Benefits Of Using E-Conveyancing For Selling Your Property

New technology involving e-conveyancing is making it a lot easier for vendors to settle the sale of their home quickly and save money in the process.

What is e-conveyancing?

Processing property transactions manually is costly and time consuming so the Australian government has set up a national electronic or ‘e-conveyancing’ system. This system, called PEXA - which stands for Property Exchange Australia Limited - allows all the legal and monetary processes of a house sale to be completed online.

Lawyers, conveyancers and financial institutions are able to submit all the necessary legal documentation and complete the funds transfer of a property settlement electronically, minimising the need for manual paperwork.

As you can imagine, e-conveyancing has significant benefits for sellers, including the completion of a house settlement in a timely manner, a process that usually can take a number of weeks, and electronic funds transfer - no more waiting for cheques to clear!

Here’s a closer look at e-conveyancing pros and cons.

What are the pros?

E-conveyancing provides several advantages for vendors including:

Decreased costs

Overall transaction costs are reduced as solicitors and conveyancers no longer have to hire settlement agents, settlement venues, purchase bank cheques or pay courier fees. Traditionally these costs were passed on to clients, so the decrease in costs can save vendors between $150-$200 per property transaction.

Easier to use

Selling your property can typically generate a mountain of paperwork but with e-conveyancing the need for an excessive amount of documentation is reduced and the process is simplified. Documents are also able to be digitally signed so vendors save time not having to make appointments to go to their solicitor’s office.

Real time notifications

Waiting for the sale of a house to be processed can be stressful but with e-conveyancing, stress is reduced by receiving updates via text or email to keep you informed about your settlement. This saves vendors having to follow up with solicitors to find out about progress and if there are any problems that need addressing.

Safety of electronic transfers

Sellers will receive printed and electronic receipts for all the monetary transfers that take place, and because everything is standardised and online in one workspace there is less chance of errors. This gives added peace of mind for vendors.

Quicker transactions

Paper settlements can take a number of weeks with a many steps needing to be manually completed. With e-conveyancing vendors can complete the sale of their home a lot faster.

What are the cons?

The pros of using e-conveyancing definitely outweigh the cons as far as we can see but since the system is still quite new in some states (as this recent Lawyer’s Weekly article reports about Queensland) some lawyers or conveyancers may not being using it yet.

Everyone has to agree to using e-conveyancing

For PEXA to be used all the parties involved have to be subscribers, so both you and your buyer need a solicitor or conveyancer who is registered on the PEXA network.

With over 4000 members engaged with the network across Australia so far, most people agree that e-conveyancing is the way of the future for property transactions.

Looking for conveyancing services in your area? Head to Bricks+Agent and list your job to receive quotes from local specialists. You can do a member search on the PEXA website to see if they’re using e-conveyancing. If not, contact PEXA and they’ll invite them to join. Once you’re ready to connect you can simply enlist the services of the company you choose.

Want more handy homeowners tips and tricks? Sign up to our monthly newsletter below!