Net conveyancing unfair: builders
VICTORIA will be the first Australian state to enter the brave new world of “electronic conveyancing”, but not everyone is happy with the proposed online system for exchanging mortgage documents.
The Master Builders Association says the State Government is using the new system to increase conveyancing fees. This would further reduce housing affordability, as its building and construction members would pass the added costs to consumers.
According to an MBA submission, land transfer fees would remain the same for electronic conveyancing, but would rise by between 16 and 32 per cent for those who stick with paper.
MBA executive director Brian Welch said the Land Victoria increase was yet another weight on housing affordability.
“Those who stick with the paper trail system are going to be penalised,” he said.
“We support the initiative but it discriminates heavily against people who are not computer-based; who are not literate with these systems.
“The State Government finds taxation all too easy to increase and it impacts on housing once again.”
But a Land Victoria spokeswoman said electronic conveyancing would reduce the cost of home ownership in Victoria.
“It will save taxpayers about $70 million a year by 2012, when we expect the service to be well-patronised,” she said.
“E-conveyancing removes substantial amounts of red tape involving several parties for things such as paper-based title deed transfers and drawing of cheques.”
The spokeswoman said it was financial institutions and not individual land owners that generally completed the land transfer process, and that consumers would not wear the cost.
But MBA policy and communications manager Asher Judd said there was “no real reason for increasing the costs at all” and that banks and others involved in land transfers were bound to pass the costs to consumers.
“Another great example is the development contribution levy it was supposed to target builders, but they have got no choice but to increase their charges.”
Victoria, a trailblazer in e-conveyancing, is home to the National Electronic Conveyancing Office and will be the first state to use the system in November.
A nationwide system is expected to be in place by about 2010.
