VICTORIAN home buyers could be forced to pay an extra $6.2 million in property taxes because of the bungled introduction of a $40 million electronic conveyancing system.
Builders and lawyers are furious about a move by the Government to boost taxes for paper-based conveyancing by as much as 32%.
The decision to increase fees for all paper lodgements by $15.50 in November last year was supposed to trigger a speedy shift to a new, more efficient electronic system.
But banks and lawyers are refusing to accept the new system — which has also been hampered by software glitches — amid concern about legal ramifications and potential liabilities for solicitors who use it.
That means all transactions are still being done using the paper system, leading to windfall tax gains for the State Government of $15.50 each time one is lodged.
Conveyancing is the sometimes complex process of transferring legal ownership of a property from one person to another. With an estimated 400,000 conveyancing transactions a year in Victoria, the gain for the State Government could be as much $6.2 million.
In a strongly worded letter to Land Victoria, Master Builders executive director Brian Welch said it was a "thinly veiled attempt to collect more taxation from the building industry".
The letter urges the State Government to remove the fee differential, saying it represented another unnecessary tax for the industry. "Taxes and charges on the building industry add 30% to the cost of a new house and land, with 53% of these taxes going directly to the State Government," the letter says.
Asked about the issue in State Parliament, the minister responsible for the new system, Gavin Jennings, conceded there had been some "teething problems" but said there would be no move to lower the fees. He said Victoria's aim was to establish a national conveyancing system to solve the problems.
"I am confident that despite some teething problems … I think at the end of the day Victorian people will be well pleased that we will be at the heart of a national electronic conveyancing system," Mr Jennings said.
In another letter to Land Victoria, Law Institute of Victoria chief executive Michael Brett Young said the fee increase was an unjust financial imposition, given it had been shunned by major banks and lawyers.
State Opposition scrutiny-of-government spokesman David Davis said families were being forced to pay for a Government blunder.
"The Government has introduced increases of up to 30% to encourage people to use its botched electronic system, essentially ripping off families who have no realistic choice but pay," Mr Davis said.
Under the changes, charges for paper lodgement of transfer of sale documents increased to $112.50 from $97; charges for registering mortgages increased to $92.40 from $76.90; and charges for registering a variation of mortgage increased to $64, from $48.50.
The Age
Josh Gordon
February 28, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Sir Robert Richard Torrens - father of the Torrens system
SIR ROBERT RICHARD TORRENS (1814-1884), British colonial statesman, was born at Cork, Ireland, in 1814, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He went to South Australia in 1840, and was appointed collector of customs. He was an official member of the first legislative council and in 1852 was treasurer and registrar-general. When responsible government was established he was elected as a representative for Adelaide and became a member of the first ministry. In 1857 he introduced his famous Real Property Act, the principle of which consists of conveyance by registration and certificate instead of deeds. The system was rapidly adopted in the other colonies and elsewhere, and was expounded by the author during a visit to the United Kingdom in 1862-1864. After leaving South Australia, Sir R. R. Torrens represented Cambridge in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1874; in 1872 he was knighted. He was the author of works on the effect of the gold discoveries on the currency, and other subjects. He died on the 31st of August 1884.
Encyclopdia Brittanica - 1911 edition
Encyclopdia Brittanica - 1911 edition
Land Registration - 1911
A historical perspective of land registration
LAND REGISTRATION, a legal process connected with the transfer of landed property, comprising two forms - registration of deeds and registration of title, which may be best described as a species of machinery for assisting a purchaser or mortgagee in his inquiries as to his vendor's or mortgagor's title previously to completing his dealing, and for securing his own position afterwards. The expediency of making inquiry into the vendor's title before completing a purchase of land (and the case of a mortgage is precisely similar) is obvious. In the case of goods possession may ordinarily be relied on as proof of full ownership;. in the case of land, the person in ostensible possession is very seldom the owner, being usually only a tenant, paying rent to someone else. Even the person to whom the rent is paid is in many cases - probably, in England, in most cases - not the full owner, but only a life owner, or a trustee, whose powers of disposing of the property are of a strictly limited nature. Again, goods are very seldom the subject of a mortgage, whereas land has from time immemorial been the frequent subject of this class of transaction. Evidently, therefore, some sort of inquiry is necessary to enable a purchaser to obtain certainty that the land for which he pays full price is not subject to an unknown mortgage or charge which, if left undiscovered; might afterwards deprive him of a large part or even the whole of its value. Again, the probability of serious consequences to the purchaser ensuing from a mistake as to title is infinitely greater in the case of land than in the case of goods. Before the rightful owner can recover misappropriated goods, he has to find out where they are. This is usually a matter of considerable difficulty. By the time they have reached the hands of a bona fide purchaser all chance of their recovery by the true owner is practically at an end. But with land the case is far otherwise. A dispossessed rightful owner never has any difficulty in tracing his property, for it is immovable. All he has to do is to bring an action for ejectment against the person in possession. For these reasons, among others, any attempt to deal with land on the simple and unsuspecting principles which obtain in regard to goods would be fraught with grave risks.
Apart from very early and primitive social conditions, there appear to be only two ways in which the required certainty as to title to land can be obtained. Either the purchaser must satisfy himself, by an exhaustive scrutiny and review of all the deeds, wills, marriages, heirships and other documents and events by which the property has been conveyed, mortgaged, leased, devised or transmitted during a considerable period of time, that no loophole exists whereby an adverse claim can enter or be made good - this is called the system of private investigation of title - or the government must keep an authoritative list or register of the properties within its jurisdiction, together with the names of the owners and particulars of the encumbrances in each case, and must protect purchasers and others dealing with land, on the faith of this register, from all adverse claims. This second system is called Registration of Title. To these two alternatives may perhaps be added a third, of very recent growth - Insurance of Title. This is largely used in the United States. But it is in reality only a phase of the system of private investigation. The insurance company investigates the title, and charges the purchaser a premium to cover the expense and the risk of error. Registration of deeds is an adjunct of the system of private investigation, and, except in England, is a practically invariable feature of it. It consists in the establishment of public offices in which all documents affecting land are to be recorded - partly to preserve them in a readily accessible place, partly to prevent the possibility of any material deed or document being dishonestly concealed by a vendor. Where registration is effected by depositing a full copy of the deed, it also renders the subsequent falsification of the original document dangerous. Registration of deeds does not (except perhaps to a certain extent indirectly) cheapen or simplify the process of investigation - the formalities at the registry add something to the trouble and cost incurred - but it prevents the particular classes of fraud mentioned.
The history of land registration follows, as a general rule, a fairly uniform course of development. In very early times, and in small and simple communities, the difficulty afterwards found in establishing title to land does not arise, owing to the primitive habit of attaching ceremony and publicity to all dealings. The parties meet on the land, with witnesses; symbolical acts (such as handing over a piece of earth, or the bough of a tree) are performed; and a set form of words is spoken, expressive of the intention to convey. By this means the ownership of each estate in the community becomes to a certain extent a matter of common knowledge, rendering fraud and mistake difficult. But this method leaves a good deal to be desired in point of security. Witnesses die, and memory is uncertain; and one of the earliest improvements consists in the establishment of a sort of public record kept by the magistrate, lord or other local authority, containing a series of contemporary notes of the effect of the various transactions that take place. This book becomes the general title-deed of the whole community, and as long as transactions remain simple, and not too numerous, the results appear to be satisfactory. Of this character are the Manorial Court Rolls, which were in the middle ages the great authorities on title, both in England and on the continent. The entries in them in early times were made in a very few words. The date, the names of the parties, the name or short verbal description of the land, the nature of the transaction, are all that appear. In the land registry at Vienna there is a continuous series of registers of this kind going back to 1368, in Prague to 1377, in Munich to 1440. No doubt there are extant (though in a less easily accessible form) manorial records in England of equal or greater antiquity. This may be considered the first stage in the history of Land Registration. It can hardly be said to be in active operation at the present day in any civilized country - in the sense in which that term is usually understood. Where dealings become more numerous and complicated, written instruments are required to express the intentions of the parties, and afterwards to supply evidence of the landowner's title. It appears, too, that as a general rule the public books already described continue to be used, notwithstanding this change; only (as would be expected) the entries in them, once plain and simple, either grow into full copies of the long and intricate deeds, or consist of mere notes stating that such and such deeds have been executed, leaving the persons interested to inquire for the originals, in whose custody soever they may be found. This system, which may be regarded as the second stage in the history of land registration, is called Registration of Deeds. It prevails in France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland, in Italy, Spain, India, in almost all the British colonies (except Australasia and Canada), in most of the states of the American Union, in the South American republics, in Scotland and Ireland, and in the English counties of Yorkshire and Middlesex. Where it exists, there is generally a law to the effect that in case of dispute a registered deed shall prevail over an unregistered one. The practical effect is that a purchaser can, by searching the register, find out exactly what deeds he ought to inquire for, and receives an assurance that if, after completion, he registers his own conveyance, no other deeds - even if they exist - will prevail against him.
The expenses and delays, not to mention the occasional actual losses of property through fraud or mistake, attendant on the system of making every purchaser responsible for the due examination of his vendor's title - whether or not assisted by registration of deeds - have induced several governments to establish the more perfect system of Registration of Title, which consists in collecting the transactions affecting each separate estate under a separate head, keeping an accurate account of the parcels of which each such estate is composed, and summarizing authoritatively, as each fresh transaction occurs, the subsisting rights of all parties in relation to the land itself. This system prevails in Germany, Austria, Hungary, parts of Switzerland, the Australasian colonies, nearly the whole of Canada, some of the states of the American Union, to a certain extent in Ireland, and is in course of establishment in England and Wales. The Register consists of three portions: - (1) The description of the land, usually, but not necessarily, accompanied by a reference to a map; (2) the ownership, giving the name and address of the person who can sell and dispose of the land; and (3) the encumbrances, in their order of priority, and the names of the persons for the time being entitled to them. When any fresh transaction takes place the instrument effecting it is produced, and the proper alterations in, or additions to, the register are made: if it be a sale, the name of the vendor is cancelled from the register, and that of the purchaser is entered instead; if it be a mortgage, it is added to the list of encumbrances; if a discharge, the encumbrance discharged is cancelled; if it is a sale of part of the land, the original description is modified or the plan is marked to show the piece conveyed, while a new description or plan is made and a new register is opened for the detached parcel. In the English and Australian registries a "land certificate" is also issued to the landowner containing copies of the register and of the plan. This certificate takes the place more or less of the old documents of title. On a sale, the process is as follows: The vendor first of all produces to the purchaser his land certificate, or gives him the number of his title and an authority to inspect the register. In Austria and in some colonial registries this is not necessary, the register being open to public inspection, which in England is not the case. The purchaser, on inspecting this, can easily see for himself whether the land he wishes to buy is comprised in the registered description or plan, whether the vendor's name appears on the register as the owner of the land, and whether there are any encumbrances or other burdens registered as affecting it. If there are encumbrances, the register states their amount and who are entitled to them. The purchaser then usually' prepares a conveyance or transfer of the land (generally in a short printed form issued by the registry), and the vendor executes it in exchange for the purchase money. If there are mortgages, he pays them off to the persons named in the register as their owners, and they concur in a discharge. He then presents the executed instruments at the registry, and is entered as owner of the land instead of the vendor, the mortgages, if any, being cancelled. Where "land certificates" are used (as in England and Australia), a new land certificate is issued to the purchaser showing the existing state of the register and containing a copy of the registered plan of the land. The above is only a brief outline of the processes employed. For further information as to practical details reference may be made to the treatises mentioned at the end of this article.
Source: 1911 Encyclopedia
LAND REGISTRATION, a legal process connected with the transfer of landed property, comprising two forms - registration of deeds and registration of title, which may be best described as a species of machinery for assisting a purchaser or mortgagee in his inquiries as to his vendor's or mortgagor's title previously to completing his dealing, and for securing his own position afterwards. The expediency of making inquiry into the vendor's title before completing a purchase of land (and the case of a mortgage is precisely similar) is obvious. In the case of goods possession may ordinarily be relied on as proof of full ownership;. in the case of land, the person in ostensible possession is very seldom the owner, being usually only a tenant, paying rent to someone else. Even the person to whom the rent is paid is in many cases - probably, in England, in most cases - not the full owner, but only a life owner, or a trustee, whose powers of disposing of the property are of a strictly limited nature. Again, goods are very seldom the subject of a mortgage, whereas land has from time immemorial been the frequent subject of this class of transaction. Evidently, therefore, some sort of inquiry is necessary to enable a purchaser to obtain certainty that the land for which he pays full price is not subject to an unknown mortgage or charge which, if left undiscovered; might afterwards deprive him of a large part or even the whole of its value. Again, the probability of serious consequences to the purchaser ensuing from a mistake as to title is infinitely greater in the case of land than in the case of goods. Before the rightful owner can recover misappropriated goods, he has to find out where they are. This is usually a matter of considerable difficulty. By the time they have reached the hands of a bona fide purchaser all chance of their recovery by the true owner is practically at an end. But with land the case is far otherwise. A dispossessed rightful owner never has any difficulty in tracing his property, for it is immovable. All he has to do is to bring an action for ejectment against the person in possession. For these reasons, among others, any attempt to deal with land on the simple and unsuspecting principles which obtain in regard to goods would be fraught with grave risks.
Apart from very early and primitive social conditions, there appear to be only two ways in which the required certainty as to title to land can be obtained. Either the purchaser must satisfy himself, by an exhaustive scrutiny and review of all the deeds, wills, marriages, heirships and other documents and events by which the property has been conveyed, mortgaged, leased, devised or transmitted during a considerable period of time, that no loophole exists whereby an adverse claim can enter or be made good - this is called the system of private investigation of title - or the government must keep an authoritative list or register of the properties within its jurisdiction, together with the names of the owners and particulars of the encumbrances in each case, and must protect purchasers and others dealing with land, on the faith of this register, from all adverse claims. This second system is called Registration of Title. To these two alternatives may perhaps be added a third, of very recent growth - Insurance of Title. This is largely used in the United States. But it is in reality only a phase of the system of private investigation. The insurance company investigates the title, and charges the purchaser a premium to cover the expense and the risk of error. Registration of deeds is an adjunct of the system of private investigation, and, except in England, is a practically invariable feature of it. It consists in the establishment of public offices in which all documents affecting land are to be recorded - partly to preserve them in a readily accessible place, partly to prevent the possibility of any material deed or document being dishonestly concealed by a vendor. Where registration is effected by depositing a full copy of the deed, it also renders the subsequent falsification of the original document dangerous. Registration of deeds does not (except perhaps to a certain extent indirectly) cheapen or simplify the process of investigation - the formalities at the registry add something to the trouble and cost incurred - but it prevents the particular classes of fraud mentioned.
The history of land registration follows, as a general rule, a fairly uniform course of development. In very early times, and in small and simple communities, the difficulty afterwards found in establishing title to land does not arise, owing to the primitive habit of attaching ceremony and publicity to all dealings. The parties meet on the land, with witnesses; symbolical acts (such as handing over a piece of earth, or the bough of a tree) are performed; and a set form of words is spoken, expressive of the intention to convey. By this means the ownership of each estate in the community becomes to a certain extent a matter of common knowledge, rendering fraud and mistake difficult. But this method leaves a good deal to be desired in point of security. Witnesses die, and memory is uncertain; and one of the earliest improvements consists in the establishment of a sort of public record kept by the magistrate, lord or other local authority, containing a series of contemporary notes of the effect of the various transactions that take place. This book becomes the general title-deed of the whole community, and as long as transactions remain simple, and not too numerous, the results appear to be satisfactory. Of this character are the Manorial Court Rolls, which were in the middle ages the great authorities on title, both in England and on the continent. The entries in them in early times were made in a very few words. The date, the names of the parties, the name or short verbal description of the land, the nature of the transaction, are all that appear. In the land registry at Vienna there is a continuous series of registers of this kind going back to 1368, in Prague to 1377, in Munich to 1440. No doubt there are extant (though in a less easily accessible form) manorial records in England of equal or greater antiquity. This may be considered the first stage in the history of Land Registration. It can hardly be said to be in active operation at the present day in any civilized country - in the sense in which that term is usually understood. Where dealings become more numerous and complicated, written instruments are required to express the intentions of the parties, and afterwards to supply evidence of the landowner's title. It appears, too, that as a general rule the public books already described continue to be used, notwithstanding this change; only (as would be expected) the entries in them, once plain and simple, either grow into full copies of the long and intricate deeds, or consist of mere notes stating that such and such deeds have been executed, leaving the persons interested to inquire for the originals, in whose custody soever they may be found. This system, which may be regarded as the second stage in the history of land registration, is called Registration of Deeds. It prevails in France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland, in Italy, Spain, India, in almost all the British colonies (except Australasia and Canada), in most of the states of the American Union, in the South American republics, in Scotland and Ireland, and in the English counties of Yorkshire and Middlesex. Where it exists, there is generally a law to the effect that in case of dispute a registered deed shall prevail over an unregistered one. The practical effect is that a purchaser can, by searching the register, find out exactly what deeds he ought to inquire for, and receives an assurance that if, after completion, he registers his own conveyance, no other deeds - even if they exist - will prevail against him.
The expenses and delays, not to mention the occasional actual losses of property through fraud or mistake, attendant on the system of making every purchaser responsible for the due examination of his vendor's title - whether or not assisted by registration of deeds - have induced several governments to establish the more perfect system of Registration of Title, which consists in collecting the transactions affecting each separate estate under a separate head, keeping an accurate account of the parcels of which each such estate is composed, and summarizing authoritatively, as each fresh transaction occurs, the subsisting rights of all parties in relation to the land itself. This system prevails in Germany, Austria, Hungary, parts of Switzerland, the Australasian colonies, nearly the whole of Canada, some of the states of the American Union, to a certain extent in Ireland, and is in course of establishment in England and Wales. The Register consists of three portions: - (1) The description of the land, usually, but not necessarily, accompanied by a reference to a map; (2) the ownership, giving the name and address of the person who can sell and dispose of the land; and (3) the encumbrances, in their order of priority, and the names of the persons for the time being entitled to them. When any fresh transaction takes place the instrument effecting it is produced, and the proper alterations in, or additions to, the register are made: if it be a sale, the name of the vendor is cancelled from the register, and that of the purchaser is entered instead; if it be a mortgage, it is added to the list of encumbrances; if a discharge, the encumbrance discharged is cancelled; if it is a sale of part of the land, the original description is modified or the plan is marked to show the piece conveyed, while a new description or plan is made and a new register is opened for the detached parcel. In the English and Australian registries a "land certificate" is also issued to the landowner containing copies of the register and of the plan. This certificate takes the place more or less of the old documents of title. On a sale, the process is as follows: The vendor first of all produces to the purchaser his land certificate, or gives him the number of his title and an authority to inspect the register. In Austria and in some colonial registries this is not necessary, the register being open to public inspection, which in England is not the case. The purchaser, on inspecting this, can easily see for himself whether the land he wishes to buy is comprised in the registered description or plan, whether the vendor's name appears on the register as the owner of the land, and whether there are any encumbrances or other burdens registered as affecting it. If there are encumbrances, the register states their amount and who are entitled to them. The purchaser then usually' prepares a conveyance or transfer of the land (generally in a short printed form issued by the registry), and the vendor executes it in exchange for the purchase money. If there are mortgages, he pays them off to the persons named in the register as their owners, and they concur in a discharge. He then presents the executed instruments at the registry, and is entered as owner of the land instead of the vendor, the mortgages, if any, being cancelled. Where "land certificates" are used (as in England and Australia), a new land certificate is issued to the purchaser showing the existing state of the register and containing a copy of the registered plan of the land. The above is only a brief outline of the processes employed. For further information as to practical details reference may be made to the treatises mentioned at the end of this article.
Source: 1911 Encyclopedia
Friday, February 22, 2008
NECS - THE NATIONAL PROJECT TEAM
A Stakeholder Working Group meeting was held in Canberra on 15 February 2008 to develop a consensus among stakeholders on arrangements for a National Project Team (NPT) to advance definition of the National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS)
The meeting had more than 50 stakeholder representatives and industry participants present and after introductions was addressed by Ian Gilbert, Director of Australian Bankers Association (ABA) and John Corcoran, President‐elect of the Law Council of Australia (LCA) who both provided industry perspectives on the importance of the meeting.
Ian Gilbert confirmed that the banks fully support a NECS which would provide valued microeconomic reform. He emphasised that a pre‐condition for success was the co‐operation of jurisdictions and the private sector in the realisation of a single national system capable of servicing stakeholder needs in all jurisdictions. He made it clear that NECS is much more than a computer system, that the business practices supporting it are equally important and that the banks need a fully consultative process for its development otherwise their business case for participation will fail.
John Corcoran confirmed that lawyers want a system that can operate in all jurisdictions; integrates with the technology in legal practices; suits all firms, large and small; is efficient reliable and robust; and is fair in its distribution of risk. He advised the meeting that, from the perspective of the legal profession, a federation of separate jurisdiction systems is unacceptable and the system must be a
single, national, multi‐jurisdiction system supported by all major stakeholders. He also emphasised the importance of adequate funding for the work of establishing NECS.
Simon Libbis, Executive Director of the National Office, presented the background to the meeting, including the unanimous decision at the last National Steering Committee to establish the NPT and to hold an open meeting of stakeholders to reach a consensus on arrangements. He emphasised that the Steering Committee intended that the team work within the context of the agreed National Business Model and he presented a number of suggested arrangements as a basis for the meeting’s discussion. He advised that the arrangements agreed upon would be presented to the Steering Committee for confirmation before any substantive work got underway.
Under the chairmanship of Richard Glenn, the Australian Government representative on the National Steering Committee, the meeting reached consensus on the following outcomes -
1. The NPT is to be responsible to the National Steering Committee but work through the National Office in providing its advice.
2. The NPT is to consist of eight permanent and up to six casual members.
3. The permanent members are to be:
• 1 representative of banks nominated by the ABA
• 1 representative of legal practitioners nominated by the LCA
• 1 representative of licensed conveyancers nominated by the AIC
• 1 representative of land registries nominated by the jurisdictions
• 1 representative of non‐bank lenders nominated by the MFAA
• 1 representative of independent mortgage processors nominated by NECO
• 1 representative of information brokers nominated by IBLSA
• 1 representative of revenue offices nominated by the Revenue Commissioners
4. The casual members are to be appointed as required by the National Steering Committee to provide additional stakeholder representation or specialist advice.
5. Current members of the National Steering Committee are to be ineligible for NPT membership so as to avoid any conflict in the governance of the team’s arrangements.
6. The team is to meet face‐to‐face every six weeks, or as the need arises, with video conferencing if necessary and available, and in between times exchange views by email and teleconferences. Meeting locations are to best suit team members. The National Office is to provide a non‐voting chair for meetings and record determinations. Team members are to meet their own costs of attending meetings and the National Office is to meet the cost of arranging and holding meetings.
7. Team members are to be encouraged to tap into the resources of their respective organisations, profession and stakeholder group for assistance and guidance, and are to be able to provide third‐party advice for team consideration provided it is of good standing and supported.
8. The team is to consider issue papers prepared by the National Office and make determinations that advance the development of NECS within the context of the National Business Model. The team’s determinations are to be based on a simple majority consensus and adopted automatically into the National Roadmap when consistent with it. Contentious determinations are to be referred by the National Office to the National Steering Committee for resolution.
9. All determinations are to be referred to the National Steering Committee for confirmation or resolution.
10. All issue papers considered and all determinations made are to be published on the NECS website for unrestricted access.
11. The team’s initial priorities are to be in order of immediate importance:
• System functions and features
• System performance characteristics
• Supporting business practices
• Risk management regime (including a compensation fund)
• Legislative framework
• Implementation planning (including take‐up initiatives and transition arrangements).
The meeting had more than 50 stakeholder representatives and industry participants present and after introductions was addressed by Ian Gilbert, Director of Australian Bankers Association (ABA) and John Corcoran, President‐elect of the Law Council of Australia (LCA) who both provided industry perspectives on the importance of the meeting.
Ian Gilbert confirmed that the banks fully support a NECS which would provide valued microeconomic reform. He emphasised that a pre‐condition for success was the co‐operation of jurisdictions and the private sector in the realisation of a single national system capable of servicing stakeholder needs in all jurisdictions. He made it clear that NECS is much more than a computer system, that the business practices supporting it are equally important and that the banks need a fully consultative process for its development otherwise their business case for participation will fail.
John Corcoran confirmed that lawyers want a system that can operate in all jurisdictions; integrates with the technology in legal practices; suits all firms, large and small; is efficient reliable and robust; and is fair in its distribution of risk. He advised the meeting that, from the perspective of the legal profession, a federation of separate jurisdiction systems is unacceptable and the system must be a
single, national, multi‐jurisdiction system supported by all major stakeholders. He also emphasised the importance of adequate funding for the work of establishing NECS.
Simon Libbis, Executive Director of the National Office, presented the background to the meeting, including the unanimous decision at the last National Steering Committee to establish the NPT and to hold an open meeting of stakeholders to reach a consensus on arrangements. He emphasised that the Steering Committee intended that the team work within the context of the agreed National Business Model and he presented a number of suggested arrangements as a basis for the meeting’s discussion. He advised that the arrangements agreed upon would be presented to the Steering Committee for confirmation before any substantive work got underway.
Under the chairmanship of Richard Glenn, the Australian Government representative on the National Steering Committee, the meeting reached consensus on the following outcomes -
1. The NPT is to be responsible to the National Steering Committee but work through the National Office in providing its advice.
2. The NPT is to consist of eight permanent and up to six casual members.
3. The permanent members are to be:
• 1 representative of banks nominated by the ABA
• 1 representative of legal practitioners nominated by the LCA
• 1 representative of licensed conveyancers nominated by the AIC
• 1 representative of land registries nominated by the jurisdictions
• 1 representative of non‐bank lenders nominated by the MFAA
• 1 representative of independent mortgage processors nominated by NECO
• 1 representative of information brokers nominated by IBLSA
• 1 representative of revenue offices nominated by the Revenue Commissioners
4. The casual members are to be appointed as required by the National Steering Committee to provide additional stakeholder representation or specialist advice.
5. Current members of the National Steering Committee are to be ineligible for NPT membership so as to avoid any conflict in the governance of the team’s arrangements.
6. The team is to meet face‐to‐face every six weeks, or as the need arises, with video conferencing if necessary and available, and in between times exchange views by email and teleconferences. Meeting locations are to best suit team members. The National Office is to provide a non‐voting chair for meetings and record determinations. Team members are to meet their own costs of attending meetings and the National Office is to meet the cost of arranging and holding meetings.
7. Team members are to be encouraged to tap into the resources of their respective organisations, profession and stakeholder group for assistance and guidance, and are to be able to provide third‐party advice for team consideration provided it is of good standing and supported.
8. The team is to consider issue papers prepared by the National Office and make determinations that advance the development of NECS within the context of the National Business Model. The team’s determinations are to be based on a simple majority consensus and adopted automatically into the National Roadmap when consistent with it. Contentious determinations are to be referred by the National Office to the National Steering Committee for resolution.
9. All determinations are to be referred to the National Steering Committee for confirmation or resolution.
10. All issue papers considered and all determinations made are to be published on the NECS website for unrestricted access.
11. The team’s initial priorities are to be in order of immediate importance:
• System functions and features
• System performance characteristics
• Supporting business practices
• Risk management regime (including a compensation fund)
• Legislative framework
• Implementation planning (including take‐up initiatives and transition arrangements).
Families skip meals to pay rent
RISING rents are forcing thousands of Australians to skip meals and deny their children school excursions, according to new research.
This came as another study showed there will be a massive increase in the number of renters over the next 40 years as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable to low-income earners.
Research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, based on surveys and interviews with 1400 renter households and 400 recent home purchasers, found that 26% of low-income renters surveyed sometimes go without food and 42% can't afford school excursions. Forty-seven per cent said that, even with improved income, rents would still be too high.
"Despite the government obsession with home ownership, private rental is the problem sector," institute researcher Terry Burke told the National Housing Conference in Sydney.
Many home owners pay their mortgage by taking second jobs, but Professor Burke said: "Any economic slowdown means they could lose those jobs and then you have thousands who are going to be in trouble. I suspect we are approaching that situation."
He criticised negative gearing, the first home owners' grant, capital gains tax and rent assistance as measures that add to demand for housing without boosting supply, but said he doubted the Federal Government would drop the policies.
A separate study presented at the conference, headed by housing analyst Judith Yates of Sydney University, projects that over the next 40 years, the number of households will increase by 50%, but the number of renters will almost double.
"In the future, as in the past, the majority of Australians will have affordable, secure housing over their lives," the study said. "(But) it will be increasingly difficult for low and moderate-income households who have deferred home purchase to become home owners. "The number of lower-income households in housing stress in the private rental market is expected to increase by 120%."
The study points out that home ownership rates are already falling among younger households. Between 1981 and 2006, the proportion of householders aged 35 to 44 who do not own their home has risen from 25% to 32%. The proportion aged 25 to 34 who are renting has swollen from 39% to 49%.
The Housing Industry Association forecast that in 2007-08 there would be hardly any growth in housing starts.
Housing Industry Association director Chris Lamont said housing starts had stalled at a level providing about 20,000 fewer homes a year than Australia needed. New rate rises would further restrict supply, putting more pressure on house prices and rents.
The Age
Sunanda Creagh and Tim Colebatch
February 22, 2008
This came as another study showed there will be a massive increase in the number of renters over the next 40 years as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable to low-income earners.
Research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, based on surveys and interviews with 1400 renter households and 400 recent home purchasers, found that 26% of low-income renters surveyed sometimes go without food and 42% can't afford school excursions. Forty-seven per cent said that, even with improved income, rents would still be too high.
"Despite the government obsession with home ownership, private rental is the problem sector," institute researcher Terry Burke told the National Housing Conference in Sydney.
Many home owners pay their mortgage by taking second jobs, but Professor Burke said: "Any economic slowdown means they could lose those jobs and then you have thousands who are going to be in trouble. I suspect we are approaching that situation."
He criticised negative gearing, the first home owners' grant, capital gains tax and rent assistance as measures that add to demand for housing without boosting supply, but said he doubted the Federal Government would drop the policies.
A separate study presented at the conference, headed by housing analyst Judith Yates of Sydney University, projects that over the next 40 years, the number of households will increase by 50%, but the number of renters will almost double.
"In the future, as in the past, the majority of Australians will have affordable, secure housing over their lives," the study said. "(But) it will be increasingly difficult for low and moderate-income households who have deferred home purchase to become home owners. "The number of lower-income households in housing stress in the private rental market is expected to increase by 120%."
The study points out that home ownership rates are already falling among younger households. Between 1981 and 2006, the proportion of householders aged 35 to 44 who do not own their home has risen from 25% to 32%. The proportion aged 25 to 34 who are renting has swollen from 39% to 49%.
The Housing Industry Association forecast that in 2007-08 there would be hardly any growth in housing starts.
Housing Industry Association director Chris Lamont said housing starts had stalled at a level providing about 20,000 fewer homes a year than Australia needed. New rate rises would further restrict supply, putting more pressure on house prices and rents.
The Age
Sunanda Creagh and Tim Colebatch
February 22, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Democratic Nomination - EC Vic or NECS?
If the race for the democratic nomination was a choice between EC Vic and NECS, the lobbying for delegates is intense. Victoria has bagged Queensland, Bendigo Bank and MECU as delegates. NECS can count on NSW, the Law Council of Australia and the Australian Bankers Association. On Friday 15 February NECS launched the National Project Team being a body made up of industry representatives from every sector and reps standing in for the jurisdictions. Banks, Non-banks, Lawyers, Conveyancers, Mortgage Processors, Information Brokers, Jurisdictions and others will all have hand picked reps to start the process to define the shape and framework of the National Electronic Conveyancing System. Priorities and time lines will be set by the National Project team to report upline to the National Steering Committee. If there was one message in the background, that message is National, underscored and in bold. The day was chaired by Richard Glenn who is from the Commonwealth Government Attorney-General's Department, assistant secretary. I wouldn't go as far to say the conference was Super Tuesday, but it was close. The banks are the super-delegates for the casting of votes. Yesterday there was unquestionable support for the national process. How long will EC Vic fight the fight, we dont know but their star is waning and I cant see them outgunning NECS, despite all the problems of funding and ownership, and counter arguments. It is anyone's guess when we will see EC rolled into NECS. IP and all. This is not a quote, this is just speculation. If anyone wants to leave comment, please do
I expect NECS will shortly make an announcement on the make up of the National Project Team (NPT) as well as the priorities that will be set by the industry representatives.
There was several calls from the floor of the conference, that the NPT priorities need to give clear attention and address the issues of take up, traction, transition and conversion as well as a rigorous cost / benefit analysis. I agree these are important fundamental issues, which I would believe were not given to the design and implementation of EC Vic.Take up and transition are the core to the design of NECS. Lets not forget the consumer. Giving focus and attention to the client should be a very high and guiding principle within the system. What is to be the starting point? These will be interesting and challenging questions for the NPT.
I expect NECS will shortly make an announcement on the make up of the National Project Team (NPT) as well as the priorities that will be set by the industry representatives.
There was several calls from the floor of the conference, that the NPT priorities need to give clear attention and address the issues of take up, traction, transition and conversion as well as a rigorous cost / benefit analysis. I agree these are important fundamental issues, which I would believe were not given to the design and implementation of EC Vic.Take up and transition are the core to the design of NECS. Lets not forget the consumer. Giving focus and attention to the client should be a very high and guiding principle within the system. What is to be the starting point? These will be interesting and challenging questions for the NPT.
Home buyers hurt by ECV delays
Chris Merritt | February 15, 2008 | The Australian
THE Victorian Government has forced the state's home buyers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra government fees because disputes have hobbled its $40 million electronic conveyancing system.
Home buyers have been paying extra charges since November because the Government has been unable to settle disputes affecting its relatively cheap electronic conveyancing system (ECV).
As a result, thousands of people who have bought and sold property since November have had no alternative but to use the old paper-based conveyancing system that has been hit by government fee increases of up to 32 per cent.
The Government imposed those increases in November to encourage a quick take-up of the electronic system. But it has refused to remove the fee increases despite its inability to resolve disputes with key players in the conveyancing industry that have limited the take-up of the new system.
Those disputes, which have been dragging on since last year, have led to a boycott of ECV by the major banks and most of the state's solicitors.
But they have also led to a windfall in conveyancing fee income for the state Government from the old paper-based system.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancers said the Government had been receiving about $20 more for each document filed under the old system than it would have received under ECV.
"There would be thousands of these documents filed each week," said Australian Institute of Conveyancers Victorian chief executive Jill Ludwell.
The blow-out in conveyancing fees has alienated the remaining key players in the conveyancing industry who were not already at odds with the state Government over ECV.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancers, the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian arm of the Master Builders Association all called this week for the fee increases on paper-based conveyancing to be abandoned.
The other key players in conveyancing -- the major banks -- were already involved in one of the two disputes with the Government that are affecting ECV.
The big banks withdrew their support from ECV last year until they were satisfied that Victoria was committed to establishing a single national system of electronic conveyancing instead of a series of state-based systems.
In November the Victorian minister responsible for ECV, Gavin Jennings, was a key player in the establishment of a high-powered committee of state government officials aimed at working towards a national e-conveyancing system.
The other dispute affecting ECV involves the Legal Practitioners Liability Committee, the organisation that provides professional indemnity insurance for Victoria's solicitors.
The committee had not been consulted about ECV until relatively late in the system's development. The Government has not yet been able to ease the committee's concerns about the potential liability of solicitors who take part in the system.
Without the committee's sign-off, the Law Institute of Victoria has been unable to recommend that solicitors take part in the system. However, the Rudd Government has now intervened in the dispute and is attempting to broker a solution that could address the concerns of the big banks (see accompanying report).
The state opposition has also taken an interest in the affair.
Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said that if the problems afflicting ECV could not be resolved by government officials, Attorney-General Rob Hulls needed to take a direct role in talks with the banks and the Law Institute. "This needs to be thrashed out. You cannot have a system introduced by the Government that these key and respected organisations believe is unsatisfactory," Mr Clark said.
"Until the new system is up and running, the consumer is paying through the nose for the old paper-based system," he said.
He endorsed the call from the conveyancing industry for the fee increases to be wound back.
Before unveiling the latest stage of ECV in November, the Government promised it would result in cost savings on property transactions of up to $395.
However, the Australian Institute of Conveyancers said the net impact of ECV and its associated disputes had increased the cost of conveyancing and hurt the public. "The public is being penalised because the electronic system in Victoria cannot get up and running," said the AIC's Jill Ludwell.
Body: She said the fee increases for paper-based conveyancing would have caused far less disruption had they been introduced once ECV was being widely used. "The industry is fed up with all the bickering," Ms Ludwell said.
Figures assembled by the Master Builders Association show the cost of filing a traditional property transfer, after a sale, rose by 16 per cent in November. Government fees on other paper-based documents rose by between 20.2 and 32 per cent.
The Law Institute warned the Government on November 1 that ECV, at least in its early stages, was unlikely to be widely used. LIV chief executive Michael Brett Young wrote to Land Victoria saying the fee hikes were being introduced even before the latest stage of ECV was due to be launched on November 16. He urged Land Victoria not to introduce the new fees until there was wider participation in ECV.
"It is an unjust financial imposition upon the end-users of Land Victoria's registration system to bear additional costs associated with paper-based transactions," Mr Brett Young wrote.
On September 3, the Master Builders had sent Land Victoria a similar warning. Executive director Brian Welch wrote that the state Government's over-reliance on building industry taxes was undermining housing affordability, discouraging investment and reducing employment opportunities. "Taxes and charges on the building industry add 30 per cent to the cost of a new house and land, with 53 per cent of these taxes going directly to the state Government," Mr Welch wrote.
Mr Welch told The Australian that ECV was a good idea that had been spoiled by bad execution. "What we need is a transition and I suspect that was never considered," he said.
Mr Brett Young said electronic conveyancing was a worthwhile initiative but to work there needed to be one system across the nation. He said the best way to ensure a quick take-up of ECV would be to greatly reduce the cost of online filing while returning the fee scale for paper-based conveyancing to its original level.
He believed a benefit of having Labor governments in office in Canberra and the states was that it increased the likelihood of achieving a national approach to electronic conveyancing.
A spokesman for Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the state's electronic conveyancing system had become "fully operational" late last year.
"The electronic conveyancing system will provide savings of up to $395 per for party settlement, and more than $70 million of annual savings to Victorian industry and the community by 2012," the spokesman said. "We are continuing to work with our industry partners and commonwealth, states and territory colleagues toward the development of a national EC system."
THE Victorian Government has forced the state's home buyers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra government fees because disputes have hobbled its $40 million electronic conveyancing system.
Home buyers have been paying extra charges since November because the Government has been unable to settle disputes affecting its relatively cheap electronic conveyancing system (ECV).
As a result, thousands of people who have bought and sold property since November have had no alternative but to use the old paper-based conveyancing system that has been hit by government fee increases of up to 32 per cent.
The Government imposed those increases in November to encourage a quick take-up of the electronic system. But it has refused to remove the fee increases despite its inability to resolve disputes with key players in the conveyancing industry that have limited the take-up of the new system.
Those disputes, which have been dragging on since last year, have led to a boycott of ECV by the major banks and most of the state's solicitors.
But they have also led to a windfall in conveyancing fee income for the state Government from the old paper-based system.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancers said the Government had been receiving about $20 more for each document filed under the old system than it would have received under ECV.
"There would be thousands of these documents filed each week," said Australian Institute of Conveyancers Victorian chief executive Jill Ludwell.
The blow-out in conveyancing fees has alienated the remaining key players in the conveyancing industry who were not already at odds with the state Government over ECV.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancers, the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian arm of the Master Builders Association all called this week for the fee increases on paper-based conveyancing to be abandoned.
The other key players in conveyancing -- the major banks -- were already involved in one of the two disputes with the Government that are affecting ECV.
The big banks withdrew their support from ECV last year until they were satisfied that Victoria was committed to establishing a single national system of electronic conveyancing instead of a series of state-based systems.
In November the Victorian minister responsible for ECV, Gavin Jennings, was a key player in the establishment of a high-powered committee of state government officials aimed at working towards a national e-conveyancing system.
The other dispute affecting ECV involves the Legal Practitioners Liability Committee, the organisation that provides professional indemnity insurance for Victoria's solicitors.
The committee had not been consulted about ECV until relatively late in the system's development. The Government has not yet been able to ease the committee's concerns about the potential liability of solicitors who take part in the system.
Without the committee's sign-off, the Law Institute of Victoria has been unable to recommend that solicitors take part in the system. However, the Rudd Government has now intervened in the dispute and is attempting to broker a solution that could address the concerns of the big banks (see accompanying report).
The state opposition has also taken an interest in the affair.
Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said that if the problems afflicting ECV could not be resolved by government officials, Attorney-General Rob Hulls needed to take a direct role in talks with the banks and the Law Institute. "This needs to be thrashed out. You cannot have a system introduced by the Government that these key and respected organisations believe is unsatisfactory," Mr Clark said.
"Until the new system is up and running, the consumer is paying through the nose for the old paper-based system," he said.
He endorsed the call from the conveyancing industry for the fee increases to be wound back.
Before unveiling the latest stage of ECV in November, the Government promised it would result in cost savings on property transactions of up to $395.
However, the Australian Institute of Conveyancers said the net impact of ECV and its associated disputes had increased the cost of conveyancing and hurt the public. "The public is being penalised because the electronic system in Victoria cannot get up and running," said the AIC's Jill Ludwell.
Body: She said the fee increases for paper-based conveyancing would have caused far less disruption had they been introduced once ECV was being widely used. "The industry is fed up with all the bickering," Ms Ludwell said.
Figures assembled by the Master Builders Association show the cost of filing a traditional property transfer, after a sale, rose by 16 per cent in November. Government fees on other paper-based documents rose by between 20.2 and 32 per cent.
The Law Institute warned the Government on November 1 that ECV, at least in its early stages, was unlikely to be widely used. LIV chief executive Michael Brett Young wrote to Land Victoria saying the fee hikes were being introduced even before the latest stage of ECV was due to be launched on November 16. He urged Land Victoria not to introduce the new fees until there was wider participation in ECV.
"It is an unjust financial imposition upon the end-users of Land Victoria's registration system to bear additional costs associated with paper-based transactions," Mr Brett Young wrote.
On September 3, the Master Builders had sent Land Victoria a similar warning. Executive director Brian Welch wrote that the state Government's over-reliance on building industry taxes was undermining housing affordability, discouraging investment and reducing employment opportunities. "Taxes and charges on the building industry add 30 per cent to the cost of a new house and land, with 53 per cent of these taxes going directly to the state Government," Mr Welch wrote.
Mr Welch told The Australian that ECV was a good idea that had been spoiled by bad execution. "What we need is a transition and I suspect that was never considered," he said.
Mr Brett Young said electronic conveyancing was a worthwhile initiative but to work there needed to be one system across the nation. He said the best way to ensure a quick take-up of ECV would be to greatly reduce the cost of online filing while returning the fee scale for paper-based conveyancing to its original level.
He believed a benefit of having Labor governments in office in Canberra and the states was that it increased the likelihood of achieving a national approach to electronic conveyancing.
A spokesman for Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the state's electronic conveyancing system had become "fully operational" late last year.
"The electronic conveyancing system will provide savings of up to $395 per for party settlement, and more than $70 million of annual savings to Victorian industry and the community by 2012," the spokesman said. "We are continuing to work with our industry partners and commonwealth, states and territory colleagues toward the development of a national EC system."
Conveyancing back on the pollies' agenda
Chris Merrit, The Australian 15 Feb
THE federal Government is taking direct action aimed at reinvigorating the push for a single national electronic conveyancing system.
The Government believes the project is one of the key initiatives that could help reduce the cost of housing.
It is also seen as a way in which the Government could implement its goal of cutting red tape and increasing federal-state co-operation.
One of the top officials in the Attorney-General's Department, assistant secretary Richard Glenn, will be chairing a crucial meeting in Canberra today of the conveyancing industry's key players.
Mr Glenn has been heavily involved in an inter-governmental project aimed at establishing a national register for personal property securities.
Today's meeting will be attended by representatives of most state law societies, non-lawyer conveyancers, federal Treasury, the major banks and Australian Government Information Management Office.
It is aimed at forming a national project team to build the national system.
That team could help to eliminate the focus on inter-governmental rivalry that has slowed progress on the project.
A successful outcome from today's meeting is expected to help ease some of the concerns that are behind the boycott by the major banks of Victoria's state-based system.
The big banks have withdrawn their support from the Victorian system because they want to deal with one national system instead of a series of state-based systems.
As well as chairing today's meeting, the Attorney-General's Department has joined the steering committee that is overseeing the development of the national e-conveyancing system. Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said progress on establishing a national system had stalled under the Howard government.
He will be raising the issue with his state and territory counterparts when they meet next month.
The Government is also examining the option of including electronic conveyancing on the agenda for the Council of Australian Governments.
The COAG business regulation and competition working group will consider the push for a national system at its meeting this month.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said the Government had asked the states and territories to consider "whether a national system could be placed on the COAG agenda with an agreed implementation timeline".
"A national electronic conveyancing system is an example of harnessing technology to reduce the costs of doing business," he said.
The proposed national system is not intended to replace the land registries that are run by state and territory governments.
Instead, it would enable parties involved in property transactions to deal electronically through a single national portal.
The Australian Bankers Association endorsed the proposed establishment of a national project team.
ABA director Ian Gilbert said the intention was to assemble a team with the technical know-how to take the national electronic conveyancing project to the next stage.
THE federal Government is taking direct action aimed at reinvigorating the push for a single national electronic conveyancing system.
The Government believes the project is one of the key initiatives that could help reduce the cost of housing.
It is also seen as a way in which the Government could implement its goal of cutting red tape and increasing federal-state co-operation.
One of the top officials in the Attorney-General's Department, assistant secretary Richard Glenn, will be chairing a crucial meeting in Canberra today of the conveyancing industry's key players.
Mr Glenn has been heavily involved in an inter-governmental project aimed at establishing a national register for personal property securities.
Today's meeting will be attended by representatives of most state law societies, non-lawyer conveyancers, federal Treasury, the major banks and Australian Government Information Management Office.
It is aimed at forming a national project team to build the national system.
That team could help to eliminate the focus on inter-governmental rivalry that has slowed progress on the project.
A successful outcome from today's meeting is expected to help ease some of the concerns that are behind the boycott by the major banks of Victoria's state-based system.
The big banks have withdrawn their support from the Victorian system because they want to deal with one national system instead of a series of state-based systems.
As well as chairing today's meeting, the Attorney-General's Department has joined the steering committee that is overseeing the development of the national e-conveyancing system. Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said progress on establishing a national system had stalled under the Howard government.
He will be raising the issue with his state and territory counterparts when they meet next month.
The Government is also examining the option of including electronic conveyancing on the agenda for the Council of Australian Governments.
The COAG business regulation and competition working group will consider the push for a national system at its meeting this month.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said the Government had asked the states and territories to consider "whether a national system could be placed on the COAG agenda with an agreed implementation timeline".
"A national electronic conveyancing system is an example of harnessing technology to reduce the costs of doing business," he said.
The proposed national system is not intended to replace the land registries that are run by state and territory governments.
Instead, it would enable parties involved in property transactions to deal electronically through a single national portal.
The Australian Bankers Association endorsed the proposed establishment of a national project team.
ABA director Ian Gilbert said the intention was to assemble a team with the technical know-how to take the national electronic conveyancing project to the next stage.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Transfer of Land (Electronic Transactions) Act 2004
EC's legislative framework stems from the amendments to the Transfer of Land Act 1958. In reviewing the functionality of EC many of its features are a direct result of the changes mandated. The summary of changes are -
PART 2—AMENDMENTS TO THE TRANSFER OF LAND ACT 1958
3. Definitions
4. New section 27AB inserted
27AB. Verification of identity
5. Instruments in duplicate and triplicate
6. New Part IIIA inserted
PART IIIA—ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS
44A. Restriction on lodgement of electronic instruments
44B. Registrar may provide electronic lodgement network
44C. Agents for lodging electronic instruments must be eligible persons
44D. Powers of Registrar
44E. Duty of Registrar in relation to priority of electronic instruments
44F. Notification of registration
44G. Evidence of registration of electronic instrument
44H. Electronic lodgement network malfunction
44I. Destruction of certificate of title
44J. Registrar may require production of documents
44K. Registrar may specify matters to be certified
44L. Evidence of electronic instruments
44M. Electronic certification of electronic instrument
44N. Registrar may deal exclusively with responsible party
Link to a word version of the Act. These changes are now formally coded as part of the Transfer of Land Act 1958
PART 2—AMENDMENTS TO THE TRANSFER OF LAND ACT 1958
3. Definitions
4. New section 27AB inserted
27AB. Verification of identity
5. Instruments in duplicate and triplicate
6. New Part IIIA inserted
PART IIIA—ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS
44A. Restriction on lodgement of electronic instruments
44B. Registrar may provide electronic lodgement network
44C. Agents for lodging electronic instruments must be eligible persons
44D. Powers of Registrar
44E. Duty of Registrar in relation to priority of electronic instruments
44F. Notification of registration
44G. Evidence of registration of electronic instrument
44H. Electronic lodgement network malfunction
44I. Destruction of certificate of title
44J. Registrar may require production of documents
44K. Registrar may specify matters to be certified
44L. Evidence of electronic instruments
44M. Electronic certification of electronic instrument
44N. Registrar may deal exclusively with responsible party
Link to a word version of the Act. These changes are now formally coded as part of the Transfer of Land Act 1958
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Why are houses prices unaffordable?
I have an alternative theory why housing is so unaffordable. One is Keynsian economic theory, demand exceeds supply, prices rise. If demand is high and supply is low, prices will rise and the converse applies. Victoria has had a rising population which has added to the demand side of the equation.
Monetary economics applies as well. If interest rates drop, as they have or did for quite a while, prices rise. Interest rates have been on the rise for a number of consecutive quarters but we have still seen prices rising. This is an anomaly, so there must be another factor.
There is a third factor. And that is the government's role in the property sector. Taxation.
Each of these taxes are either an ingoing tax or exit tax, and each will make a significant impact on peoples decision to buy, sell or hold.
The first, being stamp duty, is the most insinuous tax. The second affects only investors. The third impacts the new building sector the greatest.
Stamp duty, historically, taxed mums and dads on the purchase of a home at a rate of 2%. That now is effectively 5%, through the effects of inflation on the marginal threshold when the stamp duty rate rose to 6%. Governments have conveniently forgotten to raise the marginal threshold. The current threshold in Victoria is around $115,000. After that the tax impost of stamp duty raises itself to 6%. That 6% margin used to only tax the very well to do who lived in Toorak or the better end of Brighton. Not any more. Your ordinary mum and dad gets slugged the
Toorak rate in Caroline Springs or Narre Warren. That's the people's representatives representing you which has brought this situation about. Solution. Stamp duty should be a flat 2% on everyone, unless the purchase price is $2 million and above, indexed by CPI.
CGT - Capital Gains Tax. This is a reason investors wont sell even if there is a profit in it for them. Many will die first before selling, to avoid paying CGT.
GST - Builders are pointing out that up to 30% of new housing is taken up by various imposts, planning costs, stamp duty, GST etc.
All the above, combined, has resulted in a significant drop in turnover of property sales in Victoria. Have a look at the statistics.
Turnover of sales in Victoria
2001 182,543 properties
2006 143,416 properties
A decrease of 21%. Twenty one percent or 39,127 fewer properties were sold and the trend has not yet reversed.
This is a huge reduction on the supply side of the economic equation, whilst demand has increased due to population trends and investor demand from negative gearing and individuals chasing wealth progams.
The supply side is throttled by taxation issues, all listed above. Stamp duty is the worst offender as individuals postpone decisions to trade up or down because of the ruinous effect of stamp duty and the cost of switching properties.
Our politicians have their head in the sand on this one, and tinker with bullshit changes around the edges to rates and rebates.
Yes house prices have been rising around the world but Victoria is front and centre on the state in the top 10 of unaffordable housing. Taxes on property throttle and distort the supply and demand equation. The 21% drop in turnover in an economy that is booming is a telling statistic. I ask you John Brumby what are you going to do about it?
If not, the answer is for the Commonwealth to make property taxation a federal tax and let them decide what is a rational levy on property transfers. New Zealand it is Nil
Monetary economics applies as well. If interest rates drop, as they have or did for quite a while, prices rise. Interest rates have been on the rise for a number of consecutive quarters but we have still seen prices rising. This is an anomaly, so there must be another factor.
There is a third factor. And that is the government's role in the property sector. Taxation.
- State stamp duty
- Commonwealth Capital Gains Tax
- GST
Each of these taxes are either an ingoing tax or exit tax, and each will make a significant impact on peoples decision to buy, sell or hold.
The first, being stamp duty, is the most insinuous tax. The second affects only investors. The third impacts the new building sector the greatest.
Stamp duty, historically, taxed mums and dads on the purchase of a home at a rate of 2%. That now is effectively 5%, through the effects of inflation on the marginal threshold when the stamp duty rate rose to 6%. Governments have conveniently forgotten to raise the marginal threshold. The current threshold in Victoria is around $115,000. After that the tax impost of stamp duty raises itself to 6%. That 6% margin used to only tax the very well to do who lived in Toorak or the better end of Brighton. Not any more. Your ordinary mum and dad gets slugged the
Toorak rate in Caroline Springs or Narre Warren. That's the people's representatives representing you which has brought this situation about. Solution. Stamp duty should be a flat 2% on everyone, unless the purchase price is $2 million and above, indexed by CPI.
CGT - Capital Gains Tax. This is a reason investors wont sell even if there is a profit in it for them. Many will die first before selling, to avoid paying CGT.
GST - Builders are pointing out that up to 30% of new housing is taken up by various imposts, planning costs, stamp duty, GST etc.
All the above, combined, has resulted in a significant drop in turnover of property sales in Victoria. Have a look at the statistics.
Turnover of sales in Victoria
2001 182,543 properties
2006 143,416 properties
A decrease of 21%. Twenty one percent or 39,127 fewer properties were sold and the trend has not yet reversed.
This is a huge reduction on the supply side of the economic equation, whilst demand has increased due to population trends and investor demand from negative gearing and individuals chasing wealth progams.
The supply side is throttled by taxation issues, all listed above. Stamp duty is the worst offender as individuals postpone decisions to trade up or down because of the ruinous effect of stamp duty and the cost of switching properties.
Our politicians have their head in the sand on this one, and tinker with bullshit changes around the edges to rates and rebates.
Yes house prices have been rising around the world but Victoria is front and centre on the state in the top 10 of unaffordable housing. Taxes on property throttle and distort the supply and demand equation. The 21% drop in turnover in an economy that is booming is a telling statistic. I ask you John Brumby what are you going to do about it?
If not, the answer is for the Commonwealth to make property taxation a federal tax and let them decide what is a rational levy on property transfers. New Zealand it is Nil
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Its a joke
We were instructed to prepare a vendor statement for a sale of an apartment in Building No 5, Lorimer Street Docklands Melbourne
Joke 1. The apartment is affected by 5 body corporates, now called owners corporations. The new legislation Owners Corporation Act mandates the inclusion in the vendors statement of an owners corporation s151 certificate for each body corporate. So, unless the vendor includes the 5 certificates at $150 a pop, this could give rise to the vendor statement being invalid and giving the purchaser an option to withdraw from the sale any time before settlement. It is indeed perverse that One of the five owners corporations, levies the apartment a mere $29 per annum. Yet the owners corporation manager, Property Essentials, can charge our mutual client $750 for providing the 5 certificates. Is this one of the unintended consequences of the new legislation?
Joke 2. The size of the vendors statement could be used as a boat anchor, weighing in at a whopping 308 pages and a slip of a 60 megabyte file. And the agent wants 3 copies. The offending document was the Plan Subdivision as well as the 5 owners corporations certificates. This is not an uncommon problem around Docklands and any hi-rise apartment building in inner city Melbourne. The answer is digital signing of digital vendors statements by vendors and buyers. It can be done and will take some re-educating of estate agents et al.
Is there are answer to the first issue? I guess our politicians need to review the effect of the legislation after 12 months or so. Perhaps a $150 cap on what managers can charge to any vendor whether there is one, two or 5 owners corporations
If you want to view the offending documentation 1303, 90 Lorimer Street Docklands
Do not attempt to print
Joke 1. The apartment is affected by 5 body corporates, now called owners corporations. The new legislation Owners Corporation Act mandates the inclusion in the vendors statement of an owners corporation s151 certificate for each body corporate. So, unless the vendor includes the 5 certificates at $150 a pop, this could give rise to the vendor statement being invalid and giving the purchaser an option to withdraw from the sale any time before settlement. It is indeed perverse that One of the five owners corporations, levies the apartment a mere $29 per annum. Yet the owners corporation manager, Property Essentials, can charge our mutual client $750 for providing the 5 certificates. Is this one of the unintended consequences of the new legislation?
Joke 2. The size of the vendors statement could be used as a boat anchor, weighing in at a whopping 308 pages and a slip of a 60 megabyte file. And the agent wants 3 copies. The offending document was the Plan Subdivision as well as the 5 owners corporations certificates. This is not an uncommon problem around Docklands and any hi-rise apartment building in inner city Melbourne. The answer is digital signing of digital vendors statements by vendors and buyers. It can be done and will take some re-educating of estate agents et al.
Is there are answer to the first issue? I guess our politicians need to review the effect of the legislation after 12 months or so. Perhaps a $150 cap on what managers can charge to any vendor whether there is one, two or 5 owners corporations
If you want to view the offending documentation 1303, 90 Lorimer Street Docklands
Do not attempt to print
Real estate agents launch defamation action against Google
Two Victorian real estate agents have launched a defamation action against the search engine company Google.
Counsel for agents Mark Forytarz and Paul Castran of Castran Gilbert, appeared in the Supreme Court today for a directions hearing, alleging their clients have been defamed by articles found via Google searches.
The plaintiffs claim the articles suggest Mr Forytarz bullied an intellectually disabled man into selling his home in order to claim a commission of at least $200,000.
It is claimed the article paints Mr Forytarz as unscrupulous and unethical and he suffered distress embarrassment and humiliation as a result.
They also claim another article alleges Mr Castran used dummy bidders to inflate the prices of the properties he sold.
They claim they asked Google to remove links to the articles late last year, but no effective action was taken.
They will return to court in March.
ABC news 8 Feb 2008
Counsel for agents Mark Forytarz and Paul Castran of Castran Gilbert, appeared in the Supreme Court today for a directions hearing, alleging their clients have been defamed by articles found via Google searches.
The plaintiffs claim the articles suggest Mr Forytarz bullied an intellectually disabled man into selling his home in order to claim a commission of at least $200,000.
It is claimed the article paints Mr Forytarz as unscrupulous and unethical and he suffered distress embarrassment and humiliation as a result.
They also claim another article alleges Mr Castran used dummy bidders to inflate the prices of the properties he sold.
They claim they asked Google to remove links to the articles late last year, but no effective action was taken.
They will return to court in March.
ABC news 8 Feb 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
India: loan processing outsourcing
Loan Processing is perhaps the most tedious and crucial part of a mortgage loan application. Most loans are rejected at this stage for improper handling. With Processing Outsourcing one can decrease processing costs by up to 50%, Reduce processing complexity, Eliminate bottlenecks in post closing and servicing, improve customer service. Besides the budget associated with supporting an in-house mortgage processing department can be expensive. Recruiting and retaining qualified in-house mortgage loan processors can be frustrating, time-consuming and costly.
Area of Service :
• Loan Origination / Pre-qualification Support• Mortgage Loan Processing / Underwriting Back-Office• Due Diligence Audits • Document and Pipeline Management• Work flow Management/Business Process Re-engineering (Consultancy)• Existing/New Customer Support• Mortgage Servicing Back OfficeMortgage Acquisition and Origination Methods:
1. Lead generation through telemarketing and internet
2. Customer Acquisition analytics
3. 1003 Processing
4. Ordering Vendor services like Credit, Title and Deed
5. Supporting Doc verification
6. Property verification / valuation
7. Employment Verification / credit checks
8. Good Faith Estimates
9. Annual Percentage Ratio
10. Rate Adjustments
11. Payment Schedule
12. Security
13. Pre-payment
14. Rate Lock
15. Loan Submission
16. Funding
Currently the US market for mortgage processing is between $6 to 7.4 billion while the existing Indian corrolary is a measly $150 million. Express Computer Reports: Analysts expect this trend to accelerate, as labour costs constitute a significant portion of the overall costs that mortgage banks incur in servicing clients. Offshore outsourcing is expected to generate cost savings in the range of 30-50 percent.Mortgage banks are looking for ITO and BPO as long term strategic tools. India is fast becoming a Mortgage manufacturing hub, with its strong competitive advantage over other economies like China, Canada, Philipines etc.The loan processing is another area which can fetch in upto 50% of cost savings if offshored to destinations like India.
Works to India -
Area of Service :
• Loan Origination / Pre-qualification Support• Mortgage Loan Processing / Underwriting Back-Office• Due Diligence Audits • Document and Pipeline Management• Work flow Management/Business Process Re-engineering (Consultancy)• Existing/New Customer Support• Mortgage Servicing Back OfficeMortgage Acquisition and Origination Methods:
1. Lead generation through telemarketing and internet
2. Customer Acquisition analytics
3. 1003 Processing
4. Ordering Vendor services like Credit, Title and Deed
5. Supporting Doc verification
6. Property verification / valuation
7. Employment Verification / credit checks
8. Good Faith Estimates
9. Annual Percentage Ratio
10. Rate Adjustments
11. Payment Schedule
12. Security
13. Pre-payment
14. Rate Lock
15. Loan Submission
16. Funding
Currently the US market for mortgage processing is between $6 to 7.4 billion while the existing Indian corrolary is a measly $150 million. Express Computer Reports: Analysts expect this trend to accelerate, as labour costs constitute a significant portion of the overall costs that mortgage banks incur in servicing clients. Offshore outsourcing is expected to generate cost savings in the range of 30-50 percent.Mortgage banks are looking for ITO and BPO as long term strategic tools. India is fast becoming a Mortgage manufacturing hub, with its strong competitive advantage over other economies like China, Canada, Philipines etc.The loan processing is another area which can fetch in upto 50% of cost savings if offshored to destinations like India.
Works to India -
Monday, January 28, 2008
US: Despite Housing Slide, Real Estate Sites Sell
New York Times
TALK about an uh-oh moment.
It was late October, and Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm based in Seattle, had received just three months earlier a $12 million investment led by the marquee venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In the interim, the mortgage industry melted down, foreclosures spiked and housing sales slowed to a crawl. Now, one of Redfin’s biggest markets, Los Angeles, was battling a series of wildfires and Redfin’s sales had stopped cold.
Redfin was not the only victim of bad timing. Venture capitalists poured about $50 million into three other real estate Web sites last year — Zillow, Terabitz and Trulia — only to watch the market enter a historic slide.
Now, although most of the real estate industry wishes it could fast-forward through 2008, these online start-ups are surviving nicely. Each company recently reported strong sales and increases in Web traffic. Trulia surged to the top by the end of 2007, from sixth place in 2006, according to Nielsen Online.
Although these sites are not growing as quickly as they might have during a bullish market, they are at least growing.
“In September, we thought it was maybe the beginning of a very long downturn,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. “But for whatever reason, the last few months have been very strong for us.”
Executives of Trulia, Zillow and Terabitz said they, too, were encouraged by recent results. Online real estate companies, they added, could be today’s version of the online travel agencies that flourished after the Sept. 11 attacks: a cheap alternative for suppliers looking to market a product that is suddenly in low demand.
In this case, brokers and agents have seen their marketing budgets shrink in lock step with their commissions as they struggle to sell homes.
“There’s no doubt that a lot of brokers are feeling some pain right now,” said Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia, a real estate search service based in San Francisco. “They’re spending less on advertising than they were, but they’re spending a significantly larger portion online, because it’s cheaper, and it’s where the audience is.”
Mr. Flint would not disclose sales figures, but he said traffic was growing more than 10 percent monthly, “and revenues are growing much faster than that.”
Redfin is a slightly different story because it does not accept advertising from brokers and agents. Rather, the site competes with traditional brokerage firms to offer people a way to buy and sell homes without face-to-face contact with an agent.
Buyers and sellers communicate with Redfin’s agents — in effect, customer service representatives on the Web — by phone and through e-mail to negotiate deals and arrange house visits, among other things. Customers pay far lower fees to Redfin than they would pay to traditional agents.
With home sales slowing, Mr. Kelman said that “we had to get very serious about figuring out what works and what doesn’t for sellers.” The company’s analysts pored through sales data and found that, among other things, listings that make their debuts on Fridays draw 7.7 percent more visitors than those introduced on Thursdays. In addition, listings priced at $351,001 receive significantly less attention online than those listed at $350,000, because of how real estate search engines filter their results.
The company began disseminating such tips to clients in December, around the same time Redfin’s results began improving. Since late September, the site’s share of real estate sales in which Redfin represented the buyer rose by 23 percent in Seattle, to nearly 2.5 percent, and jumped by 176 percent in the San Francisco area, to nearly 1 percent.
Zillow, which in September raised $30 million from Legg Mason Capital Management and others, attracted 20 percent more visitors in December 2007 than in December 2006, according to Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s chief financial officer.
“Our growth actually accelerated in the back half of the year,” he said. “In a down market, buyers, sellers and agents need more tools.”
The amount of advertising revenue that Zillow generates for every 1,000 pages on its site has more than doubled from a year ago, Mr. Rascoff said, as the site has added more sales agents and advertising products that allow marketers to reach homeowners at specific addresses. (People wishing to see Zillow’s appraisal of a home type in the address).
Terabitz, which raised $10 million from Tudor Capital in July, builds and maintains online portals for real estate brokers and agents. The business only began selling its services in September, but Ashfaq Munshi, Terabitz’s chief executive, said he was pleased with the progress. The company this month introduced its first six brokerage sites, including that of Century 21 Abrams, Hutchinson and Associates, www.century21ah.com, which serves Middlesex and Mercer Counties in New Jersey.
Whether the success of the newcomers will spread to more established sites is an open question, said Kenneth Cassar, an analyst with Nielsen Online. “There’s dichotomy with what’s going on in this category, when it comes to visitors and advertisers,” he said. While the number of visitors is up, the number of ads run on real estate sites dropped 31 percent last year when compared with 2006.
In past years, Mr. Cassar said, consumers who visited these sites were usually in the market for a house, a new mortgage or goods to help them complete a remodeling. “Today, they want to understand the impact of the broader market on their local market,” he said. And as consumers find mostly bad news on that front, they are not exactly great targets for marketers who want to sell them new couches, new homes or a new mortgage.
“But people still need to live someplace and move from time to time,” Mr. Cassar said. “So there will be a consistent base of activity that’ll keep a number of these players quite happy.”
New York Times
By BOB TEDESCHI
Published: January 28, 2008
TALK about an uh-oh moment.
It was late October, and Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm based in Seattle, had received just three months earlier a $12 million investment led by the marquee venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In the interim, the mortgage industry melted down, foreclosures spiked and housing sales slowed to a crawl. Now, one of Redfin’s biggest markets, Los Angeles, was battling a series of wildfires and Redfin’s sales had stopped cold.
Redfin was not the only victim of bad timing. Venture capitalists poured about $50 million into three other real estate Web sites last year — Zillow, Terabitz and Trulia — only to watch the market enter a historic slide.
Now, although most of the real estate industry wishes it could fast-forward through 2008, these online start-ups are surviving nicely. Each company recently reported strong sales and increases in Web traffic. Trulia surged to the top by the end of 2007, from sixth place in 2006, according to Nielsen Online.
Although these sites are not growing as quickly as they might have during a bullish market, they are at least growing.
“In September, we thought it was maybe the beginning of a very long downturn,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. “But for whatever reason, the last few months have been very strong for us.”
Executives of Trulia, Zillow and Terabitz said they, too, were encouraged by recent results. Online real estate companies, they added, could be today’s version of the online travel agencies that flourished after the Sept. 11 attacks: a cheap alternative for suppliers looking to market a product that is suddenly in low demand.
In this case, brokers and agents have seen their marketing budgets shrink in lock step with their commissions as they struggle to sell homes.
“There’s no doubt that a lot of brokers are feeling some pain right now,” said Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia, a real estate search service based in San Francisco. “They’re spending less on advertising than they were, but they’re spending a significantly larger portion online, because it’s cheaper, and it’s where the audience is.”
Mr. Flint would not disclose sales figures, but he said traffic was growing more than 10 percent monthly, “and revenues are growing much faster than that.”
Redfin is a slightly different story because it does not accept advertising from brokers and agents. Rather, the site competes with traditional brokerage firms to offer people a way to buy and sell homes without face-to-face contact with an agent.
Buyers and sellers communicate with Redfin’s agents — in effect, customer service representatives on the Web — by phone and through e-mail to negotiate deals and arrange house visits, among other things. Customers pay far lower fees to Redfin than they would pay to traditional agents.
With home sales slowing, Mr. Kelman said that “we had to get very serious about figuring out what works and what doesn’t for sellers.” The company’s analysts pored through sales data and found that, among other things, listings that make their debuts on Fridays draw 7.7 percent more visitors than those introduced on Thursdays. In addition, listings priced at $351,001 receive significantly less attention online than those listed at $350,000, because of how real estate search engines filter their results.
The company began disseminating such tips to clients in December, around the same time Redfin’s results began improving. Since late September, the site’s share of real estate sales in which Redfin represented the buyer rose by 23 percent in Seattle, to nearly 2.5 percent, and jumped by 176 percent in the San Francisco area, to nearly 1 percent.
Zillow, which in September raised $30 million from Legg Mason Capital Management and others, attracted 20 percent more visitors in December 2007 than in December 2006, according to Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s chief financial officer.
“Our growth actually accelerated in the back half of the year,” he said. “In a down market, buyers, sellers and agents need more tools.”
The amount of advertising revenue that Zillow generates for every 1,000 pages on its site has more than doubled from a year ago, Mr. Rascoff said, as the site has added more sales agents and advertising products that allow marketers to reach homeowners at specific addresses. (People wishing to see Zillow’s appraisal of a home type in the address).
Terabitz, which raised $10 million from Tudor Capital in July, builds and maintains online portals for real estate brokers and agents. The business only began selling its services in September, but Ashfaq Munshi, Terabitz’s chief executive, said he was pleased with the progress. The company this month introduced its first six brokerage sites, including that of Century 21 Abrams, Hutchinson and Associates, www.century21ah.com, which serves Middlesex and Mercer Counties in New Jersey.
Whether the success of the newcomers will spread to more established sites is an open question, said Kenneth Cassar, an analyst with Nielsen Online. “There’s dichotomy with what’s going on in this category, when it comes to visitors and advertisers,” he said. While the number of visitors is up, the number of ads run on real estate sites dropped 31 percent last year when compared with 2006.
In past years, Mr. Cassar said, consumers who visited these sites were usually in the market for a house, a new mortgage or goods to help them complete a remodeling. “Today, they want to understand the impact of the broader market on their local market,” he said. And as consumers find mostly bad news on that front, they are not exactly great targets for marketers who want to sell them new couches, new homes or a new mortgage.
“But people still need to live someplace and move from time to time,” Mr. Cassar said. “So there will be a consistent base of activity that’ll keep a number of these players quite happy.”
New York Times
By BOB TEDESCHI
Published: January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT JOINS IN DEVELOPMENT OF NECS
The Federal Government has now joined the State and Territory Governments and the banking, legal, conveyancing and information broker industries as a member of the National Electronic Conveyancing System Steering Committee. This is a significant step in the development of a truly national system for electronic conveyancing.
NECS has wide ranging national ramifications and fits in well with the Federal Government’s thrust of red tape reduction, harmonization of State and Territory functions and finding national solutions to national problems. The new Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, has recently expressed his support for NECS and confirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to assist in its development.
Source NECS
December newsletter
NECS has wide ranging national ramifications and fits in well with the Federal Government’s thrust of red tape reduction, harmonization of State and Territory functions and finding national solutions to national problems. The new Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, has recently expressed his support for NECS and confirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to assist in its development.
Source NECS
December newsletter
The Risk of Innovation: Will Anyone Embrace It?
THE Prius has become one of the hottest cars in America — an amazing development, because this hybrid-electric car requires some rather large changes in how people behave.
I learned the need for Prius-style adaptation early this month, when I rented a Prius from Budget Rent A Car in Seattle. Much to my embarrassment, I couldn’t get it to go forward. Once I got going and arrived at my destination, I couldn’t figure out how to put it in reverse.
Fortunately, another Prius owner on the premises — they seem to be everywhere these days — gave me a quick lesson. You start the Prius by pressing a button on the dashboard, not once but twice. To put it in drive or reverse, you manipulate a very small stick protruding from the dashboard.
The next morning, I awoke before dawn and started the Prius, but no matter how many times I pressed the button, I couldn’t get it to move. I finally called Budget roadside assistance, and a polite man talked me back from my private technology disaster. It turns out that I had failed to tap the brake while moving the gear shifter in a certain inexplicable way.
I don’t think I can adapt to the behaviors required by the Prius. But thousands of people are, and Toyota, its maker, is reaping the benefits.
Whether humans will embrace or resist an innovation is the billion-dollar question facing designers of novel products and services. Why do people adapt to some new technologies and not to others? Fortunes are made and lost on the answer.
Great innovations have foundered over human stubbornness. Consider the Picturephone, trumpeted by AT&T at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 as a major technological advance. Engineers reasoned that if hearing someone’s voice over the phone was terrific, wouldn’t seeing a face be even better?
Consumers didn’t think so. AT&T’s Picturephone, which would have added around $90 to a person’s monthly phone bill in 1974, a huge amount for the time, “was superfluous, adding little information to voice alone, especially considering its high price,” said Kenneth Lipartito, a professor of history at Florida International University.
Even today, when adding video to a phone is a trivial cost, consumers may rebel. Video-conferencing often remains an activity forced on people by their employers.
Resistance to technology is an omnipresent risk for every innovator. Even a device as fabulously freeing as the personal computer struck some people as an abomination. In 1990, the poet Wendell Berry famously declared his perpetual allegiance to the typewriter in his essay, “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer.”
Few people joined him, however, a reminder that rejection isn’t the real specter facing new gear. Adaptable humans usually trade one technology for another, rather than reject any and all. To be accepted, innovations must deliver benefits — enough benefits to make change worthwhile.
“As consumers we’re constantly asking ourselves, where do we draw the line? How far do we go?” says Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Applications Foundation in San Francisco.
Businesses crave a sweet spot: where the line is drawn in favor of the innovator. The late Akio Morita, founder of Sony, talked about satisfying appetites that people didn’t even know they had. He achieved such a feat with the Sony Walkman, the music player introduced in 1979. While at the Lotus Development Corporation, Mr. Kapor created another such “killer app,” or application: the spreadsheet for the PC.
Killer apps are sought-after innovations because people get addicted to them and make behavioral changes that might otherwise be unthinkable. “Those who benefit from a technology adapt to its constraints and become dependent on it,” says John Staudenmaier, editor of the journal Technology and Culture and a historian of technology at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Dependency drives profits, the ultimate arbiter — for some — of an innovation’s success. Look how Apple has converted the mania for the iPod into record profits — and a record stock price.
IPod “addiction” seems benign. Yet some worry that other innovations may harbor health threats. As a result, they may be vulnerable to what Marc Ventresca, a lecturer at the Saïd Business School at Oxford, calls the “frog boiling” problem. For the frog, gradually rising heat causes no alarm — until the water is so hot that death is imminent.
“Adaptation can sometimes be dangerous, but the hazard isn’t apparent until it is ‘too late,’” Mr. Ventresca says.
While people may be fearful of allowing a seductive technology to imperil them — the “Frankenstein effect” — they may also fear the consequences of not changing their ways. As the case of climate change illustrates, many consumers are enthusiastic about changing their behavior — in this case, the way they drive cars — if they believe that by adapting to new technologies they will save themselves and the planet. Think of the Prius again.
FOR technological innovators, the cash register can ring either way. They may achieve a smash-hit breakthrough, or simply make a slight improvement in a technology that humans already feel comfortable with. Most innovators no longer even try to predict human reactions to their creations.
Henry Kressel, a partner at Warburg Pincus and a co-author of “Competing for the Future: How Digital Innovations Are Changing the World,” says, “You throw technologies into the market and see what sticks.”
The hope is that passionate “early adopters” will blaze a path toward mass acceptance of a new technology. Yet the truth is that no one can tell in advance which innovations people will adapt to and which will become the next example of the Picturephone.
Where people draw the line can be known only after the fact. Which is why innovation is always a risky — even humbling — business.
NY Times
G. Pascal Zachary teaches journalism at Stanford and writes about technology and economic development.
I learned the need for Prius-style adaptation early this month, when I rented a Prius from Budget Rent A Car in Seattle. Much to my embarrassment, I couldn’t get it to go forward. Once I got going and arrived at my destination, I couldn’t figure out how to put it in reverse.
Fortunately, another Prius owner on the premises — they seem to be everywhere these days — gave me a quick lesson. You start the Prius by pressing a button on the dashboard, not once but twice. To put it in drive or reverse, you manipulate a very small stick protruding from the dashboard.
The next morning, I awoke before dawn and started the Prius, but no matter how many times I pressed the button, I couldn’t get it to move. I finally called Budget roadside assistance, and a polite man talked me back from my private technology disaster. It turns out that I had failed to tap the brake while moving the gear shifter in a certain inexplicable way.
I don’t think I can adapt to the behaviors required by the Prius. But thousands of people are, and Toyota, its maker, is reaping the benefits.
Whether humans will embrace or resist an innovation is the billion-dollar question facing designers of novel products and services. Why do people adapt to some new technologies and not to others? Fortunes are made and lost on the answer.
Great innovations have foundered over human stubbornness. Consider the Picturephone, trumpeted by AT&T at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 as a major technological advance. Engineers reasoned that if hearing someone’s voice over the phone was terrific, wouldn’t seeing a face be even better?
Consumers didn’t think so. AT&T’s Picturephone, which would have added around $90 to a person’s monthly phone bill in 1974, a huge amount for the time, “was superfluous, adding little information to voice alone, especially considering its high price,” said Kenneth Lipartito, a professor of history at Florida International University.
Even today, when adding video to a phone is a trivial cost, consumers may rebel. Video-conferencing often remains an activity forced on people by their employers.
Resistance to technology is an omnipresent risk for every innovator. Even a device as fabulously freeing as the personal computer struck some people as an abomination. In 1990, the poet Wendell Berry famously declared his perpetual allegiance to the typewriter in his essay, “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer.”
Few people joined him, however, a reminder that rejection isn’t the real specter facing new gear. Adaptable humans usually trade one technology for another, rather than reject any and all. To be accepted, innovations must deliver benefits — enough benefits to make change worthwhile.
“As consumers we’re constantly asking ourselves, where do we draw the line? How far do we go?” says Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Applications Foundation in San Francisco.
Businesses crave a sweet spot: where the line is drawn in favor of the innovator. The late Akio Morita, founder of Sony, talked about satisfying appetites that people didn’t even know they had. He achieved such a feat with the Sony Walkman, the music player introduced in 1979. While at the Lotus Development Corporation, Mr. Kapor created another such “killer app,” or application: the spreadsheet for the PC.
Killer apps are sought-after innovations because people get addicted to them and make behavioral changes that might otherwise be unthinkable. “Those who benefit from a technology adapt to its constraints and become dependent on it,” says John Staudenmaier, editor of the journal Technology and Culture and a historian of technology at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Dependency drives profits, the ultimate arbiter — for some — of an innovation’s success. Look how Apple has converted the mania for the iPod into record profits — and a record stock price.
IPod “addiction” seems benign. Yet some worry that other innovations may harbor health threats. As a result, they may be vulnerable to what Marc Ventresca, a lecturer at the Saïd Business School at Oxford, calls the “frog boiling” problem. For the frog, gradually rising heat causes no alarm — until the water is so hot that death is imminent.
“Adaptation can sometimes be dangerous, but the hazard isn’t apparent until it is ‘too late,’” Mr. Ventresca says.
While people may be fearful of allowing a seductive technology to imperil them — the “Frankenstein effect” — they may also fear the consequences of not changing their ways. As the case of climate change illustrates, many consumers are enthusiastic about changing their behavior — in this case, the way they drive cars — if they believe that by adapting to new technologies they will save themselves and the planet. Think of the Prius again.
FOR technological innovators, the cash register can ring either way. They may achieve a smash-hit breakthrough, or simply make a slight improvement in a technology that humans already feel comfortable with. Most innovators no longer even try to predict human reactions to their creations.
Henry Kressel, a partner at Warburg Pincus and a co-author of “Competing for the Future: How Digital Innovations Are Changing the World,” says, “You throw technologies into the market and see what sticks.”
The hope is that passionate “early adopters” will blaze a path toward mass acceptance of a new technology. Yet the truth is that no one can tell in advance which innovations people will adapt to and which will become the next example of the Picturephone.
Where people draw the line can be known only after the fact. Which is why innovation is always a risky — even humbling — business.
NY Times
G. Pascal Zachary teaches journalism at Stanford and writes about technology and economic development.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Pulped — Vic forests end up as copy paper
MOST of the trees logged in Victoria's native forests last year ended up as pulp, much of it exported to Japan to become photocopying paper. More than 85% of the 1.59 million cubic metres of the state's native forest logged last financial year — the equivalent of 4745 MCGs — was turned into woodchips, sawdust and waste.
The figures were released after a freedom-of-information request. They show that despite claims the industry is based on providing sawlogs for the state's building needs, this type of wood accounted for only 11.9% of the amount logged, with the remaining 2.8% turned into shipping pallets.
VicForests, the quasi-government agency charged with commercialising the state's forests, said the figures were only indicative as it does not keep records on how the wood is used, but are based on "our industry knowledge".
Luke Chamberlain, of the Wilderness Society, said poor industry practice meant vast areas of forest were being logged for a small amount of sawlog.
He said plantation wood could supply most of the state's needs, other than the highest-quality sawlogs, which he argues should be logged selectively rather than the current practice of clear-felling large coupes of native forest.
"These figures prove that logging of our native forest is not driven by the need for sawlogs, but for woodchips," he said.
"Under the national competition policy and the rules under which VicForests was established, it must be commercially viable and obviously it isn't."
The Sunday Age reported in December that VicForests sold last year's harvest for $99 million but reported a $17,000 loss. Last year, pulp fetched about $10 a metric tonne, while high-quality sawlogs fetched more than $70.
Two of the three big mills that bought the timber — Australian Paper, a subsidiary of PaperlinX and Japanese-owned South East Fibre Exports — posted a combined profit of $87 million last financial year, the Australian Securities Exchange and Australian Securities and Investments Commission filings show.
The privately held Midway did not release its profit.
David Pollard, chief executive of VicForests, said the "proportional and total sawlog level was lower than previous years because of bushfires and subsequent low sawlog-producing fire-salvage operation".
"The amount of pulp log produced in any year is about twice the amount of sawlogs."
Mr Chamberlain said this could not be independently verified as the volume of differing types of wood is not provided in VicForests' annual report or on its website.
Mr Pollard said paper manufacture from pulp was "one of the highest value-adding industries in Australia" and that the pulp industry helps to keep the price of sawlog timber lower.
The Age - 20/1/08
Peter Weekes
The figures were released after a freedom-of-information request. They show that despite claims the industry is based on providing sawlogs for the state's building needs, this type of wood accounted for only 11.9% of the amount logged, with the remaining 2.8% turned into shipping pallets.
VicForests, the quasi-government agency charged with commercialising the state's forests, said the figures were only indicative as it does not keep records on how the wood is used, but are based on "our industry knowledge".
Luke Chamberlain, of the Wilderness Society, said poor industry practice meant vast areas of forest were being logged for a small amount of sawlog.
He said plantation wood could supply most of the state's needs, other than the highest-quality sawlogs, which he argues should be logged selectively rather than the current practice of clear-felling large coupes of native forest.
"These figures prove that logging of our native forest is not driven by the need for sawlogs, but for woodchips," he said.
"Under the national competition policy and the rules under which VicForests was established, it must be commercially viable and obviously it isn't."
The Sunday Age reported in December that VicForests sold last year's harvest for $99 million but reported a $17,000 loss. Last year, pulp fetched about $10 a metric tonne, while high-quality sawlogs fetched more than $70.
Two of the three big mills that bought the timber — Australian Paper, a subsidiary of PaperlinX and Japanese-owned South East Fibre Exports — posted a combined profit of $87 million last financial year, the Australian Securities Exchange and Australian Securities and Investments Commission filings show.
The privately held Midway did not release its profit.
David Pollard, chief executive of VicForests, said the "proportional and total sawlog level was lower than previous years because of bushfires and subsequent low sawlog-producing fire-salvage operation".
"The amount of pulp log produced in any year is about twice the amount of sawlogs."
Mr Chamberlain said this could not be independently verified as the volume of differing types of wood is not provided in VicForests' annual report or on its website.
Mr Pollard said paper manufacture from pulp was "one of the highest value-adding industries in Australia" and that the pulp industry helps to keep the price of sawlog timber lower.
The Age - 20/1/08
Peter Weekes
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Banks - the Blob
A spokesperson for BankWest estimated 80% of the issues between lawyers dealing with Financial Institutions is colloquially caused by
Where faxes with important messages and copy documents just disappear, vamoosh, never to be seen again, to re-appear another day perhaps, where do they go?, maybe .........
BankWest recognises the long term goal is the Electronic Mortgage and Loan Documentation and to achieve this the Blob has to go.
I just thought I might share this with you.
- fax heaven or hell
- the Blob
- the Black Hole
Where faxes with important messages and copy documents just disappear, vamoosh, never to be seen again, to re-appear another day perhaps, where do they go?, maybe .........
BankWest recognises the long term goal is the Electronic Mortgage and Loan Documentation and to achieve this the Blob has to go.
I just thought I might share this with you.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Slow take-up hobbles electronic conveyancing
The Victorian government has hatched a plan to entice users to its troubled electronic conveyancing (EC) project by offering a $500 rebate on conveyancing fees, but there are a few catches.
To qualify, the buyer and seller will in effect be compelled to use the same firm of solicitors and have just two choices of finance, and one would-be user has been asked to come back in a few months.
After seven years of development at a cost of $30 million, Victoria’s EC system – which allows property transfers to be conducted on the internet – will soon enter its second month of operations.
But so far the sole subscribers consist of a suburban law firm, Rennick & Gaynor, and two finance providers; Bendigo Bank and mecu credit union. The state government-owned developer VicUrban is also a subscriber. This means that to use the new system and to qualify for the rebate, the buyer and seller will need to retain lawyers Rennick and will need to have any mortgages arranged through Bendigo or Mecu.
Meanwhile, the state government is harvesting higher fees for paper transactions, which were jacked up in November by an average $30 a conveyance to make EC comparatively cheaper, and EC has been putting off customers.
Melbourne lawyer Brett Hayton, of Hayton Kosky, said his request to subscribe was met with a suggestion that he come back in February.
“It was fantastic that Victoria took steps to go forward with this project. I’m happy to become a user and to provide feedback, and I went to sign up – but you can’t.”
Mr Hayton said he was passed between three employees of Land Victoria over two weeks before being told to come back in February. In the meantime his clients are paying an estimated extra $30 to $50 in government fees for transactions using the old paper system.
“Electronic conveyancing has not lowered the costs of conveyancing. In fact it’s put them up,” he said.
A spokesman for Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the incident was a misunderstanding, and lawyers and conveyancers have been able to subscribe since the November 16 launch. Ten have applied and 16 online transactions are in the pipeline.
The $500 rebate is Victoria’s latest bid to entice financial institutions to co-operate with the project. Their participation is essential as they write the bulk of mortgages.
But they have refused to sign on due to infighting between the other states over whether Victoria’s EC software can be turned into a national system. Eight months of meetings, a communiqué signed by state and territory land ministers and interventions by the federal attorneys-general have so far failed to resolve the impasse.
Members of the national steering committee will meet again in Melbourne today.
AFR | Matt Drummond | 14 Dec 2007
To qualify, the buyer and seller will in effect be compelled to use the same firm of solicitors and have just two choices of finance, and one would-be user has been asked to come back in a few months.
After seven years of development at a cost of $30 million, Victoria’s EC system – which allows property transfers to be conducted on the internet – will soon enter its second month of operations.
But so far the sole subscribers consist of a suburban law firm, Rennick & Gaynor, and two finance providers; Bendigo Bank and mecu credit union. The state government-owned developer VicUrban is also a subscriber. This means that to use the new system and to qualify for the rebate, the buyer and seller will need to retain lawyers Rennick and will need to have any mortgages arranged through Bendigo or Mecu.
Meanwhile, the state government is harvesting higher fees for paper transactions, which were jacked up in November by an average $30 a conveyance to make EC comparatively cheaper, and EC has been putting off customers.
Melbourne lawyer Brett Hayton, of Hayton Kosky, said his request to subscribe was met with a suggestion that he come back in February.
“It was fantastic that Victoria took steps to go forward with this project. I’m happy to become a user and to provide feedback, and I went to sign up – but you can’t.”
Mr Hayton said he was passed between three employees of Land Victoria over two weeks before being told to come back in February. In the meantime his clients are paying an estimated extra $30 to $50 in government fees for transactions using the old paper system.
“Electronic conveyancing has not lowered the costs of conveyancing. In fact it’s put them up,” he said.
A spokesman for Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the incident was a misunderstanding, and lawyers and conveyancers have been able to subscribe since the November 16 launch. Ten have applied and 16 online transactions are in the pipeline.
The $500 rebate is Victoria’s latest bid to entice financial institutions to co-operate with the project. Their participation is essential as they write the bulk of mortgages.
But they have refused to sign on due to infighting between the other states over whether Victoria’s EC software can be turned into a national system. Eight months of meetings, a communiqué signed by state and territory land ministers and interventions by the federal attorneys-general have so far failed to resolve the impasse.
Members of the national steering committee will meet again in Melbourne today.
AFR | Matt Drummond | 14 Dec 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
UK Land Registry focuses on electronic mortgages and transfers
UK has made the sensible decision to focus first on electronic registration of dealings (2008) before embracing the more complex electronic settlements and funds transfer (2009).
This is the press release lifted from a finance website
Key learning from Land Registry's Chain Matrix prototype and valuable feedback from customers on electronic funds transfer have influenced Land Registry's decision to focus resource on introducing electronic discharges, charges (mortgages) and transfers as the priorities in its e-conveyancing programme.
This will include refreshing the existing product range and enhancing its web services to better serve the needs of its customers.
Head of Land Registry's Business Transformation Programme, Alasdair Lewis, said: "We have always recognised that we would move incrementally towards our long-term vision of e-conveyancing. We have already done much in-depth work with customers, testing the market, and our first priority must now be to introduce electronic discharges, charges and transfers - thus fully automating our core business of registering land.
"We recognise that this is a significant task and that it will not happen overnight. Therefore, in 2008, we will focus on delivery of electronic charges and electronic discharges, and pave the way for electronic transfers in 2009. We have concluded that these must be our next key steps.
"From the outset, we have been committed to enhancing chain transparency and to enabling full e-conveyancing through the electronic transfer of funds. Our Chain Matrix prototype is testimony to this commitment and we have learned much from the exercise.
This is the press release lifted from a finance website
Key learning from Land Registry's Chain Matrix prototype and valuable feedback from customers on electronic funds transfer have influenced Land Registry's decision to focus resource on introducing electronic discharges, charges (mortgages) and transfers as the priorities in its e-conveyancing programme.
This will include refreshing the existing product range and enhancing its web services to better serve the needs of its customers.
Head of Land Registry's Business Transformation Programme, Alasdair Lewis, said: "We have always recognised that we would move incrementally towards our long-term vision of e-conveyancing. We have already done much in-depth work with customers, testing the market, and our first priority must now be to introduce electronic discharges, charges and transfers - thus fully automating our core business of registering land.
"We recognise that this is a significant task and that it will not happen overnight. Therefore, in 2008, we will focus on delivery of electronic charges and electronic discharges, and pave the way for electronic transfers in 2009. We have concluded that these must be our next key steps.
"From the outset, we have been committed to enhancing chain transparency and to enabling full e-conveyancing through the electronic transfer of funds. Our Chain Matrix prototype is testimony to this commitment and we have learned much from the exercise.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Great Stamp Duty Ripoff
VICTORIAN Treasurer John Lenders has promised to consider tax relief and housing affordability for the May budget after booming stamp duty, GST and payroll revenues plumped up the expected budget surplus by more than half a billion dollars.
State Treasury now believes the budget will be in surplus by $842 million this financial year — a hefty $518 million more than its budget prediction seven months ago.
Tax revenue is likely to jump to $12.56 billion, almost $1 billion more than the $11.59 billion predicted at budget time. Stamp duty collections are expected to leap to a record $3.55 billion in 2007-08, compared to $2.85 billion tipped in the budget, while payroll tax predictions have been revised from $3.60 billion to $3.75 billion.
Source the age
State Treasury now believes the budget will be in surplus by $842 million this financial year — a hefty $518 million more than its budget prediction seven months ago.
Tax revenue is likely to jump to $12.56 billion, almost $1 billion more than the $11.59 billion predicted at budget time. Stamp duty collections are expected to leap to a record $3.55 billion in 2007-08, compared to $2.85 billion tipped in the budget, while payroll tax predictions have been revised from $3.60 billion to $3.75 billion.
Source the age
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Property vs Securities Trading
For electronic conveyancing, the focus and attention has been on government electronic conveyancing initiatives. The blame game for quite a while has been a politically driven one, vis a vis the parochial nature of one state vs another. You end up with a situation where lawyers (as a collective) and the banks as an industry can (quite wrongly in my view) point the finger at and blame the state governments. It is quite convenient.
Analytically, you need to look at the conveyancing cycle to get a better understanding of the business. Then you can apportion the blame.
First lets look at share trading. It has been electronic for close on 20 years. There are very similar parallels with the property and mortgage business. In share trading there are three distinct phases in a conducting a share trade
There is not one single distinct system that controls the industry. Ditto for futures trading and securities trading of bills and bonds.
These industries are turbo-charged. With the above, you ask yourself where is the paper?
Within Australia, where are the stand out changes in the property and mortgage industry? You have to look and segment the market and look at who is responsible for which part
1. the Contract.
This can be broken down into several parts
1.1 the market place which determines the price, and this is ruled by -
1.1.1 the electronic market place - web sites like realestate.com.au rule
1.1.2 estate agents still play a role like brokers do in some share trading but not at all times
In the future we will see properties traded online with a bid / offer auction system.
1.2 the legal side of the contract -
1.2.1 rules of vendor disclosure
1.2.2 the Contract of Offer and Acceptance
1.2.3 digital signatures
This is the space where companies like 247legal.com.au play a role. Where all the parts of the contract described in 1.2 can be conducted digitally, online in a collaborative fashion. We are close to finishing the development on incorporating (simple) digital signature technology into the system currently under development.
2. the Mortgage
This is the world ruled by Financial Institutions, mortgage brokers, credit agencies, valuers, mortgage insurers, lawyers and conveyancers. There are several steps in the mortgage chain which start at loan application and progress through approval, loan offer, security, settlement, registration, funding, securitisation, servicing and discharge. In the world of open and collaborative systems, the lending industry has made progress but this has been constrained to the mortgage broking industry. The truth is the banking systems are closed and introspective. They are inefficient and inelastic.
From the perspective of the interface with the government's electronic conveyancing systems the following rules
2.1 Loan Approval
2.2 Loan Contract
2.3 Security
2.4 Settlement
2.5 Registration
The government's electronic conveyancing proposal affects only 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, but and the only but is, it must be national and it must be compulsory (or re-think the current approach of all parties must be party to the transaction)
Again, looking at the blame game, the government is not responsible for the earlier parts. The banks and the lawyers must devise and adopt open systems to deal with loan approval, loan contracts and security in innovative ways. And because governments have made a hash of developing national electronic settlement systems, private enterprise needs to step in and provide alternate solutions. We must stop blaming the government. Banks need to start adopting smart technology, smarter systems which allows lawyers and other suppliers to interact with their systems. They are doing this with mortgage brokers but I can attest that progress on any other front is non existent or at least not apparent.
3. Registration
Well not a lot needs to be said here that has not already been said. Governments have monopolies on this. National initiatives are imperative. Nirvana would be a single national property register.
Analytically, you need to look at the conveyancing cycle to get a better understanding of the business. Then you can apportion the blame.
First lets look at share trading. It has been electronic for close on 20 years. There are very similar parallels with the property and mortgage business. In share trading there are three distinct phases in a conducting a share trade
- the contract. share trading is all screen trading and the bid / offer systems is conducted by the ASX via SEATS - and can be accessed by brokers and the public alike.
- the financial settlement. this is conducted by CHESS (part of the ASX and stands for Clearing House Electronic Subregister System). Brokers operate client accounts and brokers settle the money side of things (T3 or T1) for transfer of client funds.
- registration. this is maintained by companies like Computershare, Perpetual, LINK on behalf of the public companies you and I invest in.
There is not one single distinct system that controls the industry. Ditto for futures trading and securities trading of bills and bonds.
These industries are turbo-charged. With the above, you ask yourself where is the paper?
Within Australia, where are the stand out changes in the property and mortgage industry? You have to look and segment the market and look at who is responsible for which part
1. the Contract.
This can be broken down into several parts
1.1 the market place which determines the price, and this is ruled by -
1.1.1 the electronic market place - web sites like realestate.com.au rule
1.1.2 estate agents still play a role like brokers do in some share trading but not at all times
In the future we will see properties traded online with a bid / offer auction system.
1.2 the legal side of the contract -
1.2.1 rules of vendor disclosure
1.2.2 the Contract of Offer and Acceptance
1.2.3 digital signatures
This is the space where companies like 247legal.com.au play a role. Where all the parts of the contract described in 1.2 can be conducted digitally, online in a collaborative fashion. We are close to finishing the development on incorporating (simple) digital signature technology into the system currently under development.
2. the Mortgage
This is the world ruled by Financial Institutions, mortgage brokers, credit agencies, valuers, mortgage insurers, lawyers and conveyancers. There are several steps in the mortgage chain which start at loan application and progress through approval, loan offer, security, settlement, registration, funding, securitisation, servicing and discharge. In the world of open and collaborative systems, the lending industry has made progress but this has been constrained to the mortgage broking industry. The truth is the banking systems are closed and introspective. They are inefficient and inelastic.
From the perspective of the interface with the government's electronic conveyancing systems the following rules
2.1 Loan Approval
2.2 Loan Contract
2.3 Security
2.4 Settlement
2.5 Registration
The government's electronic conveyancing proposal affects only 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, but and the only but is, it must be national and it must be compulsory (or re-think the current approach of all parties must be party to the transaction)
Again, looking at the blame game, the government is not responsible for the earlier parts. The banks and the lawyers must devise and adopt open systems to deal with loan approval, loan contracts and security in innovative ways. And because governments have made a hash of developing national electronic settlement systems, private enterprise needs to step in and provide alternate solutions. We must stop blaming the government. Banks need to start adopting smart technology, smarter systems which allows lawyers and other suppliers to interact with their systems. They are doing this with mortgage brokers but I can attest that progress on any other front is non existent or at least not apparent.
3. Registration
Well not a lot needs to be said here that has not already been said. Governments have monopolies on this. National initiatives are imperative. Nirvana would be a single national property register.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Signatures on Electronic Documents
Article by Alan Davidson 2004
Alan Davidson is a senior law lecturer with the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland. Email him at a.davidson@law.uq.edu.au or visit his website at www.uq.edu.au/davidson/
Reprint of his excellent article.
Placing your name at the end of an email or electronic document has a number of implications that we should all be aware of . . .
Typing your name at the end of a paper document has been held to be a signature. So, should typing your name at the end of an email be similarly regarded as a signature with all the corresponding legal ramifications?
We all know that the contents of an email can be as legally binding as the most structured language on the firm’s letter head. How ever, email is fast and cost efficient. To maintain a formal and structured approach, many firms have adopted the practice of creating formal replies in the usual way, but dispatching the entire file as an attachment to an email. The body of such an email may simply state, ‘Formal correspondence is attached’, while the ‘subject’ states the matter as usual. There are a number of advantages and pitfalls associated with such a practice.
The attachment
The attachment is typically a text file, perhaps using Microsoft Word or an equivalent. The firm’s letter head and design can be incorporated into the file. Two significant matters must be considered. First, the possibility of alteration and second the signature. Last month I considered a number of approaches to en sure documents attached to emails were authentic. This month I consider the status of a typed signature at the close of an email and on an attachment file.
Signatures
The status of a standard signature is often taken for granted. However, we all know that it is the intention behind the signature that is paramount. A signature may appear on a document, but the signor may not bound be cause he or she lacked the requisite underlying intention, raising defences such as duress, undue influence, nonest factum, unconscionability etc. Two signatures may appear side by side on a contract, but one may intend to be bound contractually while the other is a witness. The ‘signature’ may be an ‘X’ or some other mark indicating execution. Cases such as R v Moore; Ex Parte Myers (1884) 10 VLR 322 permit a printed name of a party to be sufficient. Higginbotham J stated that a “signature is only a mark” and may “be impressed upon the document by a stamp engraved with a facsimile of the ordinary signature of the person signing”. The term electronic signature does not mean a digitised signature nor a digital signature.
A digitised signature refers to graphic representation in digital form of a person’s hand writing signature. An electronic signature also includes any letters, characters, numbers or other symbols in digital form attached to or logically associated with an electronic record such as an email or attachment to an email. This could be as simple as typing your name at the end of an email. A digital signature is a specific type of secure electronic signature, sometimes referred to as a digital certificate. In R v Frolchenko (1998) QCA 43 Williams J in the Queensland Court of Appeal stated that such a electronic document could be authenticated by looking at other factors such as whether the name appears in type script at the end of the document. In the US case Doherty v Registry of Motor Vehicles (1998) Agnes J held that a police report made “by means of e-mail or some other electronic method” is regarded as signed, subjecting the reporting officer to possible perjury charges. In McGuren v Simpson [2004] NSWSC 35 (18 February 2004) the court quoted this passage from Cheshire and Fifoot’s ‘Law of Contract’ 7th edition: “The word ‘signature’ has been very loosely interpreted. A printed slip may suffice if it contains the name of the defendant. This relaxation of the statutory language is well established one hundred years ago and offers a striking in stance of the way in which legislation may be over laid by judicial precedent.” Statements to a similar effect are to be found in ‘The Laws of Australia’ 7.2 Contract ‘Vitiating Factors’ Chapter 2 Pt C Div 5 and in ‘Halsbury’s Laws of Australia’ 110 Contract ‘Formation of Con tract’ [110-1030].In McGuren v Simpson the document was a hardcopy print out of an electronic communication from the plain tiff. The court referred to Lockheed-Arabia v Owen [1993] 3 All ER 641 in which Mann LJ held that a photocopy constituted ‘writing’, adding “an ongoing statute ought to be read to accommodate technological change”. Similarly in Wilkens v Iowa Insurance Commissioner (1990) 457 NW 2d 1 (US), the court held that a requirement to maintain a written record of an insurance con tract was satisfied by the insurer storing written records on its computer system. The Law Commission for England and Wales in its paper entitled ‘Electronic Commerce: Formal requirements in Commercial Transactions – advice from the Law Commission’ ex pressed the same view. In deed the use of words by a party with out any other form of signature can be regarded alone as the writer’s signature. This has been described as the ‘authenticated signature fiction’ as discussed by the High Court in Pirie v Saunders (1961) 104 CLR 149. On this issue in ‘Halsbury’s Laws of Australia’ 110 Con tract at [110-1030], it is said: “Where the name of the party to be charged appears on the alleged note or memorandum, for example, be cause it has been typed in by the other party, the so-called ‘authenticated signature fiction’ will apply where the party to be charged expressly or impliedly acknowledges the writing as an authenticated expression of the contract so that the typed words will be deemed to be his or her signature.” In McGuren v Simpson the court commented that as McGuren’s name appeared in the email and she expressly acknowledged in the email an authenticated expression of a prior agreement, the email was “recognisable as a note of a concluded agreement”. The court concluded that both the signature alone and in conjunction with the writing could be regarded as a signature in law.
Legislation
Section 10 of the Commonwealth Electronic Transactions Act 1999 and section 14 of the Queensland ETA give legal effect to the electronic signature only after regard is given “to all the relevant circumstances when the (electronic signature) was used” and that “the method was as reliable as was appropriate for the purposes for which the information was communicated”. Unfortunately this formulation leaves open a number of possible arguments. Courts are yet to consider both the circumstances and the meaning of “as reliable appropriate”. Never the less the underlying intention of parliament is to ensure functional equivalence, by providing for validation of electronic signatures. One approach in practice can be to include a note in electronic documents that the electronic signature is intended to act as a signature as contemplated by the federal and state acts.
Practice
Various practices have developed to deal with the effect of the ‘signature’ typed at the end of an electronic message such as an email or attachment to an email. One practice is to including a detailed paragraph in the body of the message explaining the writer’s intention. Another practice is to place that paragraph at the end of the email with other disclaimers. Per haps the simplest and most direct approach is to place at the end of the electronic message words such as: • Signature appended pursuant to the federal and state Electronic Transactions Acts Such words would indicate the writer’s intention that the typed electronic signature was intended to operate as a signature as contemplated by the Electronic Transaction Acts
Alan Davidson is a senior law lecturer with the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland. Email him at a.davidson@law.uq.edu.au or visit his website at www.uq.edu.au/davidson/
Reprint of his excellent article.
Placing your name at the end of an email or electronic document has a number of implications that we should all be aware of . . .
Typing your name at the end of a paper document has been held to be a signature. So, should typing your name at the end of an email be similarly regarded as a signature with all the corresponding legal ramifications?
We all know that the contents of an email can be as legally binding as the most structured language on the firm’s letter head. How ever, email is fast and cost efficient. To maintain a formal and structured approach, many firms have adopted the practice of creating formal replies in the usual way, but dispatching the entire file as an attachment to an email. The body of such an email may simply state, ‘Formal correspondence is attached’, while the ‘subject’ states the matter as usual. There are a number of advantages and pitfalls associated with such a practice.
The attachment
The attachment is typically a text file, perhaps using Microsoft Word or an equivalent. The firm’s letter head and design can be incorporated into the file. Two significant matters must be considered. First, the possibility of alteration and second the signature. Last month I considered a number of approaches to en sure documents attached to emails were authentic. This month I consider the status of a typed signature at the close of an email and on an attachment file.
Signatures
The status of a standard signature is often taken for granted. However, we all know that it is the intention behind the signature that is paramount. A signature may appear on a document, but the signor may not bound be cause he or she lacked the requisite underlying intention, raising defences such as duress, undue influence, nonest factum, unconscionability etc. Two signatures may appear side by side on a contract, but one may intend to be bound contractually while the other is a witness. The ‘signature’ may be an ‘X’ or some other mark indicating execution. Cases such as R v Moore; Ex Parte Myers (1884) 10 VLR 322 permit a printed name of a party to be sufficient. Higginbotham J stated that a “signature is only a mark” and may “be impressed upon the document by a stamp engraved with a facsimile of the ordinary signature of the person signing”. The term electronic signature does not mean a digitised signature nor a digital signature.
A digitised signature refers to graphic representation in digital form of a person’s hand writing signature. An electronic signature also includes any letters, characters, numbers or other symbols in digital form attached to or logically associated with an electronic record such as an email or attachment to an email. This could be as simple as typing your name at the end of an email. A digital signature is a specific type of secure electronic signature, sometimes referred to as a digital certificate. In R v Frolchenko (1998) QCA 43 Williams J in the Queensland Court of Appeal stated that such a electronic document could be authenticated by looking at other factors such as whether the name appears in type script at the end of the document. In the US case Doherty v Registry of Motor Vehicles (1998) Agnes J held that a police report made “by means of e-mail or some other electronic method” is regarded as signed, subjecting the reporting officer to possible perjury charges. In McGuren v Simpson [2004] NSWSC 35 (18 February 2004) the court quoted this passage from Cheshire and Fifoot’s ‘Law of Contract’ 7th edition: “The word ‘signature’ has been very loosely interpreted. A printed slip may suffice if it contains the name of the defendant. This relaxation of the statutory language is well established one hundred years ago and offers a striking in stance of the way in which legislation may be over laid by judicial precedent.” Statements to a similar effect are to be found in ‘The Laws of Australia’ 7.2 Contract ‘Vitiating Factors’ Chapter 2 Pt C Div 5 and in ‘Halsbury’s Laws of Australia’ 110 Contract ‘Formation of Con tract’ [110-1030].In McGuren v Simpson the document was a hardcopy print out of an electronic communication from the plain tiff. The court referred to Lockheed-Arabia v Owen [1993] 3 All ER 641 in which Mann LJ held that a photocopy constituted ‘writing’, adding “an ongoing statute ought to be read to accommodate technological change”. Similarly in Wilkens v Iowa Insurance Commissioner (1990) 457 NW 2d 1 (US), the court held that a requirement to maintain a written record of an insurance con tract was satisfied by the insurer storing written records on its computer system. The Law Commission for England and Wales in its paper entitled ‘Electronic Commerce: Formal requirements in Commercial Transactions – advice from the Law Commission’ ex pressed the same view. In deed the use of words by a party with out any other form of signature can be regarded alone as the writer’s signature. This has been described as the ‘authenticated signature fiction’ as discussed by the High Court in Pirie v Saunders (1961) 104 CLR 149. On this issue in ‘Halsbury’s Laws of Australia’ 110 Con tract at [110-1030], it is said: “Where the name of the party to be charged appears on the alleged note or memorandum, for example, be cause it has been typed in by the other party, the so-called ‘authenticated signature fiction’ will apply where the party to be charged expressly or impliedly acknowledges the writing as an authenticated expression of the contract so that the typed words will be deemed to be his or her signature.” In McGuren v Simpson the court commented that as McGuren’s name appeared in the email and she expressly acknowledged in the email an authenticated expression of a prior agreement, the email was “recognisable as a note of a concluded agreement”. The court concluded that both the signature alone and in conjunction with the writing could be regarded as a signature in law.
Legislation
Section 10 of the Commonwealth Electronic Transactions Act 1999 and section 14 of the Queensland ETA give legal effect to the electronic signature only after regard is given “to all the relevant circumstances when the (electronic signature) was used” and that “the method was as reliable as was appropriate for the purposes for which the information was communicated”. Unfortunately this formulation leaves open a number of possible arguments. Courts are yet to consider both the circumstances and the meaning of “as reliable appropriate”. Never the less the underlying intention of parliament is to ensure functional equivalence, by providing for validation of electronic signatures. One approach in practice can be to include a note in electronic documents that the electronic signature is intended to act as a signature as contemplated by the federal and state acts.
Practice
Various practices have developed to deal with the effect of the ‘signature’ typed at the end of an electronic message such as an email or attachment to an email. One practice is to including a detailed paragraph in the body of the message explaining the writer’s intention. Another practice is to place that paragraph at the end of the email with other disclaimers. Per haps the simplest and most direct approach is to place at the end of the electronic message words such as: • Signature appended pursuant to the federal and state Electronic Transactions Acts Such words would indicate the writer’s intention that the typed electronic signature was intended to operate as a signature as contemplated by the Electronic Transaction Acts
Sub-Prime Speculation
I have a hypothesis.
The ability for banks to service loans at the back end is inelastic. Support is predominately labour driven, not technically driven.
If the back end was technically driven, the banks back end would be elastic. If volume of business grows, relatively speaking they would only have to add one or two more staff.
Conclusion 1. Banks need to adopt more sophisticated technology driven solutions. They need to open up their systems, to give conveyancing representatives the ability to perform simple interactive tasks.
Examples:
Conclusion 2. Adopt and incorporate LIXI standards across the industry
Conclusion 3. Dont think government electronic systems are the panacea for the industry's problems
Xmas should be a time of joy. Not a time of senseless frustration
- This US sub-prime thing, real or unreal, is shifting Aussie borrowers back to the Big 4
- The service levels for back end settlements (of the Big 4) has never been worse. The Xmas rush is one thing, but the increased volume of business is stressing out the bank's ability to service the Loans.
The ability for banks to service loans at the back end is inelastic. Support is predominately labour driven, not technically driven.
If the back end was technically driven, the banks back end would be elastic. If volume of business grows, relatively speaking they would only have to add one or two more staff.
Conclusion 1. Banks need to adopt more sophisticated technology driven solutions. They need to open up their systems, to give conveyancing representatives the ability to perform simple interactive tasks.
Examples:
- view loan status
- book in settlement online (date, time, place)
- view available funds and provide cheque details
- vice verca, book in a discharge and be given amount to discharge loan
Conclusion 2. Adopt and incorporate LIXI standards across the industry
Conclusion 3. Dont think government electronic systems are the panacea for the industry's problems
Xmas should be a time of joy. Not a time of senseless frustration
Friday, December 07, 2007
Seven Tiers of Data Recovery
A fire broke out in the building that houses Land Victoria at 570 Bourke Street Melbourne taking out the sub-station and power and the land titles systems. We received the following message -
6 Nov 07 1.28pm "Please be advised that VIC Landata is currently unavailable".
I asked when the system will be up and running again and got this reply
"There has been a fire inside landata’s building, and consequently the whole building has lost power. Unfortunately there is no ETA. I recommend checking the ‘System Status’ screen for further updates. Otherwise, once the Landata message comes down, you will be able to process searches."
The update the following day
7 Nov 07 10.18am
"Please be aware that due to a fire in the office building that houses Landata yesterday they are currently experiencing major service disruptions.
We have been notified that VOTS connectivity has been restored meaning that titles are retrievable.
However, access to the imaging system remains down – so plans, instruments etc remain unavailable for the time being.
All Victorian Property Certificates will be delayed and whilst they can be ordered no orders will be processed until mid next week.
For Victorian Channel Partners we have also been advised that there is no over the counter service available.
We will keep you updated as soon as we know more."
What's the lesson in all this? There has been an unfortunate incident, the power has been taken out for over 12 hours and Land Victoria is out for 24 hours or so. And at the busiest time of the year, Victoria's land registration system is down. This is a major disruption and one that you would have thought avoidable.
I ran this past some technical guys who were astounded but not surprised. They were astounded because this breaches the basic protocol of disaster recovery systems put to the test. There is a good description in Wikipedia of the Seven Tiers of Disaster Recovery. After reading this entry I would have assumed that Land Victoria would have in place Tier 6: Zero or near-Zero data loss or Tier 7: Highly automated, business integrated solution for disaster recovery.
Definition: Tier 6 business continuity solutions maintain the highest levels of data currency. They are used by businesses with little or no tolerance for data loss and who need to restore data to applications rapidly. These solutions have no dependence on the applications or applications staffs to provide data consistency. Tier 6 solutions require some form of Disk Mirroring. There are various synchronous and asynchronous solutions available from the mainframe storage vendors. Each solution is somewhat different, offering different capabilities and providing different Recovery Point and Recovery Time objectives. Often some form of automated tape solution is also required. However, this can vary somewhat depending on the amount and type of data residing on tape.
In a nut shell Tier 6 assumes that your data is kept and mirrored in 2 geographically separate data centres. Data is being written and read to either or both data centres. The data is automatically synched. Each data centre is a mirror of the other. If one data centre goes offline, as it did at 570 Bourke Street, the service is unaffected as the load is then completely taken up at the other data centre.
A good analogy is if you are flying in a 747 and you lose the left engine, you can still fly and land on the right engine.
Google is a prime example of this to the extreme. It would be Tier 7(+). Google is rewriting the book on data centres.
Again I stress the above was an unfortunate incident with staff put at risk. It was shocking to hear people being treated for smoke inhalation or being trapped in lifts. But in a business environment I would have thought this is a case for a Tier 6 DRP (at a minimum). A Tier 6 solution equals 99.9% uptime with no loss of data or service. However, I am not in possession of the full facts or background or steps taken to get the system up and running with no loss of data. There are lessons in all of this.
6 Nov 07 1.28pm "Please be advised that VIC Landata is currently unavailable".
I asked when the system will be up and running again and got this reply
"There has been a fire inside landata’s building, and consequently the whole building has lost power. Unfortunately there is no ETA. I recommend checking the ‘System Status’ screen for further updates. Otherwise, once the Landata message comes down, you will be able to process searches."
The update the following day
7 Nov 07 10.18am
"Please be aware that due to a fire in the office building that houses Landata yesterday they are currently experiencing major service disruptions.
We have been notified that VOTS connectivity has been restored meaning that titles are retrievable.
However, access to the imaging system remains down – so plans, instruments etc remain unavailable for the time being.
All Victorian Property Certificates will be delayed and whilst they can be ordered no orders will be processed until mid next week.
For Victorian Channel Partners we have also been advised that there is no over the counter service available.
We will keep you updated as soon as we know more."
What's the lesson in all this? There has been an unfortunate incident, the power has been taken out for over 12 hours and Land Victoria is out for 24 hours or so. And at the busiest time of the year, Victoria's land registration system is down. This is a major disruption and one that you would have thought avoidable.
I ran this past some technical guys who were astounded but not surprised. They were astounded because this breaches the basic protocol of disaster recovery systems put to the test. There is a good description in Wikipedia of the Seven Tiers of Disaster Recovery. After reading this entry I would have assumed that Land Victoria would have in place Tier 6: Zero or near-Zero data loss or Tier 7: Highly automated, business integrated solution for disaster recovery.
Definition: Tier 6 business continuity solutions maintain the highest levels of data currency. They are used by businesses with little or no tolerance for data loss and who need to restore data to applications rapidly. These solutions have no dependence on the applications or applications staffs to provide data consistency. Tier 6 solutions require some form of Disk Mirroring. There are various synchronous and asynchronous solutions available from the mainframe storage vendors. Each solution is somewhat different, offering different capabilities and providing different Recovery Point and Recovery Time objectives. Often some form of automated tape solution is also required. However, this can vary somewhat depending on the amount and type of data residing on tape.
In a nut shell Tier 6 assumes that your data is kept and mirrored in 2 geographically separate data centres. Data is being written and read to either or both data centres. The data is automatically synched. Each data centre is a mirror of the other. If one data centre goes offline, as it did at 570 Bourke Street, the service is unaffected as the load is then completely taken up at the other data centre.
A good analogy is if you are flying in a 747 and you lose the left engine, you can still fly and land on the right engine.
Google is a prime example of this to the extreme. It would be Tier 7(+). Google is rewriting the book on data centres.
Again I stress the above was an unfortunate incident with staff put at risk. It was shocking to hear people being treated for smoke inhalation or being trapped in lifts. But in a business environment I would have thought this is a case for a Tier 6 DRP (at a minimum). A Tier 6 solution equals 99.9% uptime with no loss of data or service. However, I am not in possession of the full facts or background or steps taken to get the system up and running with no loss of data. There are lessons in all of this.
McClelland favours national e-conveyancing system
THE Rudd Government plans to become directly involved in helping to build the planned National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS).
Newly appointed Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Australian that he favoured a national e-conveyancing system and would accept an invitation to join the steering committee in charge of developing it.
The move would strengthen the hand of lawyers, bankers and state governments that favour a single national e-conveyancing system, as opposed to smaller state-based systems.
The NECS steering committee currently has representatives from all state governments, the Law Council of Australia, the Australian Bankers Association and the Australian Institute of Conveyancers.
Mr McClelland said he would ensure that the e-conveyancing issue was discussed at the standing committee of attorneys-general.
The Attorney-General's department had already provided him a briefing on the issues involved in e-conveyancing.
"Clearly, electronic conveyancing is inevitable. It is clearly the way of the future," he said. "There should be a national system. And it is obvious and desirable that this be achieved through a co-operative scheme - and I will be using every endeavour to achieve that."
Among those in favour of including the federal Government on the steering committee was NECS chairman Les Taylor, a former general counsel of the Commonwealth Bank.
Last month, state governments established a high-powered committee of officials to streamline work on a seamless national conveyancing system. This move was an initiative of the Victorian Minister responsible for e-conveyancing, Gavin Jennings. It was aimed at reassuring the banks and other private sector users of conveyancing that all the states worked towards the establishment of a national system.
The initiative, however, has not persuaded the major banks to end their boycott of Victoria's state-based e-conveyancing system. The boycott was imposed over what the banks saw as a lack of co-operation by the Victorian Government with moves aimed at establishing a national system.
Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | December 07, 2007 The Australian
Newly appointed Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Australian that he favoured a national e-conveyancing system and would accept an invitation to join the steering committee in charge of developing it.
The move would strengthen the hand of lawyers, bankers and state governments that favour a single national e-conveyancing system, as opposed to smaller state-based systems.
The NECS steering committee currently has representatives from all state governments, the Law Council of Australia, the Australian Bankers Association and the Australian Institute of Conveyancers.
Mr McClelland said he would ensure that the e-conveyancing issue was discussed at the standing committee of attorneys-general.
The Attorney-General's department had already provided him a briefing on the issues involved in e-conveyancing.
"Clearly, electronic conveyancing is inevitable. It is clearly the way of the future," he said. "There should be a national system. And it is obvious and desirable that this be achieved through a co-operative scheme - and I will be using every endeavour to achieve that."
Among those in favour of including the federal Government on the steering committee was NECS chairman Les Taylor, a former general counsel of the Commonwealth Bank.
Last month, state governments established a high-powered committee of officials to streamline work on a seamless national conveyancing system. This move was an initiative of the Victorian Minister responsible for e-conveyancing, Gavin Jennings. It was aimed at reassuring the banks and other private sector users of conveyancing that all the states worked towards the establishment of a national system.
The initiative, however, has not persuaded the major banks to end their boycott of Victoria's state-based e-conveyancing system. The boycott was imposed over what the banks saw as a lack of co-operation by the Victorian Government with moves aimed at establishing a national system.
Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | December 07, 2007 The Australian
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Monty Python - "Cheese Shop"
The Players:
John Cleese - Mousebender;
Michael Palin - Wensleydale;
The Scene:
An Edwardian-style shop which carries the signs:
'Ye Olde Cheese Emporium';
Sir, I would like to lodge a caveat.
Sorry, fresh out of caveats
Application surviving proprietor?
No
Application Personal Representative?
No
Discharge of Mortgage
Aah, No
Mortgage?
No
Transfer, dare I ask?
............
That about sums up EC's long awaited 16 November 2007 open for business with Stage 2 financial settlements etc. I went knocking on their door the other day to sign up. It was monty pythonesque to a T. I was passed through several channels and finally put onto the person who could help with the signup. No go was the end game. Perhaps, just perhaps they might be in a position to accept subscribers next February. This is despite the justification of upping registration fees by 20 to 30% for over the counter dealings to encourage electronic uptake. My gripe is not with EC and their system, it is the blatant public rip off on jacking up fees by 30%.
From a pure conveyancing perspective, I was dead keen to give the system a road test by being involved with their trial. Even just to lodge a caveat. How can one really know whether the system that EC has built, using public funds, is any good? Given my personal experience in building online conveyancing systems, new systems will have flaws, there will be bugs but it is only through testing and use can you end up with a system that works. And one where users find the experience intuitive, dead simple and enjoyable. The user experience is what counts. Based on the demonstration disk EC has circulated, I am not confident the user experience is all that good. I did a short review in an earlier blog entry.
Gouda?
The reply
15 Feb 08. Since this blog entry, EC is open for business and you can now register your interest, sign up, undertake training and hopefully start transacting. BH
John Cleese - Mousebender;
Michael Palin - Wensleydale;
The Scene:
An Edwardian-style shop which carries the signs:
'Ye Olde Cheese Emporium';
Sir, I would like to lodge a caveat.
Sorry, fresh out of caveats
Application surviving proprietor?
No
Application Personal Representative?
No
Discharge of Mortgage
Aah, No
Mortgage?
No
Transfer, dare I ask?
............
That about sums up EC's long awaited 16 November 2007 open for business with Stage 2 financial settlements etc. I went knocking on their door the other day to sign up. It was monty pythonesque to a T. I was passed through several channels and finally put onto the person who could help with the signup. No go was the end game. Perhaps, just perhaps they might be in a position to accept subscribers next February. This is despite the justification of upping registration fees by 20 to 30% for over the counter dealings to encourage electronic uptake. My gripe is not with EC and their system, it is the blatant public rip off on jacking up fees by 30%.
From a pure conveyancing perspective, I was dead keen to give the system a road test by being involved with their trial. Even just to lodge a caveat. How can one really know whether the system that EC has built, using public funds, is any good? Given my personal experience in building online conveyancing systems, new systems will have flaws, there will be bugs but it is only through testing and use can you end up with a system that works. And one where users find the experience intuitive, dead simple and enjoyable. The user experience is what counts. Based on the demonstration disk EC has circulated, I am not confident the user experience is all that good. I did a short review in an earlier blog entry.
Gouda?
The reply
15 Feb 08. Since this blog entry, EC is open for business and you can now register your interest, sign up, undertake training and hopefully start transacting. BH
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Bill ~ a reflection
This is the speech given by the Hon. Gavin W. JENNINGS on 10 May 2000 in support of passing the Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Bill, now an Act. Today (in 2007) Gavin Jennings is now the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Innovation and is a representative in the Upper House / Legislative Council. Most importantly his portfolio oversees the introduction of Electronic Conveyancing in Victoria.
It has been reported by EC Jim Walker, General Manager, Electronic Conveyancing Project, the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings MLC, and the New South Wales Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly MLC, have issued a joint communiqué affirming a number principles for the development of a national electronic conveyancing system.
The text of the speech given by G W Jennings back in 10 May 2000 --
Hon. Gavin W. JENNINGS (Melbourne) -- Mr Katsambanis has given a hypnotic presentation that raised a huge range of issues. It is incumbent on the government to consider those issues in its consideration of the legislation and any other legal remedies it may seek to pursue. Mr Katsambanis said a revolution was taking place in electronic commerce and the use of the Internet. The resultant growth of knowledge and information that is available in the world of cyberspace, as he describes it, led him in his analysis to almost believe cyberspace is the real world and the physical world is the world outside cyberspace.
That is an interesting insight and probably demonstrates the depth of his concern and attention to the important technological advancement of the transmission of information electronically.
However, there needs to be an appropriate balance between the physical world and the legislative environment we create and this important technological and social development. The electronic transmission of information relates not only to commercial transactions but also to the social life and cultural development of many communities around the globe.
It is appropriate for the government to provide the legislative framework in which those transactions can take place, particularly if they relate to the world of commerce and as they may relate to potential litigation about the abuse of that information.
I refer to the current advertising campaign of IBM about the tyranny of distance and the nature of economies such as Australia that rely on commodity prices and export markets. The scene is in the Midwest of the United States of America where two farmers are side by side in their vans. In Australia they would be called utes but in America they are somewhat larger vehicles. One says to the other, 'Hey, Earl, have you thought of using the Internet to sell your feedstock?', The answer is, 'We're not selling books; we sell feedstock to everybody in the district'. The reply is, 'Earl, have you ever left the district?'. That is a measure of the nature of economic activity, be it Midwest America or remote parts of Australia.
That 30-second vignette clearly demonstrates the commercial world we have known in the past as the world that has changed and will change forever. I agree with the central thesis of Mr Katsambanis's argument that the world is changing and will continue to change at an ever-evolving rate.
In his second-reading speech the Minister for State and Regional Development outlined the changing economic activity that is currently taking place on the Internet and through e-commerce arrangements. Currently it is estimated to be $300 billion next year and is expected to increase three or four-fold within the next three years. That is a significant development. The role of the state government in the global phenomenon is to think of the appropriate levels of responsibility of state administration. This is where I divert from the opposition, which tried to confuse the role.
We must amalgamate the various roles the state government may play in this important issue. It goes to the foundation of a legal framework that acknowledges the validity of the transaction and considers electronic communication to be of equal standing to written material in certain circumstances. It defines the limits of how that may apply to electronic administrative practices and commercial transactions and limits the scope of the application, in particular to wills and other documentation that operate within other aspects of the Victorian statutes that require private transmission anomalies.
The opposition rightly points to the fact that the legislation builds on commonwealth legislation enacted last year and international conventions that were determined by the United Nations Committee on International Trade Law in 1996. The Victorian legislative model is consistent with the approach of developing consultation with all jurisdictions throughout the country. It was agreed to by the standing committee of Australian attorneys-general and was designed to enable a degree of flexibility for emerging technological advancement.
The bill has been drafted in a way that does not favour any particular type of technology. It allows an opportunity for emerging technologies to be included within its scope. The Victorian government drafted the bill in such a way to enable it to deal with a degree of flexibility about those emerging technologies and forms of transactions, some of which are able to be envisaged at this time and some may be beyond the imagination of members of the opposition such as Mr Katsambanis.
The important element that he and other honourable members in both houses identified was the importance of data protection. The opposition called for adequate mechanisms to provide for data protection and a degree of certainty. It said sanctions should apply to inappropriate use of electronic transmission or the impact on hacking.
The good news is: watch this space! Keep an eye on the cursor.
The government intends to address those important issues. The bill is a foundation that must be built upon to provide the legislative mechanisms to provide security and confidence to Victorians who wish to operate on the Internet for their commercial activities. The government recognises the need to provide protection and certainty. The government intends to underpin the growth in the software and hardware sectors and develop proper practices and processes that relate to those transactions. The bill provides a range of the measures that will assist Victorian industry to develop.
The government will consider what is the appropriate role for the state administration to play as a user of emerging technologies. An emphasis of the former government was its visionary approach to emerging technologies. I am a member of a party that spent some time criticising the then government for some of the failures of those emerging technologies.
However, it is worth erring on the side of caution when it comes to being part of a visionary approach to the use of emerging technologies. The government's concern will be to make proper assessments of the viability and demonstrable capacity of emerging technologies as we take them up.
As a member of the government I would be disappointed if the government did not play a role as a supporter and user of emerging technologies. The government faces a challenge in considering how it might play that role effectively while underpinning the development of software and other capacities within Victorian industry and the emerging services sector. Even without getting into the realm of backing winners or providing an inappropriate level of direct public subsidy to private enterprise, an appropriate balance needs to be struck. That is a challenge for the government in dealing with the issue.
Perhaps that is why the opposition has said that the public announcements the government has made about programs such as Connecting Victoria fall short, lack of vision and do not show a preparedness to underpin private sector activity. It is a difficult balance for any administration to strike and it is appropriate to get the concepts right before the government embarks upon that field of endeavour.
That is not to say that the government has not been prepared to fund a number of support programs. They have been supported and promoted by my parliamentary colleague the Minister for State and Regional Development and include Connecting Victoria and the Victorian E-Commerce Early Movers scheme. The Go for IT program will provide 125 traineeships in the Victorian public service to support the emergence in Victoria of a better skilled work force to deal with information technology issues.
A task force has been convened by my ministerial colleagues the Minister for State and Regional Development and the Minister for Post Compulsory Education, Training and Employment to consider Victoria's emerging skills requirements and the training opportunities that may be available to ensure that Victoria has a vibrant information, communication and technology sector in the state.
The Bracks government has successfully looked at making use of the Victorian government web site more efficient by creating Multi-server Express. Victorian citizens can access 92 services online with the touch of a single button. Prior to that initiative a search was required, which demanded some knowledge of the name of the service the Victorian citizen may have wanted to access. The clear design of the web site enables easier access to information for all Victorians.
A point of contention in debate has been the appropriateness of establishing Internet access at town halls versus libraries versus schools and other such locations. It would be disappointing if that issue were to divide the house. I have no doubt that our united position would be to try to achieve effective, efficient access for all Victorians at whatever is the most appropriate location. Regardless of locality and circumstances, Victorians should be able to effectively use the Internet for commercial and social activities and to augment and enhance our education system. Maximum coverage and easy access for all Victorians would ensure no opportunity is lost.
In no way, shape or form should the interface with the technical world -- that world enabling all sorts of human activity -- become an exercise for technonerds or those who pursue information technology in an esoteric fashion. Some use their knowledge in an intimidatory way to add to the insecurity of people who may wish to take up that technology. It is appropriate that people employing such intimidatory tactics feel the wrath of the government. The government has a role in demystifying technology, maximising its potential and facilitating ease of use. That is one of the underlying theoretical themes of the legislation.
Hon. R. M. Hallam -- It might include satellite phones!
Hon. G. W. JENNINGS -- The bill is without prejudice towards any form of technology. Technologies will come and go. One of the strengths of the bill is that it has been drafted in a flexible way to enable it to cover technologies not envisaged.
It is a theoretical framework establishing a baseline in an emerging field; ensuring equity before the law of electronic material transacted that in the past was not recognised as equal to physical documentation.
There has been no pretence that the legislation provides a framework to deal with data protection or sanctions. Such legislation will be required and, when put in place, will supplement the baseline established by the legislation before the house. Debate on the bill has allowed a dialogue between the government and the opposition, the latter expressing concern about the government's intention to address such issues. The message from the opposition that such legislation must be introduced has been heard, and that will be achieved. I commend the bill to the house.
It has been reported by EC Jim Walker, General Manager, Electronic Conveyancing Project, the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings MLC, and the New South Wales Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly MLC, have issued a joint communiqué affirming a number principles for the development of a national electronic conveyancing system.
The text of the speech given by G W Jennings back in 10 May 2000 --
Hon. Gavin W. JENNINGS (Melbourne) -- Mr Katsambanis has given a hypnotic presentation that raised a huge range of issues. It is incumbent on the government to consider those issues in its consideration of the legislation and any other legal remedies it may seek to pursue. Mr Katsambanis said a revolution was taking place in electronic commerce and the use of the Internet. The resultant growth of knowledge and information that is available in the world of cyberspace, as he describes it, led him in his analysis to almost believe cyberspace is the real world and the physical world is the world outside cyberspace.
That is an interesting insight and probably demonstrates the depth of his concern and attention to the important technological advancement of the transmission of information electronically.
However, there needs to be an appropriate balance between the physical world and the legislative environment we create and this important technological and social development. The electronic transmission of information relates not only to commercial transactions but also to the social life and cultural development of many communities around the globe.
It is appropriate for the government to provide the legislative framework in which those transactions can take place, particularly if they relate to the world of commerce and as they may relate to potential litigation about the abuse of that information.
I refer to the current advertising campaign of IBM about the tyranny of distance and the nature of economies such as Australia that rely on commodity prices and export markets. The scene is in the Midwest of the United States of America where two farmers are side by side in their vans. In Australia they would be called utes but in America they are somewhat larger vehicles. One says to the other, 'Hey, Earl, have you thought of using the Internet to sell your feedstock?', The answer is, 'We're not selling books; we sell feedstock to everybody in the district'. The reply is, 'Earl, have you ever left the district?'. That is a measure of the nature of economic activity, be it Midwest America or remote parts of Australia.
That 30-second vignette clearly demonstrates the commercial world we have known in the past as the world that has changed and will change forever. I agree with the central thesis of Mr Katsambanis's argument that the world is changing and will continue to change at an ever-evolving rate.
In his second-reading speech the Minister for State and Regional Development outlined the changing economic activity that is currently taking place on the Internet and through e-commerce arrangements. Currently it is estimated to be $300 billion next year and is expected to increase three or four-fold within the next three years. That is a significant development. The role of the state government in the global phenomenon is to think of the appropriate levels of responsibility of state administration. This is where I divert from the opposition, which tried to confuse the role.
We must amalgamate the various roles the state government may play in this important issue. It goes to the foundation of a legal framework that acknowledges the validity of the transaction and considers electronic communication to be of equal standing to written material in certain circumstances. It defines the limits of how that may apply to electronic administrative practices and commercial transactions and limits the scope of the application, in particular to wills and other documentation that operate within other aspects of the Victorian statutes that require private transmission anomalies.
The opposition rightly points to the fact that the legislation builds on commonwealth legislation enacted last year and international conventions that were determined by the United Nations Committee on International Trade Law in 1996. The Victorian legislative model is consistent with the approach of developing consultation with all jurisdictions throughout the country. It was agreed to by the standing committee of Australian attorneys-general and was designed to enable a degree of flexibility for emerging technological advancement.
The bill has been drafted in a way that does not favour any particular type of technology. It allows an opportunity for emerging technologies to be included within its scope. The Victorian government drafted the bill in such a way to enable it to deal with a degree of flexibility about those emerging technologies and forms of transactions, some of which are able to be envisaged at this time and some may be beyond the imagination of members of the opposition such as Mr Katsambanis.
The important element that he and other honourable members in both houses identified was the importance of data protection. The opposition called for adequate mechanisms to provide for data protection and a degree of certainty. It said sanctions should apply to inappropriate use of electronic transmission or the impact on hacking.
The good news is: watch this space! Keep an eye on the cursor.
The government intends to address those important issues. The bill is a foundation that must be built upon to provide the legislative mechanisms to provide security and confidence to Victorians who wish to operate on the Internet for their commercial activities. The government recognises the need to provide protection and certainty. The government intends to underpin the growth in the software and hardware sectors and develop proper practices and processes that relate to those transactions. The bill provides a range of the measures that will assist Victorian industry to develop.
The government will consider what is the appropriate role for the state administration to play as a user of emerging technologies. An emphasis of the former government was its visionary approach to emerging technologies. I am a member of a party that spent some time criticising the then government for some of the failures of those emerging technologies.
However, it is worth erring on the side of caution when it comes to being part of a visionary approach to the use of emerging technologies. The government's concern will be to make proper assessments of the viability and demonstrable capacity of emerging technologies as we take them up.
As a member of the government I would be disappointed if the government did not play a role as a supporter and user of emerging technologies. The government faces a challenge in considering how it might play that role effectively while underpinning the development of software and other capacities within Victorian industry and the emerging services sector. Even without getting into the realm of backing winners or providing an inappropriate level of direct public subsidy to private enterprise, an appropriate balance needs to be struck. That is a challenge for the government in dealing with the issue.
Perhaps that is why the opposition has said that the public announcements the government has made about programs such as Connecting Victoria fall short, lack of vision and do not show a preparedness to underpin private sector activity. It is a difficult balance for any administration to strike and it is appropriate to get the concepts right before the government embarks upon that field of endeavour.
That is not to say that the government has not been prepared to fund a number of support programs. They have been supported and promoted by my parliamentary colleague the Minister for State and Regional Development and include Connecting Victoria and the Victorian E-Commerce Early Movers scheme. The Go for IT program will provide 125 traineeships in the Victorian public service to support the emergence in Victoria of a better skilled work force to deal with information technology issues.
A task force has been convened by my ministerial colleagues the Minister for State and Regional Development and the Minister for Post Compulsory Education, Training and Employment to consider Victoria's emerging skills requirements and the training opportunities that may be available to ensure that Victoria has a vibrant information, communication and technology sector in the state.
The Bracks government has successfully looked at making use of the Victorian government web site more efficient by creating Multi-server Express. Victorian citizens can access 92 services online with the touch of a single button. Prior to that initiative a search was required, which demanded some knowledge of the name of the service the Victorian citizen may have wanted to access. The clear design of the web site enables easier access to information for all Victorians.
A point of contention in debate has been the appropriateness of establishing Internet access at town halls versus libraries versus schools and other such locations. It would be disappointing if that issue were to divide the house. I have no doubt that our united position would be to try to achieve effective, efficient access for all Victorians at whatever is the most appropriate location. Regardless of locality and circumstances, Victorians should be able to effectively use the Internet for commercial and social activities and to augment and enhance our education system. Maximum coverage and easy access for all Victorians would ensure no opportunity is lost.
In no way, shape or form should the interface with the technical world -- that world enabling all sorts of human activity -- become an exercise for technonerds or those who pursue information technology in an esoteric fashion. Some use their knowledge in an intimidatory way to add to the insecurity of people who may wish to take up that technology. It is appropriate that people employing such intimidatory tactics feel the wrath of the government. The government has a role in demystifying technology, maximising its potential and facilitating ease of use. That is one of the underlying theoretical themes of the legislation.
Hon. R. M. Hallam -- It might include satellite phones!
Hon. G. W. JENNINGS -- The bill is without prejudice towards any form of technology. Technologies will come and go. One of the strengths of the bill is that it has been drafted in a flexible way to enable it to cover technologies not envisaged.
It is a theoretical framework establishing a baseline in an emerging field; ensuring equity before the law of electronic material transacted that in the past was not recognised as equal to physical documentation.
There has been no pretence that the legislation provides a framework to deal with data protection or sanctions. Such legislation will be required and, when put in place, will supplement the baseline established by the legislation before the house. Debate on the bill has allowed a dialogue between the government and the opposition, the latter expressing concern about the government's intention to address such issues. The message from the opposition that such legislation must be introduced has been heard, and that will be achieved. I commend the bill to the house.
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