Gerard Healy, managing director of Titlexchange, says conveyancers often wait up to 90 days to get paid but Titlexchange’s service significantly reduces the payment tail and improves the business’ cashflow. The company create a bespoke solution with payments solutions provider Assembly Payments, which also powers Airtasker, hipages and Carsales. The feature is the latest addition to Titlexchange’s platform, which matches sellers and buyers to conveyancers to streamline and modernise the process.
“Time is money. There is so much administration behind managing creditors and debtors. Because this is all automated, conveyancers don’t have to perform those tasks,” Mr Healy said.
There are advantages for the customer as well. With payments being released to conveyancers as they reach key milestones, conveyancers are motivated to complete the transaction as efficiently as possible.
Customers pay the conveyancing fees up-front into in an escrow account held under an AFSL license, and the money is released to the conveyancer progressively as they reach key milestones in the conveyancing transaction.
The payments solution also aims to ensure conveyancers aren’t out of pocket when it comes to disbursements. Customers will be instantly notified via Titlexchange whenever a disbursement needs to be paid, such as a title search, and they can authorise payments directly.
Mr Healy, who started Titlexchange explains that customers are often increasing their home loan amount when they buy a new house to accommodate the conveyancing fees. By paying the conveyancing fee up-front (as opposed to it being paid out of the settlement monies), consumers are able to save thousands of dollars on interest fees.
If the conveyancing fee was $1,500 (including disbursements), for example, this would incur $3,470 worth of interest over a 30-year loan at a 4 per cent interest rate.
With PEXA being the first-mover in e-conveyancing reform, Mr Healy says Titlexchange is focused on streamlining and digitising the process before settlement.
“PEXA are only at settlement end. It’s everything before that which remains to be digitised and that’s where we have our attention.”
“There’s a number of pieces to that process that can be automated, like e-forms and e-signatures. The other factor is government owned stakeholders that are critical like the land title offices and state revenue offices – none of them talk to each other.”
“There is no national way of doing things. The way you transfer property is different in each state so it’s very hard for a conveyancer to have a national practice. I’d love to think there would be a national standardised way to do things.”
