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General News

3 December, 2019

First electronic land transfers for Mareeba

MAREEBA legal firm, Apels Solicitors and Notary, have processed the first electronic land dealings in Mareeba.

By Rhys Thomas

First electronic land transfers for Mareeba - feature photo

MAREEBA legal firm, Apels Solicitors and Notary, have processed the first electronic land dealings in Mareeba.

Until recently, land dealings were only to be handled in the same way they had been managed for almost 150 years – with the physical hand over of paper documents in exchange for bank cheques.

Electronic property transfers through the PEXA (Property Exchange Australia) platform have been used in southern states for several years, but Queensland has been cautious in its adoption of the platform.

Principal of the firm, Peter Apel said that a solicitors’ first concern is always to ensure the security and certainty of the dealing for their client.

"We wanted to be sure the electronic processes were completely secure before adopting them, and have been watching the refinement of the system in NSW and Victoria," he said.

"We are satisfied the system is every bit as reliable and secure as the paper based systems that have worked so well to date."

The electronic transfer process has comprehensive security procedures to guard against any risk of fraud, and has the great advantage to buyers of same day registration of their transfer (a process which previously could take days or weeks) and for sellers, sale proceeds can be deposited in the seller’s account as cleared funds immediately.

Many types of land dealings are still presently unable to be processed through the electronic platform in Queensland, so Apels Solicitors have retained full capacity to process transactions using the familiar paper based or the new electronic system – it is always the customer’s choice which system they would prefer to use.

Mr Apel said the adoption of the new electronic transfer process by Queensland solicitors and Banks is rapidly increasing, and is expected to soon become the norm for property dealings.

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