PEXA Electronic Conveyancing: What Do I Need to Know?

Over the past decade, the practice of buying or selling property has gone through some serious changes, meaning first-time home buyers and vendors have had to regularly brush up on their knowledge. The largest innovation has been the introduction and eventual mandating of electronic conveyancing.

Electronic conveyancing, sometimes called e-conveyancing, is an online method for managing the transaction of property. It’s done through an independent body – an Electronic Lodgement Network Operator (ELNO), of which, in South Australia, we have two: PEXA (Property EXchange Australia) and Sympli. Of those two, PEXA has been in operation for longer and is more prevalent in the industry.

So, that’s broadly what e-conveyancing is, but what do you need to know if you’re buying or selling a house? There are a few things to pay attention to, but with a good conveyancer in your corner, the process should be smooth and stress-free.

How does e-conveyancing work?

For your conveyancer to represent you in the sale or purchase of a property, they need you to complete two specific steps; you must provide authorisation for them to act on your behalf and verify your identity.

Verification of Identity (VOI) is a very similar process to the method you follow when applying for a passport, with licensed officials (usually Aus Post), identifying documents (like driver’s licences, passports or birth certificates), and an in-person meeting. We go in-depth on how you can make your VOI process as quick and smooth as possible in a previous article here.

With your identity confirmed, the only remaining step is to provide the correct authorisation. Your conveyancer will walk you through the process of providing written permission, either in-person or online, via an electronic signature. This step authorises your conveyancer to sign documents on your behalf, complete settlement, or present any additional information that PEXA needs to finalise the transaction.

Since a large proportion of e-conveyancing is completed remotely, these two steps are absolutely critical to keep the process as secure as possible to prevent fraud. And in fact, the verification and authorisation make the sale and purchase of real property far more secure than it otherwise would be, which is a large reason why e-conveyancing is so strongly preferred.

What are the benefits of using PEXA?

So, with e-conveyancing enabling remote, secure property transactions, how else can that benefit you as a first-time home buyer or seller in Adelaide? Well as with most things that make a shift online, conveyancing can be completed significantly faster with PEXA. 

Settlements, by-passing time-consuming bank cheques and arbitrating directly, can be completed more efficiently to settle on time. The purchaser has the benefit of having Title Registration occurring within 48 hours of the settlement, and the vendor can have the funds cleared almost immediately depending on their financial institution.

With your conveyancer operating on your behalf, you can even complete the entire sale of the property without actually visiting South Australia at all, which will save both time and money on travel. Also, due to the reduced need for physical documents, couriers, bank cheques and manual processes, costs are reduced across the board, leaving more money for you to put toward your new property.

Put simply, PEXA is:

  • Cost effective
  • Fast
  • Secure
  • Convenient

PEXA and Title Watch

In addition to the other benefits of moving your property transaction online, there is another pretty handy tool that becomes available with PEXA: Title Watch.

As paper titles are no longer produced on the sale of a property, all of the information that would need to be manually amended to a title is now searchable electronically. This innovation means that conveyancers can now put a tracker on any title to be alerted to changes. For you, this means early awareness of any of the following:

  • Order of a property interest report or Form 1 product, which can be an indication that a property is put up for sale.
  • Lodgement of a priority notice, indicating an agent is trying to reserve their priority for an upcoming sale.
  • Lodgement of a dealing, which can include transfers, caveats, mortgages, and leases.
  • Cancellation of a title, often meaning the property has been subdivided or merged.

These tools are extremely valuable for conveyancers to help you get the best deal you can on a new property and to safeguard you should anything untoward occur.

Trust in e-conveyancing

E-conveyancing gives your conveyancer a lot of fancy tools and authority to help you find a better outcome in the sale or purchase of property, but with that extra power comes the need for more trust. It’s important to work with a conveyancer that cares about keeping you informed of any small changes in the properties that you’re interested in and, likewise, is trustworthy to act on your behalf in any sale or purchase.

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