What is e-conveyancing?

E-conveyancing is short for electronic conveyancing, which is the process of completing conveyancing online via an electronic lodgement and network operator (ELNO). Currently the only ELNO that has widespread usage by many conveyancers and banks is Property Exchange Australia (PEXA), with Simpli coming out into the market to be its competitor. The benefits of settling property purchases online is that it gives the benefit of instantaneous transfer of funds and same day lodgement and registration of dealings all on the same platform. This takes out the traditional risk open to buyers of having paid hard-earned money at settlement to the seller, only to realise that there was a problem with the paper documents provided to them at settlement, that leads to their title not being registered at the land registry office. Yes, if the buyers were genuine purchasers that have been wronged, they can pursue the seller or their own lawyer to have the error rectified, but that costs time and money that you probably don’t have.

In any case, e-conveyancing at the moment is not completely electronic. There are still documents involved that your conveyancing lawyers will need you to sign and return and physical places that you will need to go to complete your conveyance. The benefit of an experienced conveyancer though is that they can give you all the requirements you need in one go so you only have to take half a day off to complete everything in one go and then resume your daily life.

E-conveyancing is optional in Queensland and relies on all parties, including banks, being able to use the same platform. It is still common for conveyancing lawyers in Queensland to require settlement to be conducted by paper if they are not registered for, or actively using, an e-conveyancing platform. If you want settlement to be conducted by e-conveyancing, then you should make sure your conveyancing lawyer is able to do settlement by e-conveyancing for you when you retain them.