By Paul McKenzie
Its been seven years (since the 2011 Coalition of Australian Goverments – COAG decision) in the making and now becoming compulsory with mandate from the 1st July 2018.
PEXA – Property Exchange Australia, is an electronically platform for every Australian capital city Land Titles Office, major bank, state/territory revenue office (for state stamp duty / land tax), professional conveyancers and solicitors to come together, linking their conveyancing matters up, for a electronic settlement, without the need a physical with paper and bank cheques settlement. A PEXA settlement, means the money funds and paperwork are done electronically, whereby at the end, the Purchaser ends up with a electronic title to the property, which can be printed out electronically, or with a title search.
Long waited system, the PEXA on-line electronic settlements is finally getting off the ground during 2018, with the NSW Minister for Finance, The Hon. Victor Dominello MP, wanting all property conveyancing settlements to be electronic, via PEXA, by the 1st July 2018. Past practice of traditional paper settlements, conveyancers & solicitors (or their legal agents) meet at settlement venues in Sydney CBD, such as SAI Global Property, with the major banks and other lenders, to pass around documentation/discharges/certificates of title, paperwork and bank cheques between Vendor parties and Purchaser parties for settlement. When all correct and in order, the property settles, with the purchasers becoming the new owners.
PEXA will become the on-line electronic settlements platform, linking all the banks, the state revenue office with the conveyancers/solicitors and their clients together, by doing conveyancing settlements electronically, by pressing a number of sequent steps buttons. Advantages of PEXA will of course be time and delivery, into the 21 century electronically. Conveyancers and solicitors will still have a role when conveyancing becomes electronic in the next few years, who have the legal skills and legal knowledge to prepare Contracts with special conditions, operate the PEXA platform and advise clients during the conveyancing process, from start to finish.
NSW Minister for Finance, The Hon. Victor Dominello MP refers PEXA as “Digital Innovation”. “Digital innovation is transforming the way people do business in every city and every country around the world. The reality is the collaborative economy is here to stay”.” The Government has committed to a detailed timetable for the introduction of paperless conveyancing. By July 2019, all standard property transactions in NSW will be conducted electronically, and all Certificates of Title will be phased out in favour of e-Titles.”.
PEXA (Property Exchange Australia) is Australia’s online property exchange network. It assists members – such as lawyers, conveyancers and financial institutions – to lodge documents with Land Registries and complete financial settlements electronically.
PEXA CEO, Marcus Price, formally of National Australia Bank, is spearheading the property industry’s transition from paper to digital settlements, a move that has challenged practitioners and lenders to adapt.
“E-conveyancing was not a technology problem; it was a people and business problem. There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about the technology we’re using here; it’s pretty straightforward stuff,” he says. “It’s about changing behaviours and changing processes, so I think a science degree in psychology was entirely the appropriate qualification,” he says.
So far CEO Marcus Price and the PEXA team have been incredibly successful in getting nearly 5,000 conveyancers and lawyers as well as 129 lenders to shelve their familiar paper processes. More than 550,000 digital transactions worth almost $70bn have been transacted through PEXA’s online platform in the last few years.
Written by Paul McKenzie – CEO of ABS Conveyancing & Valuations, in Sydney & Melbourne. He is on the management committee for the Australian Institute of Conveyancers NSW and the Sydney CBD Chamber of Commerce. Paul is also a member of the Australian Property Institute and the Australian Indian Chamber of Commerce NSW. He is a property writer, guest speak on conveyancing and has made guest appearances on radio. Paul has done immigration law studies at the Australian National University (ANU), a law graduate from Macquarie University, a Professional Certificate in Property Law from Sydney University and Bachelor of Commerce in Land Economy/Property Valuation from Western Sydney University Hawkesbury.
Copyright 2018 – all rights reserved.
