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As a girl growing up on a family farm, Debbie Hutton regularly rode her horse Gypsy 12km to the shops – just for a milkshake. That was in Wynyard, a town of about 6,000 souls on the north coast of Tasmania, about 17km west of Burnie. Debbie’s parents had a dairy property that remained in the family for 54 years, milking cows, morning and night.
“My father taught me to nail a roof on a barn, same as he did my brother,” she said. Practical folk. Traits she applies to her firm, Debbie Hutton Conveyancing. And since late last year, to her role as President of the AIC Tasmania, following several years as secretary. The conveyancing business has been going for some 15 years and, with 13 employees, is among Tasmania’s biggest.
But Debbie came to that success in a roundabout way. “When I was a teenager you left school, did a couple of years’ work, then wandered off to the mainland because there were more opportunities there,” Debbie said. She crossed Bass Strait at 19, on a working holiday that stretched to 24 years.
Debbie took jobs as a legal secretary/ paralegal in Sydney and in Victoria, gaining her Advanced Diploma of Conveyancing parttime at NSW TAFE. “I worked in Bankstown, lived in Granville, took the train into Ultimo TAFE after work, two or three nights a week,” she said. She moved home in 2009 to find the Apple Isle in a regional employment slump.
Her partner urged her to “hang out my own shingle” and go into business. “It was quite frightening at the time,” she said, “but it’s worked.” One advantage over the competition was online advertising, a novelty in Tasmania at the time. Tassie houses now sit at a median of about $700,000 in Hobart and $520,000 in Devonport.
Compared to east coast capitals, those prices are bargains that have prompted an influx of mainlanders, as well as locals, to relocate or downsize. Debbie said buyers are generally better informed about values and regulations than they were five or 10 years ago. That can be a problem for vendors.
Tasmanians have been resourceful for 200 years with doit-yourself builds and renovations quite common, particularly in country areas where DIYers didn’t necessarily worry about building codes. Now, those savvy buyers are demanding certificates. “I’ve had clients who’ve had to go back and fix things up to code,” said Debbie, “and it’s been quite expensive for them.” She believes this complex issue requires further investigation on how to protect the consumer – both outgoing and incoming – particularly with the current direction the building code is taking.
It’s also been challenging for conveyancers as Tasmania upgrades from paperbased systems. The past couple of years have brought ARNECC, PEXA, changes to FIRB and FRCGW , and next, AML/CTF . “We’ve had all these things come to us one after another,” Debbie said. “Like a train where every carriage has something different in it.” VOI or KYC?
“But you’ve known us all your life,” smalltown customers might complain. “We went to school together!” Although she’s seen no evidence of money-laundering in her area, Debbie is on AUSTRAC’s working group and appreciates the need for vigilance. She has also adjusted her fee structure to take into consideration the additional workload.
“There’s a lot of compliance work, and unfortunately, I need to pay my staff and myself to do that.” Debbie’s parents, now in their 80s, sold the farm a couple of years ago and moved into town. She’s considered easing up, too. “I don’t know that I could retire fulltime... but maybe spend another day in my garden.” Or she could always saddle up and mosey into town for a milkshake.