This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
IN an Australian first, the first “practitioner to practitioner” transfer was completed on Friday on electronic settlements platform Sympli, in another milestone that could herald a return of a more competitive settlements market.
The transfer occurred between two legal firms, Smartlaw, acting for the vendor, and Lawlab, acting for the purchaser. This marks the first time that a network other than the monopoly was used for a transfer between two practitioners.
In another major milestone, the transfer was enabled through a trust account from another major bank.
“This transfer represents another milestone in Sympli’s market activities – it is clear that there is a strong appetite from practitioners, customers and financial institutions for a better and more efficient network for property settlements,” said Sympli CEO, Philip Joyce.
“I would like to thank our trusted partners, Smartlaw and Lawlab, and the major banks as we develop a network that will deliver choice, innovation and efficiency to industry and consumers.”
The transactions comes just a few weeks after completion of first interoperable transaction in Queensland was hailed as a significant step towards bringing real competition to the e-conveyancing market. Currently in Australia, all parties involved in conveyancing transaction must use the same electronic lodgement network operators (ELNO) system to complete a property transaction. Interoperability allows different ELNOs systems to communicate with each other to complete the transaction. The successful transactions included two live interoperable refinance transactions, with Sympli and PEXA taking on the role of ELNO for one transaction.
Solicitor Nicholas Wilkinson at Smartlaw – which already uses Sympli for caveat lodgements – said, “It was such an easy transaction, we love the simplicity of Sympli’s user interface and look forward to shifting more and more of our national conveyancing practice to them.
“All we need now is for state governments to push PEXA into providing the necessary functionality to allow interoperability so all conveyancers/lawyers/settlement agents and their clients can have a choice of which electronic settlement platform to use.”
Lawlab director Richard Bootle, said, “We have been without competition in the settlement arena since PEXA convinced various state governments to mandate their service. Prior to that it was a very competitive industry with thousands of providers.
“Today is a glimmer of light for our industry and our clients with service and price competition becoming a reality again.”
