: planning starts with solicitors and conveyancers for Stage 2 of EC.
- March 2007: legal framework consultation complete. Development of Financial Settlement Manager complete.
- Second half 2007: Stage 2 EC Pilot begins
Land Exchange News
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Selling property has just got sexier
Punters are starting to get a dream run when hunting down property and doing their due diligence.
- google maps and
- 247legal
A great example is a property I found on realestate.com.au by viewing a postcode map for 3204 (Bentleigh) I clicked on a marker and up pops a brief description. At the same time I could view the 32 and legal documents for 1, 72 Brewer Road on 247legal.com.au
How much simpler can it get????
Do you own a unit or apartment? You're probably getting screwed
Apartment and unit owners would know all about body corporate management fees.
Virtually every apartment or unit complex has a body corporate which is responsible for common areas of the property (for example, lifts, swimming pools, driveways or gardens).
While owners will form the body corporate itself, management of the body corporate is almost always outsourced to a professional body corporate manager who handles administration, insurance, organise repairs and meetings.
The cost of body corporate management will vary wildly from $500 per apartment per year to more than $20,000 per apartment in luxury high-rise blocks.
Most (if not all) owners simply cough up the body corporate fees without questioning how they are spent. However, it is worth considering exactly what these fees go towards. ............
This Article was published by crikey.com.au - its worth reading the whole article
Subscribe to a free trial of crikey
Virtually every apartment or unit complex has a body corporate which is responsible for common areas of the property (for example, lifts, swimming pools, driveways or gardens).
While owners will form the body corporate itself, management of the body corporate is almost always outsourced to a professional body corporate manager who handles administration, insurance, organise repairs and meetings.
The cost of body corporate management will vary wildly from $500 per apartment per year to more than $20,000 per apartment in luxury high-rise blocks.
Most (if not all) owners simply cough up the body corporate fees without questioning how they are spent. However, it is worth considering exactly what these fees go towards. ............
This Article was published by crikey.com.au - its worth reading the whole article
Subscribe to a free trial of crikey
Lawyers vs Conveyancers - the appeal
The LIV, of which I have been a paid up member since 1988 or thereabouts, is appealing their loss in the Supreme Court case of Maric.
Their loss is quite embarrassing for the legal industry, against what in effect was an action against the Conveyancing Institute and its members. Conveyancers effectively practically broke the Lawyers' monopoly on conveyancing a long time ago.
The LIV justification for appealing is to get a ruling on the definition of legal work.
For the life of me I fail to see what the LIV hope to achieve by obtaining a ruling on legal work when there is now a whole new Act with a different definition of legal work. It is such narrow thinking when on the other hand they talk up a national profession.
I was at the Southern Solicitors dinner when Tony Burke, who is a representative of the LIV, says its in the interests of the broader profession to obtain this ruling. I wonder if it is really and have they obtained the members view. I haven't been consulted.
I would be pleased to hear the official view from the President or the CEO of the LIV.
What outcome does the LIV expect from an appeal? The answer lies not in an appeal but effective lobbying to the Government to ensure conveyancers are restricted to conveyancing and in my view this should not include advice on mortgages, leases or sale of businesses.
As a suburban lawyer whose practice is mainly conveyancing I am looking to the future, not the past. The future of conveyancing will belong to those that excel at conveyancing based on service and price (and not necessarily the lowest price).
As this is a site dedicated to digital and electronic conveyancing the future moreover will belong to those that embrace change.
Their loss is quite embarrassing for the legal industry, against what in effect was an action against the Conveyancing Institute and its members. Conveyancers effectively practically broke the Lawyers' monopoly on conveyancing a long time ago.
The LIV justification for appealing is to get a ruling on the definition of legal work.
For the life of me I fail to see what the LIV hope to achieve by obtaining a ruling on legal work when there is now a whole new Act with a different definition of legal work. It is such narrow thinking when on the other hand they talk up a national profession.
I was at the Southern Solicitors dinner when Tony Burke, who is a representative of the LIV, says its in the interests of the broader profession to obtain this ruling. I wonder if it is really and have they obtained the members view. I haven't been consulted.
I would be pleased to hear the official view from the President or the CEO of the LIV.
What outcome does the LIV expect from an appeal? The answer lies not in an appeal but effective lobbying to the Government to ensure conveyancers are restricted to conveyancing and in my view this should not include advice on mortgages, leases or sale of businesses.
As a suburban lawyer whose practice is mainly conveyancing I am looking to the future, not the past. The future of conveyancing will belong to those that excel at conveyancing based on service and price (and not necessarily the lowest price).
As this is a site dedicated to digital and electronic conveyancing the future moreover will belong to those that embrace change.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Fox fined $5,000 for Illegal Renovations
MULTIMILLIONAIRE trucking boss Lindsay Fox has avoided a conviction for illegal work during a $650,000 improvement to his daughter's Toorak house.
Mr Fox was fined $5000 — half the maximum penalty — and given two months to pay it and a costs order of $1935.
For the full story reported by The Age
As conveyancers we are always concerned, whether acting for vendors or purchasers about illegal structures. That is building works done without a building permit, no final inspection, warranty insurance, owner builder inspection reports.
Lindsay Fox plead guilty and has paid the fine. He wasn't ordered to demolish the illegal structures. If he was you would be sure we would not have seen an end to the litigation.
But for conveyancers all too often we see it as the wheels falling off the cart. If acting for a vendor we are cognisant of the vendor disclosure requirements and the possible consequences of non-disclosure and whether a contract is avoidable at any time up to settlement.
Acting for buyers there are the what ifs. What if there is an illegal structure? Sometimes we tell the client its better not opening a pandoras box by drawing the council's building section attention to what may be an illegal structure.
Yep. For conveyancers and clients, Illegal structures can be the classic Catch 22
PS. Agents acting for Vendors - This is a classic example of why you should use the Lawyer's Contract and not the REIV Contract Note. The Lawyer will usually include a Special Condition dealing with building matters thus any possible non-compliance with the Building Code shall not be grounds for rescinding the contract.
Feel free to post your experiences or dealings with illegal structures.
Mr Fox was fined $5000 — half the maximum penalty — and given two months to pay it and a costs order of $1935.
For the full story reported by The Age
As conveyancers we are always concerned, whether acting for vendors or purchasers about illegal structures. That is building works done without a building permit, no final inspection, warranty insurance, owner builder inspection reports.
Lindsay Fox plead guilty and has paid the fine. He wasn't ordered to demolish the illegal structures. If he was you would be sure we would not have seen an end to the litigation.
But for conveyancers all too often we see it as the wheels falling off the cart. If acting for a vendor we are cognisant of the vendor disclosure requirements and the possible consequences of non-disclosure and whether a contract is avoidable at any time up to settlement.
Acting for buyers there are the what ifs. What if there is an illegal structure? Sometimes we tell the client its better not opening a pandoras box by drawing the council's building section attention to what may be an illegal structure.
Yep. For conveyancers and clients, Illegal structures can be the classic Catch 22
PS. Agents acting for Vendors - This is a classic example of why you should use the Lawyer's Contract and not the REIV Contract Note. The Lawyer will usually include a Special Condition dealing with building matters thus any possible non-compliance with the Building Code shall not be grounds for rescinding the contract.
Feel free to post your experiences or dealings with illegal structures.
Monday, October 16, 2006
247Legal - The official industry launch
247Legal officially kicked off with a recent Industry Evening Launch. Since inception the online digital conveyancing system has successfully processed over 500 Victorian properties servicing vendor clients & estate agents, prospects & buyers, with clients & buyers from around the world. The past two years has seen the system tested, upgraded, constantly improved and automated.
The next phase for the company will focus on introducing legal firms and conveyancing companies to the benefits of online digital vendor disclosure without disrupting or replacement of their existing internal systems. The 247 system is designed to be an extension of desktop products such as LawPerfect which is popular amongst law firms and IceRidge which is used by the majority of conveyancing companies. The last point is very important as conveyancers and law clerks alike generally dislike wholesale change.
Attendees heard from Simon Libbis of NECS who spoke about the integral part companies like 247Legal will play in the "chain matrix" of electronic conveyancing and will be a driving catalyst for the early adoption of electronic settlements under the Victorian EC model and the National NECS model.
Michael Jellis of Hayton Kosky Lawyers gave a live demonstration of Adding a New Property. In less than 10 minutes, Michael had successfully completed a Section 32 and Contract for a Southbank apartment at 88 Southbank Boulevard. The result was a 62 page vendors statement ready to be approved online by the client in Hong Kong and to be downloaded and printed on demand by the estate agent with Melbourne Inner City Management. Michael admitted that he had done some prep work and had the Form 3, Lease and rate notices ready to be uploaded. Michael estimates that he has spent less than 30 minutes working on the file and the turnaround time from instructions was less than 7 days - without using the fax or the photocopier. Michael who is recently new to conveyancing thinks using 247 is a no brainer. Anyone who is interested can view the finished result.
UNIT 172, 88 SOUTHBANK BOULEVARD, SOUTHBANK
We had some excellent questions from Pauline Barrow and Jill Ludwell both from the Australian Institute of Conveyancing. Their initial concerns were 1) privacy and 2) can agents be trusted to print the 32? These concerns aside, and yes they were answered, Pauline and Jill certainly could see the merits of such a system in today's e-environment for their members.
It was however the unscripted testimonial from Craig Williamson of Buxtons Real Estate that carried the evening. Craig has been an early adopter and his support as a representative of the real estate industry carries a lot of weight. Craig made one observation which was. "12 months ago 1 in 10 buyers requested for the vendors statement to be emailed to them. That figure is now closer to 50% And the perennial problem we have is, it's frustrating waiting for 32s". With an extremely busy October, Craig would love to see all his vendors using accredited 247legal Lawyers or Conveyancers.
If any of us are to stay relevant, we must change to meet the needs of our clients, staff and the real estate industry in general.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Most Bizarre Home in Sydney
It's a breathless climb from Whale Beach Road to Loggan Rock, built by the eccentric architect Alexander Stewart Jolly in 1929.
Fully Story SMH
Fully Story SMH
Thursday, October 12, 2006
EC (Victoria) is moving right along
EC is conducting a pilot with several financial institutions; drafting system rules; and has even produced a draft brochure giving an overview how things will work.
Have a squiz at their brochure
And if you are keen have a look at the System Rules on the Land Exchange website
It is interesting to see the first draft of the Representation Agreements that clients will need to sign with their Lawyer/Conveyancer/Subscriber as a prerequisite to enable the Lawyer to transact the Transfer on behalf of the client. There is also a "Remote Identification Certificate" for interstate and overseas clients.
Another interesting area is the security for the system for Users talks about "PKI Certificates must be stored on a hard token specifically designed to store digital certificates"
It sounds like the security for users will be a combination of a hardware device (token) and software security (User Name and Password) which I imagine will be pretty damn hard to hack.
As Wikipedia explains it is Two-factor authentication that requires two independent ways to establish identity and privileges. This contrasts with traditional password authentication, which requires only one factor (knowledge of a password) in order to gain access to a system.
Great Stuff
Have a squiz at their brochure
And if you are keen have a look at the System Rules on the Land Exchange website
It is interesting to see the first draft of the Representation Agreements that clients will need to sign with their Lawyer/Conveyancer/Subscriber as a prerequisite to enable the Lawyer to transact the Transfer on behalf of the client. There is also a "Remote Identification Certificate" for interstate and overseas clients.
Another interesting area is the security for the system for Users talks about "PKI Certificates must be stored on a hard token specifically designed to store digital certificates"
It sounds like the security for users will be a combination of a hardware device (token) and software security (User Name and Password) which I imagine will be pretty damn hard to hack.
As Wikipedia explains it is Two-factor authentication that requires two independent ways to establish identity and privileges. This contrasts with traditional password authentication, which requires only one factor (knowledge of a password) in order to gain access to a system.
Great Stuff
UK Home Information Packs - update
The trials which are beginning shortly will enable the reaction of both buyers and sellers to the packs to be tested on the ground in the run up to mandatory Energy Performance Certificates and Home Information Packs being introduced for all residential sales on 1 June 2007.
As part of the trials there will also be a range of incentives including a limited number of free packs; and packs available at a reduced cost for homeowners who want to try them out.
Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said: “We need to work together to tackle climate change. Twenty-seven per cent of carbon emissions come from our homes and it’s only right homeowners should have information on the energy efficiency of their houses. Residents who want to take part in the trials will be amongst the first to have these facts at their fingertips.
“Home Information Packs have the potential to speed up the home-buying and selling process by providing up-front information to potential buyers. It’s vital that we test them properly 'on the ground' so consumers get the best product possible.”
BACKGROUND NOTES ON HOME INFORMATION PACKS
The Government believes there will be significant benefits to home sellers from adding a Home Condition Report to their Packs, including greater certainty about sales being completed more quickly.
As part of the trials there will also be a range of incentives including a limited number of free packs; and packs available at a reduced cost for homeowners who want to try them out.
Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said: “We need to work together to tackle climate change. Twenty-seven per cent of carbon emissions come from our homes and it’s only right homeowners should have information on the energy efficiency of their houses. Residents who want to take part in the trials will be amongst the first to have these facts at their fingertips.
“Home Information Packs have the potential to speed up the home-buying and selling process by providing up-front information to potential buyers. It’s vital that we test them properly 'on the ground' so consumers get the best product possible.”
BACKGROUND NOTES ON HOME INFORMATION PACKS
- Home Information Packs
The Government is introducing Home Information Packs in England and Wales on 1June 2007 and anyone selling a property must provide potential buyers with a Pack. Every Pack will include an Energy Performance Certificate. The Packs will also include information such as searches and other legal documents. A Home Condition Report giving details on the condition of a property can also be included in the Packs on a voluntary basis. - Energy Performance Certificates
An Energy Performance Certificate will provide buyers and sellers with A-G ratings on their homes, similar to fridge ratings, as well as a list of practical measures to cut their fuel bills and carbon emissions. By acting on the recommendations listed in the Energy Performance Certificate, the average homeowner is expected to save £300 a year on fuel bills and help to reduce the 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions currently generated by our homes. - Home Condition Reports
The Home Condition Report contains information about the physical condition of the property on which sellers, buyers and lenders will be able to rely legally as an objective and authoritative report.
Sellers who provide a Home Condition Report will have an early opportunity to carry out repair work on the property or obtain quotes prior to marketing. Potential buyers will be made aware of repairs that they might need to make and fund, or they will be reassured that the property is in good condition, in both cases before they decide to put in an offer. Lenders can also benefit by using the reports to inform their valuations, reducing the need to repeat a detailed on site inspection at the buyer’s expense.
The Government believes there will be significant benefits to home sellers from adding a Home Condition Report to their Packs, including greater certainty about sales being completed more quickly.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Trend in Qld to outsourcing conveyancing
As a result of a price war with fixed fee conveyancing services led by conveyancing companies, some Queensland legal firms have elected to simply outsource the conveyancing file to conveyancers. This is the gist of an article by Tim O'Dwyer a Queensland lawyer.
I personally can see the same thing happening in the Victorian market. The Victorian market will see further rationalisation with the passing of the Conveyancers Act and the advent of digital & electronic conveyancing. As far as the mega and mid-tier city law firms would be concerned, conveyancing would simply be an overhead. Where's the money in a $500 conveyancing file unless you are doing volume? Outsource it.
Article in Property Review by Tim O'Dwyer
I personally can see the same thing happening in the Victorian market. The Victorian market will see further rationalisation with the passing of the Conveyancers Act and the advent of digital & electronic conveyancing. As far as the mega and mid-tier city law firms would be concerned, conveyancing would simply be an overhead. Where's the money in a $500 conveyancing file unless you are doing volume? Outsource it.
Article in Property Review by Tim O'Dwyer
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Styling can add 5 to 10%
This month domain.com.au has some excellent real estate articles.
A professionally styled home will pull all the right emotional strings for buyers who fall in love with the lifestyle the home portrays.
For the full story by Jodie Thomson or download the PDF
A professionally styled home will pull all the right emotional strings for buyers who fall in love with the lifestyle the home portrays.
For the full story by Jodie Thomson or download the PDF
we are moving
Love, laughter and lifestyle - or death, divorce and financial disaster. Knowing why people sell can be the key to striking a bargain.
Not a bad article from SMH Susan Wellings on the motivations for people selling and the impact this can have on price. Knowledge and information is power.
Link to SMH or download PDF
Not a bad article from SMH Susan Wellings on the motivations for people selling and the impact this can have on price. Knowledge and information is power.
Link to SMH or download PDF
20 percent
An excellent article from the SMH on the rule of thumb to investing in property. Might sound a little conservative in this day of the 95% home loan.
SMH article by Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon or Download the PDF
SMH article by Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon or Download the PDF
Friday, October 06, 2006
BBC News reports on electronic conveyancing
House-buying 'to be made easier'
House-buying in the UK could become much easier through a new online conveyancing system being trialled by the Land Registry.
Buyers, sellers, estate agents and solicitors will be able to log on to the internet at any time, to see how far a potential sale has progressed.
A secure site displays details of any delays and their cause, as well as a notepad facility to leave messages.
It is to be run in Bristol with a view to a roll out across the country.
The Land Registry, a government agency, believes the initiative will improve the system considerably.
'Record results'
Ted Beardsall of the Land Registry, added: "Electronic conveyancing is a big programme which basically will replace the paper-based system of conveyancing with huge benefits."
Some 80 law firms in Bristol will take part in the conveyancing project, which will last for six months, before being assessed for a possible nationwide roll-out.
Solicitor David Brown said: "I think it will enable everyone to see what has been done.
"Every lawyer, solicitor, conveyancer down the chain will have to show exactly what they've done."
Charles Smailes, President of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "Online conveyancing is an extremely important development for improving the buying and selling of residential property.
"Estate agents will be able to provide a more concise and effective service for their clients as they will have access to the most up to date information from their computer.
"The possibility of online completions and instant registration of title deeds is very exciting indeed as it will dramatically improve the length of time it takes to sell a home."
Story from BBC NEWS:
House-buying in the UK could become much easier through a new online conveyancing system being trialled by the Land Registry.
Buyers, sellers, estate agents and solicitors will be able to log on to the internet at any time, to see how far a potential sale has progressed.
A secure site displays details of any delays and their cause, as well as a notepad facility to leave messages.
It is to be run in Bristol with a view to a roll out across the country.
The Land Registry, a government agency, believes the initiative will improve the system considerably.
'Record results'
Ted Beardsall of the Land Registry, added: "Electronic conveyancing is a big programme which basically will replace the paper-based system of conveyancing with huge benefits."
Some 80 law firms in Bristol will take part in the conveyancing project, which will last for six months, before being assessed for a possible nationwide roll-out.
Solicitor David Brown said: "I think it will enable everyone to see what has been done.
"Every lawyer, solicitor, conveyancer down the chain will have to show exactly what they've done."
Charles Smailes, President of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "Online conveyancing is an extremely important development for improving the buying and selling of residential property.
"Estate agents will be able to provide a more concise and effective service for their clients as they will have access to the most up to date information from their computer.
"The possibility of online completions and instant registration of title deeds is very exciting indeed as it will dramatically improve the length of time it takes to sell a home."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Lawyers vs Conveyancers - Round 1 victory to Conveyancers
On Tuesday, 3 October 2006 judgment was handed down in the Maric conveyancing case by his Honour Justice Osborn.
The Supreme Court judgment dismissed the Law Institute of Victoria's application (under the Legal Practice Act 1996) seeking an injunction to restrain the conveyancer from engaging in legal practice. The Court was dealing with a s32 statement which included clauses which are normally found in a contract of sale. The judgment dissolves the previously granted interlocutory injunction and now allows the defendant to continue to operate as a conveyancer, including the preparation of s32 statements. The LIV is reviewing the decision.
Given the Victorian State Government's review of conveyancing companies (and the result being the Conveyancers Bill) what was the Law Institute of Victoria thinking when it launched this action? And really wasn't it 20 years too late. Lawyers lost their conveyancing monopoly 20 years ago.
Supreme Court Victoria Summary of the Maric decision
LIV commenced this action in October 2005 - our inital report
The Supreme Court judgment dismissed the Law Institute of Victoria's application (under the Legal Practice Act 1996) seeking an injunction to restrain the conveyancer from engaging in legal practice. The Court was dealing with a s32 statement which included clauses which are normally found in a contract of sale. The judgment dissolves the previously granted interlocutory injunction and now allows the defendant to continue to operate as a conveyancer, including the preparation of s32 statements. The LIV is reviewing the decision.
Given the Victorian State Government's review of conveyancing companies (and the result being the Conveyancers Bill) what was the Law Institute of Victoria thinking when it launched this action? And really wasn't it 20 years too late. Lawyers lost their conveyancing monopoly 20 years ago.
Supreme Court Victoria Summary of the Maric decision
LIV commenced this action in October 2005 - our inital report
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Paperless Office - Revisited
The Legal Office is often just a great big paper processing machine. It receives, files, retrieves, creates, file notes, collates, copies, distributes and archives paper - piles of it. Think Conveyancing, think Commercial Litigation.
Whilst the term the "Paperless Office" was coined in the 80s with the advent of the PC and the wordprocessor, these tools actually spurred an addiction to paper no different to the junkie's addiction to heroin.
But we now have the tools available to create "digital paper". PDF techonology is the new Digital Paper and it can be just as addictive as crack cocaine.
Here's one experts take on the Paperless Office.
Whilst the term the "Paperless Office" was coined in the 80s with the advent of the PC and the wordprocessor, these tools actually spurred an addiction to paper no different to the junkie's addiction to heroin.
But we now have the tools available to create "digital paper". PDF techonology is the new Digital Paper and it can be just as addictive as crack cocaine.
Here's one experts take on the Paperless Office.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Banks Offshore Back Office Jobs
Not pleasant news for those who are about to be made redundant. But banks are looking to offshoring jobs to lower their costs of back office operations including mortgage processing.
In my experience banks see mortgage processing and settlements as a necessary evil and devote the minimum amount of resources that they think they can get away with.
The solution is smart technology to do the drudge work. Banks have not made enough of web services in the mortgage processing and settlements. This is where the focus should be and deploy staff to handle the non-routine questions. It seems that there is a uniform misconception that NECS will provide all the answers. NECS will be part of the answer not the whole answer.
Outsourcing is the short term quick fix to lowering costs and boosting the bottom line.
See the full story from Australian IT
In my experience banks see mortgage processing and settlements as a necessary evil and devote the minimum amount of resources that they think they can get away with.
The solution is smart technology to do the drudge work. Banks have not made enough of web services in the mortgage processing and settlements. This is where the focus should be and deploy staff to handle the non-routine questions. It seems that there is a uniform misconception that NECS will provide all the answers. NECS will be part of the answer not the whole answer.
Outsourcing is the short term quick fix to lowering costs and boosting the bottom line.
See the full story from Australian IT
Friday, September 29, 2006
NECS Forums
Get a greater insight into the mechanics of electronic conveyancing under NECS by signing up to the NECS Forums.
NECS wants your feedback with discussions covering pretty much all topics. For example: what is the future of CTs in an electronic environment? What are industry's preferences for paying fees, duties and taxes? How will clients hand over the balance of the purchase price? How will linked settlements work?
Sign up, read up on whats happening and contribute.
NECS National Consultation Forums
NECS wants your feedback with discussions covering pretty much all topics. For example: what is the future of CTs in an electronic environment? What are industry's preferences for paying fees, duties and taxes? How will clients hand over the balance of the purchase price? How will linked settlements work?
Sign up, read up on whats happening and contribute.
NECS National Consultation Forums
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Buying and selling real estate on line (like CHESS for shares)
Jon Denovan from Gadens does a video blog on eConveyancing. Listening to Jon you would almost think we can just about jump online and buy or sell and settle a property - just like a share trade.
Its a short highlight on the degree of change the new NECS property settlements system will bring about one day.
Thanks Jon for making it seem like its happening today.
Its a short highlight on the degree of change the new NECS property settlements system will bring about one day.
Thanks Jon for making it seem like its happening today.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Long live paper conveyancing
ANZ have admitted that not only did they lose the first original executed Transfer but their securities department have managed to lose the second replacement stamped Transfer.
Not only is it embarrassing but for the client but there are potential losses, unwanted scrutiny from, in this case, the Liquidator to the Transferor company. This has taken place over several months, was a related party transaction done for full consideration and the ripple effects are ever widening.
In the first case the ANZ lost the Transfer before it was stamped. If my memory serves me thats how the client realised the bank had not done the job as the stamp duty had not been withdrawn from the account. In the second case the Transfer had been stamped and sent to Securities for registration. Into the black hole I say.
If there is a third time round we have to revisit the State Revenue Office, look up records, etc. and as mentioned above our client will be put under unwanted scrutiny.
It is horribly tragic but these things happen all too often when important Deeds and Documents are shuffled from one person, company, law firm, financial institution, settlement agent to another and back again.
In a digital electronic environment it is unimaginable that anything like this would or could happen.
Not only is it embarrassing but for the client but there are potential losses, unwanted scrutiny from, in this case, the Liquidator to the Transferor company. This has taken place over several months, was a related party transaction done for full consideration and the ripple effects are ever widening.
In the first case the ANZ lost the Transfer before it was stamped. If my memory serves me thats how the client realised the bank had not done the job as the stamp duty had not been withdrawn from the account. In the second case the Transfer had been stamped and sent to Securities for registration. Into the black hole I say.
If there is a third time round we have to revisit the State Revenue Office, look up records, etc. and as mentioned above our client will be put under unwanted scrutiny.
It is horribly tragic but these things happen all too often when important Deeds and Documents are shuffled from one person, company, law firm, financial institution, settlement agent to another and back again.
In a digital electronic environment it is unimaginable that anything like this would or could happen.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Lo Doc Loans – Caveat Emptor - Tax Blitz
Mortgage Brokers selling low-doc loans are the targets of and Australian Tax Office (ATO) probe into tax avoidance.
Take out a low doc loan is like raising the flag to have your affairs the subject of a tax audit.
The result has been numerous prosecutions involving borrowers and brokers. It is reported the most serious cases involved 16 finance brokers all who have been sent tax avoidance assessments.
As of July the ATO is said to have examined 133,000 loan records and uncovered 19,500 taxpayers with outstanding returns with at least 109 taxpayers being prosecuted. Convictions stemmed from failure to lodge tax returns or concealment of income. At least $24m in tax and penalties has been recouped.
Not everyone can qualify for a full income and security tested loan. Many Lo Doc borrowers are funding repayments from legitimate sources like inheritances and capital gains vis a vis property investments. Undoubtedly income has been concealed, most of it derived from the cash economy related to the building and construction industry.
Take out a low doc loan is like raising the flag to have your affairs the subject of a tax audit.
The result has been numerous prosecutions involving borrowers and brokers. It is reported the most serious cases involved 16 finance brokers all who have been sent tax avoidance assessments.
As of July the ATO is said to have examined 133,000 loan records and uncovered 19,500 taxpayers with outstanding returns with at least 109 taxpayers being prosecuted. Convictions stemmed from failure to lodge tax returns or concealment of income. At least $24m in tax and penalties has been recouped.
Not everyone can qualify for a full income and security tested loan. Many Lo Doc borrowers are funding repayments from legitimate sources like inheritances and capital gains vis a vis property investments. Undoubtedly income has been concealed, most of it derived from the cash economy related to the building and construction industry.
UK Energy Rating Certificates - vendor disclosure
You sell a house in the UK – part of the vendor disclosure requirements is providing prospective buyers with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Homes will be rated on a scale of A-G, similar to fridge ratings, as well as a list of practical measures to cut their fuel bills and carbon emissions. By acting on the recommendations listed in the Energy Performance Certificate, the average homeowner is expected to save £300 a year on fuel bills and help to reduce the 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions currently generated by our homes.
The EPC will be compulsory as part of Home Information Packs from 1 June 2007. The EPCs will outline the costs of heating, hot water and lighting in homes and give practical advice on how to cut these costs and reduce emissions
If one fifth of homeowners made the basic changes set out in their EPC they could save around £100 million a year on their energy bills and cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the roads.
By cutting energy consumption, society will be working together to tackle climate change. A UK statistic is 27% of carbon emissions come from homes. Until now householders haven't had energy efficiency facts about their houses upfront; but next June 2007 every homebuyer will know exactly how energy efficient their homes are - and how they can improve this.
Trials will begin shortly with inspections being managed by Surveyors and Valuers Accreditors (certifiers for inspectors)
Source Department Communities and Local Government UK
But according to John Howard Prime Minister Australia – “There is no scientific evidence for climate change”
On the day the Kyoto Protocol came into effect the Prime Minister, John Howard, dismissed it as "next to useless" and harmful for Australia to participate in the international global warming agreement.
Victoria - what are you waiting for? Act now and follow the example and lead being set by the UK. Provide economic incentives, Ditto mortgage lenders could all be issuing green mortgages linked to Home Energy Ratings.
Homes will be rated on a scale of A-G, similar to fridge ratings, as well as a list of practical measures to cut their fuel bills and carbon emissions. By acting on the recommendations listed in the Energy Performance Certificate, the average homeowner is expected to save £300 a year on fuel bills and help to reduce the 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions currently generated by our homes.
The EPC will be compulsory as part of Home Information Packs from 1 June 2007. The EPCs will outline the costs of heating, hot water and lighting in homes and give practical advice on how to cut these costs and reduce emissions
If one fifth of homeowners made the basic changes set out in their EPC they could save around £100 million a year on their energy bills and cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the roads.
By cutting energy consumption, society will be working together to tackle climate change. A UK statistic is 27% of carbon emissions come from homes. Until now householders haven't had energy efficiency facts about their houses upfront; but next June 2007 every homebuyer will know exactly how energy efficient their homes are - and how they can improve this.
Trials will begin shortly with inspections being managed by Surveyors and Valuers Accreditors (certifiers for inspectors)
Source Department Communities and Local Government UK
But according to John Howard Prime Minister Australia – “There is no scientific evidence for climate change”
On the day the Kyoto Protocol came into effect the Prime Minister, John Howard, dismissed it as "next to useless" and harmful for Australia to participate in the international global warming agreement.
Victoria - what are you waiting for? Act now and follow the example and lead being set by the UK. Provide economic incentives, Ditto mortgage lenders could all be issuing green mortgages linked to Home Energy Ratings.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Land Title Fraud - Ontario - Fraudulent Power of Attorney
Response to Land Title Fraud Bruce Schneier Founder and CTO Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.
There seems to be a small epidemic of land title fraud in Ontario, Canada.
What happens is someone impersonates the homeowner, and then sells the house out from under him. The former owner is still liable for the mortgage, but can't get in his former house. Cleaning up the problem takes a lot of time and energy.
The problem is one of economic incentives. If banks were held liable for fraudulent mortgages, then the problem would go away really quickly. But as long as they're not, they have no incentive to ensure that this fraud doesn't occur. (They have some incentive, because the fraud costs them money, but as long as the few fraud cases cost less than ensuring the validity of *every* mortgage, they'll just ignore the problem and eat the losses when fraud occurs.)
The Article from The Toronto Star August 26, 2006
'My sense of security in Canada is gone' says Paul Reviczky, who learned about identity theft the hard way
Aug. 26, 2006. 07:47 AM
HAROLD LEVY
An 89-year-old man has been left both heartbroken and betrayed after his North York bungalow was stolen from him in the rising wave of title fraud.
Paul Reviczky, who fled Hungary in 1957 to escape Communist persecution, is one of the latest homeowners to discover that Ontario law favours banks, mortgage companies and purchasers over victims of fraud.
"I was shocked to learn that this could be the law in Canada," Reviczky says. "I fled Hungary to escape lawlessness like this and now my sense of security in Canada is gone."
Gerry Phillips, Ontario's minister of government services, vowed yesterday to change the land-registry system to protect homeowners like Reviczky from title fraud.
Reviczky purchased the property at 220 Sheppard Ave. W. in 1980 for $67,500 to generate a rental income that would help pay for the education of relatives back in Hungary.
The retired tobacco farmer, who came to Canada 49 years ago with his wife Ilona and his then 3-year-old daughter Marietta, says he felt so strongly about his duty to help out the family he left behind that he specified in his will that the property could not be sold after his death because the income was to be used for their support.
Since his wife's death in February 2005, he has lived alone in his home a few kilometres from the rental property.
Reviczky could not believe his ears on June 26 when his neighbour, a real estate agent, told him she had noticed on the computer that he had sold his rental property in May.
"So I went back to my office, got the record from the computer and showed it to him," Vivian Ho told the Toronto Star. "His face turned red and I was worried that he was going to have a heart attack."
Police believe Reviczky's most recent "tenants" forged his name on a power of attorney that purported to give a grandson named "Aaron Paul Reviczky" authority to sell the home on his behalf.
"I don't have a grandson named Aaron," Reviczky says. "I don't have any grandsons."
On May 15, "Aaron Paul Reviczky" sold the property on his behalf for $450,000 to a purchaser named Pegman Meleknia, who took out a mortgage of $337,500.
"I did not get the proceeds," Reviczky says.
Reviczky's lawyer, Tonu Toome, says it was "very painful" to have to break the news to Reviczky that he may lose his house forever — even though he was an innocent victim of fraud — because Ontario law recognizes the transaction as valid where the purchaser is unaware of the scam.
"I had to tell him that although he would ultimately receive financial compensation for the loss of his home, this would entail legal fees and an application to Ontario's Land Titles Assurance Fund, which could take several years," Toome says.
Says Reviczky: "I want my home ... not just some money."
Phillips, who bears responsibility for the province's land titles registration system, says he met last week with 50 representatives of all the communities affected by title fraud — including police, real property and financial institutions — to get advice on how to stem this increasingly prevalent crime.
"This is a high priority for our government and I want people to know that we are treating it seriously," Phillips says.
Earlier this summer, several other identity-theft victims in Toronto were also shocked to discover they weren't protected by the law.
Susan Lawrence is a North York widow who faces the loss of the 100-year-old Victorian home she had lived in for 30 years — after criminals used publicly available information to sell her house without her knowledge and put a $300,000 mortgage on it.
Elizabeth Shepherd, an actress, lost her furnished Leslieville home to identity thieves, who rented the home and sold it to an accomplice after creating a false Elizabeth Shepherd. The accomplice took out a $250,000 mortgage, defaulted and disappeared.
Both women expect to spend years — and money they would rather not spend on lawyers — trying to sort out the mess.
Reviczky had put a "for rent" sign on his property on March 1 after the previous tenants who had lived there for 12 years had gone back to British Columbia.
Five days later, he agreed to rent the home to a couple who identified themselves as "Kristina and Adam Skurik." They signed rental papers and handed him $2,500 in $100 bills for first and last month's rent.
But the house remained empty. In mid-April, Reviczky says, he was told by Kristina Skurik that the couple had rented the house to someone who was coming from Russia.
The last time he ever saw either of the Skuriks was May 13, when Kristina gave him $1,250 in cash and told him the people would arrive "in a short time."
"Kristina was a very pretty, quiet girl, about 5 feet, 6 inches, and she appeared very likeable and trustworthy," Reviczky says.
A telephone check of listings throughout North America failed to turn up any Kristina or Adam Skurik.
Reviczky is now aware that he allegedly sold his house through the power of attorney that had been notarized by a North York lawyer named Sheldon Caplan, who said in an interview he is unable to discuss the case.
Reviczky says he was surprised to see at the bottom of the power of attorney — which Caplan notarized above what appears to be his scribbled initials — a notation that the document was "acknowledged before me this 18th day of April 2006 by Reviczky Paul, who is personally known to me of who has produced Drivers Licence."
"I have never retained solicitor Sheldon Caplan," Reviczky said in a statement he prepared for his lawyer. "I do not know him and did not communicate with him."
Toronto lawyer Satwant Singh Khosla, who represented the purchasers — parents who bought the property as an investment for their son — says his clients are "innocent buyers" who have suffered emotionally and financially because of the fraudulent transaction "through absolutely no fault of their own."
"It was a straightforward transaction," Khosla said. "We never realized that the power of attorney under which the property was transferred was fraudulent."
Khosla says his clients are on the hook for mortgage payments even though they have been unable to access the property because its legal status is in a state of flux.
Reviczky's daughter, Marietta Reviczky-Dolan, who lives in Montana, says people like her father should have the title returned to them and not left with the purchaser.
"They (the owners) have invested more than money in it," she says. "It is their past and their lives have been centred around it. It means more to them."
Meanwhile, the tiny house remains unoccupied and shows signs of disrepair, its yard often cluttered with garbage. It sits in a state of legal limbo while lawyers attempt to sort out the mess and the police hunt for the criminals and the $450,000 stolen along with Reviczky's heart.
Reviczky cannot even enter the home because that could technically be trespassing and police have told him that they will need consent from the new owners to enter the premises.
Toronto lawyer Sidney Troister, an expert on real estate and mortgage fraud, says the Reviczky case is perplexing because "while we can feel sorry for the first owner, we can feel equally sorry for the buyer, who like every other buyer could never be certain that their vendor is the real owner."
Troister says Ontario's land titles system is a good system, "except in the event of fraud where it breaks down, and leaves innocent owners and innocent buyers and lenders helpless and without speedy and fair relief."
"Until the province can prevent this type of fraud from happening, it must formulate a more responsive and all-inclusive compensation scheme for title fraud," Troister says.
"Innocent people, whether it is the innocent owner or the innocent buyer or lender, get hurt because the province does not protect innocent people registering documents in the system."
Ralph Roberts, a Michigan-based expert on mortgage fraud, says inroads will not be made into burgeoning real property and mortgage fraud until more homeowners and legislators become aware it exists. "There is not enough of a public awareness," he says. "People just keep getting dragged into it one after another."
Last month, state legislators in Michigan declared war against mortgage and title fraud after FBI disclosures that mortgage fraud losses in the state jumped from almost $9 million in 2003 to $26 million in 2005.
Several bills introduced in July contain an arsenal of measures, such as designating millions of dollars for investigation of unlicensed real estate brokers and making mortgage fraud a serious crime punishable by 10 years in prison for a first offence.
Mortgage and title fraud have also taken on a higher profile in Canada recently. Organizations such as the Law Society of Upper Canada have been meeting with their counterparts in the real estate and financial industries, and police authorities, to try and solve the problem.
Police forces in Greater Toronto are struggling to cope with a noticeable increase in complaints of title fraud. A report published in March 2005 by the law society says the fraud is often facilitated because the parties to the transaction may never know or actually meet each other in person.
"Without due diligence throughout the process, it is easy for fraudsters to pass themselves off and to take advantage of the lack of oversight," the report says.
"Mortgage fraud and other frauds relating to title are all on the rise," says Det. Steve Majoran of the Toronto force's fraud and forgery squad. "That's my overall impression."
Majoran advises people renting out their homes to check references and verify backgrounds "as best as you can," heeding gut feelings where an applicant puts you off, and to question offers of cash rent.
"You really have to do due diligence these days," he says.
Majoran, who cannot discuss individual cases, says title-fraud investigations can be challenging because they involve following a paper trail and tracking back through a scheme to try to determine who committed the crime, "often months after the fact."
"It's a total shock to the homeowner because the home has been stolen from under them without their knowledge — and usually without their complicity whatsoever," Majoran says.
"I found in a lot of title fraud cases that the person has worked all their life for a property and regards their home as their castle," he says. "To find it's been stolen right out from under them is totally devastating."
Gabriella Toth, who is Reviczky's niece, says she can't understand how anyone could steal an 89-year-old man's home.
"These have to be heartless persons," says Toth, a vice-principal at a Toronto high school. "I think he was targeted because he is elderly."
With files from Associated Press
There seems to be a small epidemic of land title fraud in Ontario, Canada.
What happens is someone impersonates the homeowner, and then sells the house out from under him. The former owner is still liable for the mortgage, but can't get in his former house. Cleaning up the problem takes a lot of time and energy.
The problem is one of economic incentives. If banks were held liable for fraudulent mortgages, then the problem would go away really quickly. But as long as they're not, they have no incentive to ensure that this fraud doesn't occur. (They have some incentive, because the fraud costs them money, but as long as the few fraud cases cost less than ensuring the validity of *every* mortgage, they'll just ignore the problem and eat the losses when fraud occurs.)
The Article from The Toronto Star August 26, 2006
'My sense of security in Canada is gone' says Paul Reviczky, who learned about identity theft the hard way
Aug. 26, 2006. 07:47 AM
HAROLD LEVY
An 89-year-old man has been left both heartbroken and betrayed after his North York bungalow was stolen from him in the rising wave of title fraud.
Paul Reviczky, who fled Hungary in 1957 to escape Communist persecution, is one of the latest homeowners to discover that Ontario law favours banks, mortgage companies and purchasers over victims of fraud.
"I was shocked to learn that this could be the law in Canada," Reviczky says. "I fled Hungary to escape lawlessness like this and now my sense of security in Canada is gone."
Gerry Phillips, Ontario's minister of government services, vowed yesterday to change the land-registry system to protect homeowners like Reviczky from title fraud.
Reviczky purchased the property at 220 Sheppard Ave. W. in 1980 for $67,500 to generate a rental income that would help pay for the education of relatives back in Hungary.
The retired tobacco farmer, who came to Canada 49 years ago with his wife Ilona and his then 3-year-old daughter Marietta, says he felt so strongly about his duty to help out the family he left behind that he specified in his will that the property could not be sold after his death because the income was to be used for their support.
Since his wife's death in February 2005, he has lived alone in his home a few kilometres from the rental property.
Reviczky could not believe his ears on June 26 when his neighbour, a real estate agent, told him she had noticed on the computer that he had sold his rental property in May.
"So I went back to my office, got the record from the computer and showed it to him," Vivian Ho told the Toronto Star. "His face turned red and I was worried that he was going to have a heart attack."
Police believe Reviczky's most recent "tenants" forged his name on a power of attorney that purported to give a grandson named "Aaron Paul Reviczky" authority to sell the home on his behalf.
"I don't have a grandson named Aaron," Reviczky says. "I don't have any grandsons."
On May 15, "Aaron Paul Reviczky" sold the property on his behalf for $450,000 to a purchaser named Pegman Meleknia, who took out a mortgage of $337,500.
"I did not get the proceeds," Reviczky says.
Reviczky's lawyer, Tonu Toome, says it was "very painful" to have to break the news to Reviczky that he may lose his house forever — even though he was an innocent victim of fraud — because Ontario law recognizes the transaction as valid where the purchaser is unaware of the scam.
"I had to tell him that although he would ultimately receive financial compensation for the loss of his home, this would entail legal fees and an application to Ontario's Land Titles Assurance Fund, which could take several years," Toome says.
Says Reviczky: "I want my home ... not just some money."
Phillips, who bears responsibility for the province's land titles registration system, says he met last week with 50 representatives of all the communities affected by title fraud — including police, real property and financial institutions — to get advice on how to stem this increasingly prevalent crime.
"This is a high priority for our government and I want people to know that we are treating it seriously," Phillips says.
Earlier this summer, several other identity-theft victims in Toronto were also shocked to discover they weren't protected by the law.
Susan Lawrence is a North York widow who faces the loss of the 100-year-old Victorian home she had lived in for 30 years — after criminals used publicly available information to sell her house without her knowledge and put a $300,000 mortgage on it.
Elizabeth Shepherd, an actress, lost her furnished Leslieville home to identity thieves, who rented the home and sold it to an accomplice after creating a false Elizabeth Shepherd. The accomplice took out a $250,000 mortgage, defaulted and disappeared.
Both women expect to spend years — and money they would rather not spend on lawyers — trying to sort out the mess.
Reviczky had put a "for rent" sign on his property on March 1 after the previous tenants who had lived there for 12 years had gone back to British Columbia.
Five days later, he agreed to rent the home to a couple who identified themselves as "Kristina and Adam Skurik." They signed rental papers and handed him $2,500 in $100 bills for first and last month's rent.
But the house remained empty. In mid-April, Reviczky says, he was told by Kristina Skurik that the couple had rented the house to someone who was coming from Russia.
The last time he ever saw either of the Skuriks was May 13, when Kristina gave him $1,250 in cash and told him the people would arrive "in a short time."
"Kristina was a very pretty, quiet girl, about 5 feet, 6 inches, and she appeared very likeable and trustworthy," Reviczky says.
A telephone check of listings throughout North America failed to turn up any Kristina or Adam Skurik.
Reviczky is now aware that he allegedly sold his house through the power of attorney that had been notarized by a North York lawyer named Sheldon Caplan, who said in an interview he is unable to discuss the case.
Reviczky says he was surprised to see at the bottom of the power of attorney — which Caplan notarized above what appears to be his scribbled initials — a notation that the document was "acknowledged before me this 18th day of April 2006 by Reviczky Paul, who is personally known to me of who has produced Drivers Licence."
"I have never retained solicitor Sheldon Caplan," Reviczky said in a statement he prepared for his lawyer. "I do not know him and did not communicate with him."
Toronto lawyer Satwant Singh Khosla, who represented the purchasers — parents who bought the property as an investment for their son — says his clients are "innocent buyers" who have suffered emotionally and financially because of the fraudulent transaction "through absolutely no fault of their own."
"It was a straightforward transaction," Khosla said. "We never realized that the power of attorney under which the property was transferred was fraudulent."
Khosla says his clients are on the hook for mortgage payments even though they have been unable to access the property because its legal status is in a state of flux.
Reviczky's daughter, Marietta Reviczky-Dolan, who lives in Montana, says people like her father should have the title returned to them and not left with the purchaser.
"They (the owners) have invested more than money in it," she says. "It is their past and their lives have been centred around it. It means more to them."
Meanwhile, the tiny house remains unoccupied and shows signs of disrepair, its yard often cluttered with garbage. It sits in a state of legal limbo while lawyers attempt to sort out the mess and the police hunt for the criminals and the $450,000 stolen along with Reviczky's heart.
Reviczky cannot even enter the home because that could technically be trespassing and police have told him that they will need consent from the new owners to enter the premises.
Toronto lawyer Sidney Troister, an expert on real estate and mortgage fraud, says the Reviczky case is perplexing because "while we can feel sorry for the first owner, we can feel equally sorry for the buyer, who like every other buyer could never be certain that their vendor is the real owner."
Troister says Ontario's land titles system is a good system, "except in the event of fraud where it breaks down, and leaves innocent owners and innocent buyers and lenders helpless and without speedy and fair relief."
"Until the province can prevent this type of fraud from happening, it must formulate a more responsive and all-inclusive compensation scheme for title fraud," Troister says.
"Innocent people, whether it is the innocent owner or the innocent buyer or lender, get hurt because the province does not protect innocent people registering documents in the system."
Ralph Roberts, a Michigan-based expert on mortgage fraud, says inroads will not be made into burgeoning real property and mortgage fraud until more homeowners and legislators become aware it exists. "There is not enough of a public awareness," he says. "People just keep getting dragged into it one after another."
Last month, state legislators in Michigan declared war against mortgage and title fraud after FBI disclosures that mortgage fraud losses in the state jumped from almost $9 million in 2003 to $26 million in 2005.
Several bills introduced in July contain an arsenal of measures, such as designating millions of dollars for investigation of unlicensed real estate brokers and making mortgage fraud a serious crime punishable by 10 years in prison for a first offence.
Mortgage and title fraud have also taken on a higher profile in Canada recently. Organizations such as the Law Society of Upper Canada have been meeting with their counterparts in the real estate and financial industries, and police authorities, to try and solve the problem.
Police forces in Greater Toronto are struggling to cope with a noticeable increase in complaints of title fraud. A report published in March 2005 by the law society says the fraud is often facilitated because the parties to the transaction may never know or actually meet each other in person.
"Without due diligence throughout the process, it is easy for fraudsters to pass themselves off and to take advantage of the lack of oversight," the report says.
"Mortgage fraud and other frauds relating to title are all on the rise," says Det. Steve Majoran of the Toronto force's fraud and forgery squad. "That's my overall impression."
Majoran advises people renting out their homes to check references and verify backgrounds "as best as you can," heeding gut feelings where an applicant puts you off, and to question offers of cash rent.
"You really have to do due diligence these days," he says.
Majoran, who cannot discuss individual cases, says title-fraud investigations can be challenging because they involve following a paper trail and tracking back through a scheme to try to determine who committed the crime, "often months after the fact."
"It's a total shock to the homeowner because the home has been stolen from under them without their knowledge — and usually without their complicity whatsoever," Majoran says.
"I found in a lot of title fraud cases that the person has worked all their life for a property and regards their home as their castle," he says. "To find it's been stolen right out from under them is totally devastating."
Gabriella Toth, who is Reviczky's niece, says she can't understand how anyone could steal an 89-year-old man's home.
"These have to be heartless persons," says Toth, a vice-principal at a Toronto high school. "I think he was targeted because he is elderly."
With files from Associated Press
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