Queensland has now followed New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia with mandatory e-conveyancing. This reflects the modern conveyancing practices which saw an uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic for property transactions.
The mandate provides that unless an exemption applies, certain instruments and documents will need to be lodged or deposited with the Land Titles Office via an Electronic Lodgement Network (ELN). The following documents will now need to be lodged via an ELN:
- Property and land transfers;
- Mortgages and releases of mortgages;
- Caveats and requests to remove caveats;
- Priority notices;
- Applications to be registered as a personal representative for a registered owner of a lot who has died.
The exemptions that allow for these documents to be lodged for registration via a method other than an ELN are limited, and include:
- Where an ELN does not have the functionality to prepare, lodge or deposit the relevant instrument;
- Circumstances beyond the parties’ control mean that the lodgement cannot happen via an ELN;
- Where the document cannot be accepted by an ELN or is required to be prepared, lodged or deposited with another instrument that is not an electronic conveyancing document;
- One or more of the parties is self-represented;
- Where at least one party has signed the relevant document prior the mandatory eConveyancing mandate coming into effect. In these circumstances, the instrument can be still be paper lodged.
There are two ELN operators in Queensland – Property Exchange Australia Limited (PEXA) and Simpli Australia Pty Ltd (Sympli). Each party to a transaction must use the same ELN.
PEXA was introduced in 2010 to deliver electronic conveyancing services. Sympli is another platform which also offers electronic conveyancing. All participants to an ELN must comply with the Electronic Conveyancing National Law (Queensland Act) 2013 which sets out the rules for lodgement of transactions through an ELN.
eConveyancing allows for the documents required in property transactions to be digitally prepared, signed, settled and lodged. There are risks around the use of electronic and digital signatures and the participations rules must be followed strictly to ensure that there are safeguards and procedures in place to ensure that parties identities are verified and appropriate authority is given for a solicitor to participate in the eConveyacing regime.
However, eConveyancing offers many benefits. It allows for the replacement of paper and manual process. It allows for the immediate confirmation of your lodgement and the inbuilt checks and verifications that the eConveyancing system conduct significantly reduces requisitions.
Here at Big Law, our Strathpine Lawyers joined PEXA while eConveyancing was voluntary because we could see the need and benefit for our clients in undertaking their property transactions. This meant that when eConveyancing became mandatory in February 2023, we had the knowledge, skills, processes and procedures in place to allow us to continue to effectively provide services to our clients, including verification of identity checks.
If you have any questions about eConveyancing or you require assistance with lodging the required instruments or documents through PEXA, please contact us below.
