PEXA is pleased to present the next release of the PEXA System, Release 6, scheduled for business go live Monday 29 May 2017. In this release, PEXA introduces:
- Improvements to Subscriber Search
- Source Funder
- New certification statements
- Linked simultaneous lodgements
- Improvements to unread conversations screen
- The “User’s Signing Role” option which is to be added to the user records in VIC and QLD
- Authorised settling acccount
- File Upload improvements
- An expansion to the VIC Folio Types eligible for electronic lodgement (added to notes on May 23)
- Auto Balance
Subscriber Search Improvements
We have made it easier to locate the Subscriber you’re looking for. When searching for a Subscriber, via Subscriber search or when looking to send an invitation to a Subscriber, we have improved our search by now catering for small variances in company names.
Our Subscriber Search now handles:
- Spaces (e.g. CBA vs. C B A )
- Full stops (e.g. T. S. Elliot Conveyancing vs. T S Elliot Conveyancing)
- Interchangeable symbols (e.g. & vs. + vs. and vs)
- Special characters (e.g. '@$#%()+&,-)
New role of Source Funder, allowing a financial institution to be invited to a Workspace, even if they are only providing funds to settlement
With Release 6, PEXA is now allowing financial institution Subscribers to provide source funds in a Workspace, even though they aren't a party to the property transaction. The new Source Funder role is restricted to Financial Institutions (Subscriber type) that are able to provide source funds. Importantly, this role is restricted to providing source funds for the transaction.
In the role of Source Funder, the Subscriber will not be able to:
- Create Workspaces
- Create, edit, delete or view any documents
- Add or delete Land Titles
- Create, edit or delete any parties
- Create, edit or delete any destination line items
Inviting a Source Funder to your Workspace
Subscribers wishing to provide funds in a Workspace, but not participate in any documents, must be invited into a Workspace in the role of Source Funder.
- To invite a Source funder to your Workspace, navigate to the Participants screen, then click Invite Participant.
- On the Invite Participants screen, search for and select the Participant and then select the role of Source Funder.
- Click Send Invitations.
Acting in the role of Source Funder
For participants accepting an invitation to provide funds to a transaction, you enter the Workspace with the primary role of entering a source financial line item.
Providing Source Funds
- Navigate to the Financial settlement screen and select the Sources tab
- Click Add Source button
- Add source line item
- Select the Source Fund Category. When in the role of the Source Funder, the available categories are:
- Purchaser's Equity
- Loan Proceeds
- Other
- Verifying and signing rules are as per a normal transaction and the funds must be verified and signed.
Certifications
New certification statements have been added for all jurisdictions and documents.
The Certification statements, visible in the Signing screen, reads:
- The Certifier has taken reasonable steps to verify the identity of the [transferor/transferee/ mortgagee/ mortgagor/caveator/applicant].
- The Certifier holds a properly completed Client Authorisation for the Conveyancing Transaction including this Registry Instrument or Document.
- The Certifier has retained the evidence supporting this Registry Instrument or Document.
- The Certifier has taken reasonable steps to ensure that this Registry Instrument or Document is correct and compliant with relevant legislation and any Prescribed Requirement.
- The Certifier, or the Certifier is reasonably satisfied that the mortgagee it represents,: (a) has taken reasonable steps to verify the identity of the mortgagor; and (b) holds a mortgage granted by the mortgagor on the same terms as this Registry Instrument or Document.
- The Certifier has: (a) retrieved; and (b) either securely destroyed or made invalid the (duplicate) certificate(s) of title for the folio(s) of the Register listed in this Registry Instrument or Document.
Note: The term Subscriber has been replaced with the term Certifier.
Update maximum number of linked simultaneous lodgements to 6 Workspaces
With this release, Subscribers can now successfully link 6 Workspaces for simultaneous lodgement. Please review the linked lodgements article for more details.
Improve the Unread Conversations screen
We have added some additional details to the Unread Conversations screen to assist you in assessing the conversation.
We have added:
- Settlement date and time
- Transfer/non-transfer indicator
These new fields will help you allocate your time to the most appropriate outstanding messages based on the type of transaction and the settlement date and time.
Note: Please apply a filter to the Settlement date and time and the Transaction type columns if you wish to show conversations around transfers with the closest settlement date and time. These filters will be applied as long as you stay on the screen. While still on the screen, you can also use the refresh button to refresh to the table.
QLD and VIC: For users granted signing permissions in QLD and VIC, a new question has been added to your User record to ensure that the signer is authorised to sign Registry Instruments
Upon Release 6, when a subscriber creates a user who has signing rights to Land Registry Documents, the Subscriber Manager will be required to specify the user’s Signing Role.
A Signing Role is a category that has been defined by the Land Registries.
Based on Subscriber type, Signing Roles have been categorised as follows:
Subscriber Type ‘Solicitor’
- AUSTRALIAN LEGAL PRACTITIONER
- LAW PRACTICE (Eg: Anyone else from the practice that is not a Legal Practitioner)
Note: For existing Subscribers that have a Subscriber Type of ‘Solicitor’, you would be familiar with the question “Is this user an Australian Legal Practitioner?” The change is to capture this same information, but align it with a suitable phrase for all Subscriber types.
Subscriber Type ‘Conveyancer’
- LICENSED CONVEYANCER
- CONVEYANCING PRACTICE (Eg: Anyone else from the practice that is not a Licensed Conveyancer)
All other Subscriber Types (Eg: Financial Institutions/Government Departments)
- AUTHORISED SIGNATORY
User Details screen
Subscriber Managers can locate the Permissions settings and the new question “What is the user’s signing role?” via the Administration Tools > Manage Users screen.
Existing Users
For existing Subscribers that have users with Signing Rights to Land Registry documents, a conversion will be run to set the ‘Signing Role’ as follows:
- SOLICITORS - Convert all existing users that has answered YES to “Is Signer an Australian Legal Practitioner?” to “AUSTRALIAN LEGAL PRACTITIONER”. Otherwise set to “LAW PRACTICE”.
- CONVEYANCERS - Convert all existing users with signing rights for documents to “CONVEYANCING PRACTICE”.
- ALL OTHERS - Convert all existing users with signing rights for documents to “AUTHORISED SIGNATORY”.
When the user signs, the Signing Role will render to the relevant Land Registry document in the jurisdictions of QLD and VIC.
Note: This change has been introduced to support the implementation of National Mortgage. PEXA is advised by the Land Registries that Signing Role is for Document template rendering only and will have no impact on a user’s ability to sign.
A new account type of Authorised Settling Account has been created
A new account type of Authorised Settling account has been created for financial institutions to allow non ADIs and Tier 2 financial institutions banking to provide source funds to settlement.
The key goal of implementing this change is to allow tier 2 financial institutions and non-ADIs the ability to settle on PEXA where their transaction FI requires only a known, specific set of users to have the ability to authorise the transaction for the purposes of the property settlement.
The authorised users attached to the account will mirror the signatory list against the account held at the transaction FI.
The feature will be available as a new account type to subscribers that are Financial Institutions with either an ‘Integrated Indirect’ or ‘Non-Integrated Indirect’ settler type.
The Subscriber Manager will verify the Authorised Settling Account in their Financial Accounts profile to ensure that the account details have been correctly entered.
Financial Institutions must then assign authorised users to the account in order for source financial line items to be authorised. Once the account has been verified, the Subscriber Manager will have the ability to add authorisation permissions for each individual user.
Authorise Funds
Once a source line item has been included in a workspace, these funds must be authorised.
Please refer to the Authorised Settlement account (to be created) article for more details.
File Upload Improvements
As part of our continual improvement of the new Files Upload functionality, we are making a few updates in this release, including:
- Informing subscribers that a file has been shared with them, via an email notification
- Tracking of file activity against the Workspace’s history. We now track and display on the History screen, activities of when a file have been shared with participants
An expansion to the VIC Folio Types eligible for electronic lodgement
(added to notes on May 23)
Titles with the following additional Victorian Estate Types will be able to be transacted in PEXA:
- Leashold
- Life Estate
- Remainder Expectant.
The following documents may be created for these titles:
- Nomination
- Withdrawal of Nomination
- Discharge
- Mortgage
- Caveat and Withdrawal of Caveat.
Pilot: Auto Balancing of Vendor’s Surplus Funds
The auto balance vendor’s funds financial line item feature will allow a practitioner that is representing the Proprietor on Title (vendor) to enter an estimated amount for the vendor’s surplus funds. The auto balance feature balances the net vendor amount between loan payout and vendor surplus.
Once this value is captured, the user enters a minimum and maximum threshold that represents the lowest and highest amounts that can be received as vendor’s surplus funds. The Vendor surplus funds are only calculated after the Mortgagee on Title (outgoing mortgagee) has entered their loan payout figure(s) and signed their financial settlement schedule.
Prior to adding the vendor’s funds destination financial line item, the proprietor on title has to have already completed the following steps:
- Agreed with the Incoming Proprietor all outgoings and third party payments required for the property settlement,
- Created all outgoings and third party payments into the PEXA financial settlement schedule, and
- Created any other related destination financial line items related to the settlement (e.g. professional fees for the proprietor on title)
- The amount remaining is the “net vendor amount” which is the amount due to Vendor after deducting outgoings, third party payments and professional fees.
Add Destination Financial Line Item – Vendor’s Funds
Benefits
This is the first step in improving the user experience for the all parties on the day of settlement by removing the dependency on the Mortgagee on Title to enter final loan payout figure(s) on the morning of financial settlement. This increases the chance that the transaction will settle on time and reduces the burden on the Proprietor on Title to constantly monitor the Workspace in anticipation for the Mortgagee on Title entering the loan payout figure(s).
How can I get this feature?
PEXA has the capability to turn on/off this feature for any given subscriber. By default, the feature will be switched off while we run a pilot to gain feedback and to improve the solution before releasing to everyone.
If you are interested, please contact your PEXA Direct Specialist to get involved in the initial pilot and have the feature switched on.
Instructions
Once you are included in the pilot program via your PEXA Direct Specialist, please navigate to the pilot group for more details on Auto Balancing functionality.
Feedback
If you have any feedback on this functionality, and possible improvements, please post on our eConveyancing community feedback forum.
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