Accounting for risk: The advent of capped conveyancing title insurance

Title insurance companies originating from America, have, in the past 15 years become part of the Australian conveyancing landscape. However for most residential freehold owners, their activities would be a mystery. A purchaser does not routinely obtain title insurance, with the companies presently focussing on servicing the mortgagee sector. While the lack of penetration in the residential purchaser market may be attributed to the consumer’s lack of knowledge, evidence from Ontario and New Zealand illustrates that title insurance is likely to become an additional cost in the conveyancing process in Australia. In this article we highlight the reasons why, and demonstrate how title insurers have, by working with the legal profession been able to subtly move the risk of responsibility for compensation for loss, (at least in the first instance) from the state to the insurer, but with the added benefit for the state and the conveyancing agents that the cost of the insurance is ultimately borne by the consumer. In New Zealand this development is being accelerated by the introduction of capped conveyancing title insurance. Whether title insurance will become part of the conveyancing process is no longer the relevant question for Australia, (it undoubtedly will), but the unknown issue is just how title insurance companies will work with conveyancing agents to infiltrate the market, and what response this infiltration will have in terms of the state’s view as to their continued role in the provision of assurance. We suggest that developments from New Zealand in relation to capped conveyancing insurance are likely to be replicated in Australia in the near future, and that the state’s role in providing an assurance fund will continue, though the state may seek to expand the areas in which the right to compensation is restricted.

Clipping of an advertisement for Thomas Steers and Abraham Steers, Land Agency and Conveyancing Offices

Clipping of an advertisement for Thomas Steers and Abraham Steers, Land Agency and Conveyancing Offices, July 17, 1844.

A compendium of the law of real and personal property : connected with conveyancing, for the use of students and practitioners /

Includes bibliographical footnotes and index.

Practical points; or, Maxims in conveyancing, drawn from the daily experience of a very extensive practice, by a late eminent conveyancer. To which are added, Critical observations on the various and essential parts of a deed,

Mode of access: Internet.

Gibson and McLean's student's conveyancing.

Spine title: Gibson's conveyancing.

The South Australian system of conveyancing by registration of title, with instructions for the guidance of parties dealing, illustrated by copies of the books and forms in use in the Land Titles Office. To which is added the South Australian Real Property Act as amended in the sessions of 1858, with a copious index by Henry Gawler. Adelaide, Printed at the Register and Observer Printing Offices, 1859.

Mode of access: Internet.

Identity fraud and torrens - minimising the risks and allocating the loss to achieve a sustainable system

Immediate indefeasibility is the cornerstone of the Torrens system of land registration. However, when combined with the apparent ease in which forged mortgages become registered, the operation of this doctrine can come into question. This article seeks to argue that, rather than question indefeasibility, the focus should be on the verification of identity of parties to land transactions. Whilst no system can ever be infallible, it is suggested that by correctly imposing the responsibility for identity verification on the appropriate individual, the Torrens system can retain immediate indefeasibility as its paramount principle, yet achieve the optimum level of fairness in terms of allocation of responsibility and loss. With the dawn of a new era of electronic conveyancing about to begin, the framework suggested here provides a model for minimising the risks of forged mortgages and appropriately allocating the loss.

Land Contracts in Queensland

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the law relating to buyers and sellers of freehold land in Queensland. It analyses relevant clauses of the standard contracts in common use and the plethora of court decisions relating to the area.Its contents comprise a full transactional analysis of a conveyance from negotiation by a real estate agent through to completion. In addition, it contains chapters on special conditions, remedies, GST and stamp duty provisions.