The goal of establishing an online business platform for conducting property transactions moved a step closer last week when the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council issued
draft legislation.
ARNECC was set up by the Council of Australian Governments and given the task of developing a regulatory framework for the operation of an electronic exchange.
The parts of the new system are starting to fall into place. A government-owned company, National E-Conveyancing Development Ltd was set up in 2010 and will operate the system.
Design of the electronic lodgement network, PEXA, is underway.
Under ARNECC's proposed regulations only registered subscribers will have access to PEXA. Generally, they will be lawyers, conveyancers and lenders.
The draft bill provides the legislative basis to enable documents in electronic form to be lodged and dealt with under the land titles' legislation of each participating jurisdiction.
The plan is to introduce the new law as a national applied-law scheme. This means that it will be legislated in a host state (in this case New South Wales), after which the remaining states and territories will enact legislation applying the law in their jurisdictions.
ARNECC is calling for stakeholder feedback.