Conveyancers campaign for competition reform 

LEADING conveyancers have joined forces to demand more progress on ELNO competition reform. 

Solicitor Jared Zak started the informal campaign, posting a video on social media calling on the Australian Registrars National Electronic Council (ARNECC) to insist on a timetable for interoperability reform. 

AIC VIC President Shakila Maclean backed the Dott & Crossitt principal solicitor’s impassioned plea with her own video message to ARNECC on the eve of the regulator’s latest meeting. 

Lawlab director Richard Bootle’s forthright views were also shared with ARNECC at the meeting in Brisbane earlier this month. 

That meeting was called for ARNECC to discuss the future of interoperability following its decision in June to pause work on the project that would essentially insist on ELNOs PEXA and Sympli working together. 

PEXA, which has a monopoly on eConveyancing transactions in Australia, cited security issues raised by banks as the reason why the work on interoperability needed to stop earlier this year. 

A PEXA spokesperson responded to the comments by the conveyancers, saying it had “fully cooperated with the interoperability program” and was on track to meet the July 2025 refinancing transaction deadline. 

In his video, Jared Zak – whose 40 staff oversee 4,000 to 5,000 transactions a year – said that although his firm was one of the biggest in New South Wales, it was coming under pressure from the fees charged by PEXA. 

Smaller conveyancing businesses are facing even greater pressure, he said. 

“We’ve become quite vulnerable when it comes to service subscriptions and even the costs that ELNOs charge,” he said in a LinkedIn video in which he said he was worried about the delays to interoperability implementation. 

“That is really, really concerning for us,” he said.  

“For years, we’ve been promised that we will have choice amongst our ELNOs and that still hasn’t happened.  

“Those costs that we are incurring on each transaction from PEXA, they’re becoming a significant proportion of the overall fees that we have to charge our clients and for which we are receiving a lot of pushback and pressure.  

“We are not rolling in money. It’s really, really difficult trading out there.  

“And we are concerned unless we see competition come into this space or we’re going to see more of these small conveyancing companies come under a lot of pressure and they’ll probably leave the market. 

“So this is a message to everyone concerned in interoperability program. Please, please, can we stop the delays? Can we get on track towards interoperability so that we can have truly some choice in the ELNO market?” 

AIC VIC President Shakila Maclean described interoperability as a “crucial issue facing our industry”  

“Currently, without true interoperability, we find ourselves reliant on  

“This poses a risk as it stifles competition and choice.” 

Shakila says she can use rival ELNO Sympli for standalone documents like caveats but “scaling that for transfers is not feasible.” 

“Without interoperability, the complexity and costs for coordinating with multiple parties become overwhelming,” she added.  

“What we truly need is the confidence that interoperability brings, enabling us to navigate transactions more efficiently.  

“As a key Victorian conveyancer and the AIC representative, I urge a ARNECC to commit this year to recommencing and delivering on interoperability.  

“Without that commitment, I fear we may never achieve a genuine competition. And choice is our industry.” 

Richard Bootle – the co-owner of lawlab, which has offices in Brisbane, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne and has handled $27 billion of property transactions across Australia – said the need for reform was vital. 

As one of the only national and larger conveyancing law firms in Australia, he said the need for interoperability was “really important”. 

And he called on ARNECC to toughen up as a regulator. 

“Ever since PEXA was privatised, I’ve been concerned about the relationship between ARNECC and PEXA,” he said.  

“It seems to me that ARNECC never really moved on from the ‘chummy fellow government regulator’ relationship it had with the registrars and with PEXA to the reality of regulating a privatised billion-dollar monopolist.  

“The settlements industry went from being incredibly competitive with tens of thousands of lawyers and several large corporate settlement agents to a statutory mandated monopoly.  

“We all have access to PEXA prospectus and their various public statements since, which make plain their ambition to swallow the whole industry.  

“This is not in the interests of mom and dad homeowners across Australia.  

“We need competition, and the only way to have effective competition is to mandate ELNO interoperability.  

“Without it all the costs and difficulties of linking different networks will be again, put on us, and no one will use the new entrant.  

“PEXA has a vested interest in stalling interoperability, and ARNECC is the only body that can direct it.  

“Use your powers, use them now or forever be ‘the regulator that wasn’t’ on whose watch, the only viable competitor was bled dry by the monopolist.” 

A PEXA spokesperson said: “PEXA has fully cooperated with the interoperability program over a number of years and we were on track to meet the July 2025 refinancing transaction deadline.  

“The decision to pause the program in June this year was made by ARNECC, not PEXA, and there is currently no statement from ARNECC on any future steps or timetable. 

“In June, ARNECC determined that the issues raised by the banking industry were beyond the remit of States and Territories to address effectively and the program faced significant challenges without these issues being resolved by the relevant parties. 

“ARNECC paused the interoperability program, stood down its project team, and cancelled all interoperability meetings.  

“In response, PEXA has carefully wound down its interoperability team and prioritised other projects, including additional capacity for other regulatory-driven change in the PEXA Exchange. 

“PEXA remains committed to working constructively with regulators, industry participants and governments to foster an ecosystem that benefits Australian home and property owners.  

“Following ARNECC announcing the pause of the interoperability program, the Queensland and NSW regulators stated that they were exploring options. We are participating in those processes and continue to engage constructively with the Queensland and NSW regulators in relation to various options. 

“ELNO fees, including PEXA’s, are heavily regulated and, unlike most costs connected to a house purchase, they rise in line with CPI, not house prices. At $137.39 for a transfer, PEXA’s fees represent 0.014% of the cost of buying a house at the national average price of $975,000.  

“PEXA also offers unmatched features, including PEXAKey for scam protection, and other functionality that reduces costs for users, such as professional indemnity insurance. The rival ELNO is proposing a transfer fee of $127.12, or a $10 saving.” 

Read more on competition reform – here 

Editor’s note: The Australian Conveyancer is powered by triSearch but maintains editorial independence. triSearch is owned by ATI Global, which also has shares in Sympli.