Landonline extends eDealings to the North Island

By ADAM GIFFORD

North Island lawyers and land brokers can now make simple land transactions electronically, with the extension yesterday of the eDealings module of Landonline.

But it could be months before transaction volumes start to grow, as the system works only when the agents for both buyer and seller are registered to use it.

It has been available in the South Island for more than a month, but most transactions so far have been internal within firms.

Land broker Lester Dempster, of Conveyancers NZ, said Land Information New Zealand (Linz) should make the system compulsory to encourage take-up.

This was because while Linz had cut its charges by $8 if work was done through eDealings, it had slapped on a $20 surcharge for work done manually over the counter.

New fees now before the Cabinet are likely to exaggerate that difference even more, as Linz attempts to align charges with the real costs of providing services.

"Why should my clients have to pay extra because the other guy isn't using the system?" Dempster said.

Landonline cost almost $145 million to build, which the Government expects to recover from user charges.

Dempster said many conveyancing firms were still wary of the technology and the overhaul of the title system, which included doing away with duplicate titles.

"It means conveyancers need more expertise. They need to be more familiar with the law and understand what is registrable. Up to now the Land Transfer Office has been the final check. Now the registered user is responsible for the accuracy of what goes in."

Even if there were fee reductions, these were unlikely to be passed on to home buyers because of the extra work involved in ensuring data in the system was clean.

Neil Grant, of Grant Agency in Wellington, expected eDealings would double the certifying solicitor's workload "because they will have to be more directly involved - instead of just putting a signature on work done by a legal executive, they must log in, go through security and check everything doing".

Agents are not allowed to use eDealings, although they have been able to use Landonline stage one to do electronic searches of the title and survey system.

Grant said Linz was pressuring his customers to have Landonline licences, even though many preferred going through an agent.

While he expected Grant Agency would continue to deal with preparation of transfers for subdivisions and projects where multiple titles were involved, it was likely to move into a consulting role in future.

Jeff Needham, Landonline's customer strategy manager, said within 18 months Linz wanted at least 60 per cent of simple transactions - mortgage discharges, transfer of titles and registration of new mortgages - to be done electronically.

Needham said Landonline was on track to complete the last part of the system, the ability to lodge survey documents electronically, late this year.