PEXA Release 7.1 | 5 February 2018

After this release, the Destinations tab on the Financial Settlement Schedule screen is changed to the Adjustments and Payments tab. By default, the Adjustments and Payments tab is enabled, and this new tab lets you add and edit financial settlement adjustments by using the Statement of Settlement calculator, thus saving you time and effort.

From this tab, you’ll still be able to add destination line items but you’ll see these separated by Workspace role – all line items are visible, including those entered by Financial Institutions.

To find out more about the new Adjustments and Payments tab, as well as how to turn it on/off, read our ‘how to’ guide here.

(Referencing PEXA AXL-815)

Improved Document screen and Order of Lodgement

The documents listed on the Document screen are now ordered to reflect the Order of Lodgement, as defined in the Lodgement Instructions. You no longer need to open the Lodgement Instructions to confirm the Order of Lodgement. You’ll be able to do so directly on the Document screen.

(Referencing PEXA AXL-769)

Respond to a conversation directly from the Dashboard

PEXA is improving the way you collaborate with other PEXA Subscribers when transacting. You can now respond to a conversation directly from the Unread Conversations dashboard without having to go to the Conversations screen within the Workspace. More info

(Referencing PEXA FS-1614)

Edit the Transfer/Non-Transfer flag in a Workspace

When you create a Workspace in PEXA, you are asked to specify if the transaction includes a Transfer. The Workspace is then marked as being a Transfer or Non-Transfer Workspace accordingly.

This release introduces the ability to edit this flag if you have set it incorrectly.

Note: To edit the Transfer/Non-Transfer flag, you must first correct the financial settlement status for the Workspace. For example, if a Workspace is lodgement-only, then you can't change the flag to Transfer until you have added a financial settlement. More info

(Referencing PEXA FS-404)

Enhancements to Workspace Invitations

To assist everyone in understanding the details of a transaction in PEXA and hence be better informed when accepting an invitation, we are providing you with more details in our invitations.

Several enhancements to Workspace Invitations have been made in this release, including:

All invitations now have the ability to include the names of parties involved in the transaction.
- When inviting a Subscriber to join a Workspace in the roles of the Incoming Proprietor, Proprietor on Title, Incoming Mortgagee and Mortgagee on Title, the party names field is mandatory and populated by default.
- Where party names do not already exist (Incoming Proprietors/Borrowers/Mortgagors) in the Workspace, you are able to manually enter this information within the invitation.
The address of the property is also included for all invitations.
- Property addresses are mandatory and are populated by default.
- Where a property address is not present in the Workspace, you are able to manually enter this information within the invitation.

Note: Invitations sent via our PEXA integrated partners may not contain these details.

(Referencing PEXA FS-19)

Enhancements to digital signing

We have drastically improved the performance of digital signing

Previously, when you signed in PEXA, you would have to wait for signing verification for the current Workspace to complete before moving onto the next Workspace. Now, you can move onto the next Workspace whilst verification is in progress, so you can get through your signing tasks even more efficiently.

In addition, we have also added Push Notifications. Push Notifications are messages that alert you of updates to an activity so that you are better informed of the change. Currently, Push Notifications is available for digital signing activities, that is, documents signed via the Workspace or via the Ready to Sign screen.

Push Notifications is an optional feature that Practitioners can choose to have turned on. Find out how to enable this feature here.

Example:

Settlement date is near for a mortgage transaction, so you log into PEXA to view all the documents that need to be signed. You select the relevant documents that need to be signed for the mortgage transaction and then click Sign. You can move onto your next task in PEXA and whilst you are in the next Worskpace, a message pops up notifying you that the digital signing has successfully completed for the mortgage transaction.

(Referencing PEXA PX-99 PX-130)

Enhancements to Responsible Subscriber

PEXA now automatically updates the Responsible Subscriber for your transaction based on the documents that have been created.

If a Mortgage document is created, the Responsible Subscriber is set to the subscriber in the role of Incoming Mortgagee.
If no Mortgage document exists, but a Transfer document is present, the Responsible Subscriber is set to the subscriber in the role of Incoming Proprietor.

Whenever the Responsible Subscriber is automatically updated, the user that triggered the update sees a banner informing them of the change.

In addition to automatically setting the Responsible Subscriber, in Victoria, the Issuing instructions are also updated to set the correct subscriber to receive control of the title (CT Issue to field). The same rules as setting the Responsible Subscriber apply.

(Referencing PEXA AXL-753 AXL-749)

Ability to Manage Funds Required to Settle Amount

We are helping improve the financial settlement process in PEXA, by providing more clarity around what funds are required to complete your transfer transaction. A new Funds Confirmation panel is added to the Settlement Schedule, allowing the Incoming Proprietor to specify the ‘total funds required to settle’.

This amount is discussed with the Proprietor on Title, and is entered in PEXA by the Incoming Proprietor. It represents the total funds required from the Incoming Proprietor to complete the transaction, and includes the adjusted balance of the purchase price, lodgement fees, stamp duty, incoming proprietor’s PEXA fees, and incoming proprietor’s professional fees. You should not separately add the destination funds of the Proprietor on Title (as these already form part of the adjusted balance of the purchase price). Where the Incoming Mortgagee has authority to debit the purchaser’s account, it can then use this value to confirm how much is required for source funds. (Otherwise the incoming mortgagee’s source line item will be the approved loan amount, pursuant to the Transfer Guidelines).

Note: The Incoming Mortgagee will receive an email notification of the Total funds required to settle amount.

Client Authority to provide shortfall

The new panel also allows the Incoming Mortgagee to specify whether they hold a Client Authority to provide any shortfall, as well as the last four digits of the account the shortfall will be drawn from. More info

(Referencing PEXA AXL-754)

Workspace-specific Notification Recipients

In PEXA, you can now nominate specific recipients to receive email notifications. You can choose to have notifications sent specifically to you, instead of to a single workgroup or to your Subscriber Manager.

A new panel is added to the Workspace Settings screen, where you’ll be able to specify any or all of the following recipients:

Yourself
Other PEXA users from your organisation
Manually entered email addresses

You may change this setting at any time. Find out how, click here.

(Referencing PEXA AXL-464)

Share files with Subscriber who has pending invitation

Users can now share files with Subscribers who have not yet accepted their invitation. This vastly improves your experience in sharing files with other Subscribers. You no longer need to wait for the invitation to be accepted before you share a file with the Subscriber. When sharing a file within a Workspace, you can select Subscribers who have a pending invitation so that when they accept the invitation, they are automatically assigned access to that file within the Workspace. If the Subscriber declines the invitation, the sharing is removed.

For example, Joe (Proprietor on Title) has invited Bob (Mortgagee on Title) to the Workspace. Joe shares a Discharge Authority document with Bob. When Bob accepts the invitation, they can open and view the shared document.

(Referencing PEXA DH-470)

Highlight new incoming files within the Workspace

PEXA is providing an easier way to know when a file has been shared with you. Workspaces now indicate when a new file has been shared with you since you last viewed the Files page. This eliminates the need for you to click into the page to find out if something new has been shared.

(Referencing PEXA DH-74)

Send invitation to client to join SettleMe

[Updated 5 February 2018]

When creating an individual party who is either a Proprietor on Title or Incoming Proprietor, a new SettleMe invitation checkbox is available. When selected, PEXA sends an email to your client, inviting them to track their settlement through SettleMe. This removes the need for you to navigate away from the system to send an invitation to your client to access the benefits on SettleMe.

Please refer to the SettleMe website for more details.

Note: This feature is currently in development and we will inform you when we switch it on.

(Referencing PEXA MW-1784)

New Homes for Homes Caveat

Home for Homes (H4H) is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to help alleviate the shortage of social and affordable housing for the homeless and disadvantaged.

H4H has created a fund-raising initiative aimed to help raise funds through donation from a portion of the property’s sale price.

Where a property has a caveat lodged by H4H, the owner has the option to donate 0.1% of the property’s sale price towards the cause. The tax-deductible donation is then paid as a settlement disbursement.

When there is a H4H caveat currently registered on a Land Title, users will now see an information banner with information about H4H and a link to further details about the cause.

To learn more about how this contribution benefits the community, read here.

(Referencing PEXA ME-487)

Printable Statement of Adjustments

If you choose to use the new Adjustments and Payments functionality, you’ll be able to print a Statement of Adjustments directly from PEXA. To do so, click Download Statement after you have entered and saved an adjustment amount.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1429)

'Has this Party held land in any other name?' field is now optional on the Party screen

When representing an Incoming Proprietor or Proprietor on Title, you are no longer required to answer the question ‘Has this Party held land in any other name(s)?’. This field is now optional, which aligns with a paper settlement.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1865)

Settlement Date Acceptance Status to include pending invitations

To assist in a smoother workflow, PEXA now checks to see if all parties in the Workspace (including subscribers with a pending invitation) have accepted the date and time of a Settlement before changing the Settlement status to Accepted. Previously, a Settlement status could show as Accepted even though an invited subscriber has not joined the Workspace. Now, if a Workspace has a pending invitation, a status of Pending Others displays on the Settlement tab and on the Financial Settlement screen, indicating that acceptance from an invited subscriber is still pending.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1695)

Ability to apply Mortgage of Interest or Part of Land in Victoria

National Mortgages in Victoria can now be applied over an Interest or Part of Land. Additional fields now appear on the National Mortgage screen for Victoria, which enable you to select either an Interest or Part of Land.

Part of Land can be specified as either a structured lot on plan, or as free text. A free text description allows you to enter text (up to 500 characters) to describe a Part of Land.

For example, a portion comprising of the North East Corner of Shop 3 of Westfield Shopping Centre, 29-35 Louis St, Airport West VIC 3042) cannot be defined by a lot of plan, so must be entered using free text.

Note: Automated lodgement verification of free text description for Part of Land will not occur.

More info

The Interest in Land allows for either a Lease or Sub-Lease to be mortgaged.

Note: The Mortgage of an Interest in Land will be activated from 5 March 2018 to align with the release schedule of Land Use Victoria.

(Referencing PEXA LS2-1090)

Ability to lodge a Transmission Application in Victoria

PEXA now supports the electronic lodgement of a Transmission Application in Victoria. A Transmission can be lodged standalone, or in combination with a Mortgage or Caveat, with or without Financial Settlement. It cannot be lodged in combination with a Transfer; the Transmission would need to be lodged and registered first, and then a Transfer lodged via a separate Workspace.

If a representative is appointed to an estate (for example, a proprietor has passed away or a proprietor is made bankrupt), you can lodge a Transmission Application.

Note: Supporting document is not required in PEXA to lodge a Transmission.

More info

(Referencing PEXA LS1-1204)

Ability to lodge transfers with more than one Memorandum of Common Provision (MCP) in Victoria

Transfers in Victoria now allow multiple Memorandum of Common Provision (MCP) references. Previously, you were able to lodge only one MCP in PEXA.

Note: This feature will be activated from 5 March 2018 to align with the release schedule of Land Use Victoria.

(Referencing PEXA LS3-261)

Ability to lodge Part Tenancy Transfers (where one or all of the existing Proprietors are staying on...

PEXA has streamlined Part Tenancy Transfers so that it results in a smoother, more efficient transfer transaction.

You can now process Part Tenancy Transfers where at least one of the Proprietors on Title is remaining on title. Previously, Proprietors on Title remaining on title needed to be created as an Incoming Proprietor, which resulted in incurring a duplicate PEXA transfer fee for the Incoming Proprietor role. Additionally, the Victorian SRO considered the Incoming Proprietor as a new purchaser and attracted 100% duty, where they may have been entitled to a duty concession.

More info

National Mortgage has been updated to allow Proprietor on Title staying on Title to be selected as Mortgagors:

(Referencing PEXA LS3-16)

Displaying Annuity Charge values in Victoria

PEXA provides better visibility on annuity charges in Victoria. Where an annuity charge has been registered on a Title in Victoria, this information is now displayed on the Land Title screen under the Other Interests heading.

(Referencing PEXA LS2-1497)

Expanded the set of Victorian capacity values

The following party capacities are now included and displayed on the Land Title and Participant List screen:

Executor
Administrator
Administrator with limitations
Legal Personal Representative with limitations

Note: This feature will be activated from 5 March 2018 to align with the release schedule of Land Use Victoria.

(Referencing PEXA LS3-339)

Enabled extension of Priority Notice in Victoria

PEXA now supports lodging an extension on a Priority Notice in Victoria. The extension can be granted once, and is extendable for an additional 30 days. Previously, extending Priority Notices was supported only in NSW.

To lodge an extension, you return to the existing Workspace in which the original Priority Notice resides.

More information on how to extend priority notices can be found in Community.

(Referencing PEXA LS3-439)

Displaying CT Controller details on the Land Title screen

When transacting in Victoria, the Land Titles screen now displays the duplicate CT Type (Electronic or Paper). For electronic land titles, you’ll also be shown who the CT Controller is, in case you need to invite them to your Workspace or request control of the land title.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1699)

Beneficiary Names now optional on the Party screen

When representing a party that is acting as trustee, you are no longer required to provide the trust’s beneficiaries. This field is now optional, which aligns with a paper settlement.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1858)

Ability to lodge a Multi-Ownership Title in New South Wales

PEXA makes it easier for you to transact on Multi-Ownership Titles in NSW by using a new Tenancy Type of Multi, displayed under the Proprietors section on the Land Titles screen.

Multi-Ownership can result where a development has been undertaken across multiple lots where each lot is held in a tenancy, and a subdivision is performed without a prior consolidation.

Each party (tenant) of a multiple ownership title is displayed as a single Proprietor Group. The Proprietor Group can then be referenced in the Transfer, Mortgage, or Caveat.

(Referencing PEXA LS3-260)

Secondary Lodgement Verification is available for VIC and NSW

Secondary Lodgement Verification is now available for VIC and NSW.

To mitigate issues when a Land Registry is unavailable and a final signature is applied on the day of settlement, PEXA now performs a Secondary Lodgement Verification on each Document in the Lodgement Case.

Once PEXA determines that communications could not be established with the Land Titles Office, the new feature will allow a Lodgement Case to progress to ‘Ready’ where:

The latest Lodgement Verification Result is successful for each Document in the Lodgement Case, and
No Document data has changed since that last Lodgement Verification was performed.

For Victorian Workspaces only:

In addition to the points above, the following conditions will also need to be met in order for your Lodgement Case to progress to Ready:

A Nomination is not required for the Workspace.
The CT Controller is signing a document in the workspace, therefore a Nomination is not required, and
No title(s) in the Workspace have been:
Nominated to Paper, or
Nominated to another active Workspace.

PEXA will continue to improve this feature for Victorian Workspaces to allow more Workspaces to progress to Ready in future releases.

For more information and a video demo of this feature, please see the help article Proceeding with Settlement when a land registry is unavailable.

Note: The Secondary Lodgement Verification is performed only within PEXA.

(Referencing PEXA SETT-3512)

Inclusion of Foreign Ownership Surcharge for South Australia

A new Foreign Ownership Surcharge, which takes effect 1 January 2018, applies to foreign buyers and temporary residents purchasing residential properties in South Australia.

The Foreign Ownership Surcharge amount is determined by the SA Revenue Office and the value will be passed onto PEXA by RevNet in the same way as Stamp Duty. The surcharge will equal 7% of the dutiable value of the purchased property, and will be payable in addition to the duty that is otherwise payable in relation to an acquisition of residential property. This surcharge is displayed in PEXA on the View Stamp Duty Information screen for a South Australian transfer.

Note: The surcharge does not apply to commercial property or industrial property purchases.

(Referencing PEXA LS2-1499)

Updated Caveat Claim categories to Support extended Caveat Categories In South Australia

The following Caveat Claim Categories are now supported in PEXA for South Australian caveats:

Bankruptcy
Homes for Homes
Lease Extension
Purchaser
Pursuant to will

update_caveat claims.png

(Referencing PEXA LS2-1498)

Positive TAC Email Notifications

In Western Australia, if a Title Activity Check detects an activity on a land title within your Workspace, you’ll receive an email notification informing you of the activity. This applies throughout the life of the Workspace, not just on the day of settlement.

(Referencing PEXA ME-1346)

Jodietai · ‎15-01-2018

Hi PEXA

Regarding the client's authority, if we select 'Yes' we hold an authority, are the last four digits of the client's account number a mandatory field?

Thank you

Marty · ‎15-01-2018

Hi @Jodietai,

No, the last four digits of the client's account number is not a mandatory field.

However, if you do provide it, the purchaser's representative will be aware where their client needs to hold funds, and will be able to guide them in case of confusion.

Thanks,

Martin

TheDoctor · ‎18-01-2018

RE: Enhancements to Invitations.

The advice states that the address will now appear for all Invitations and will populate by default.

Does this include QLD, or are they still unavailable to PEXA and will require manual loading?

Thanks

amason · ‎18-01-2018

Hi there - addresses will still need to entered for QLD.

Thanks

sgoscombe · ‎04-02-2018

Hi Team

We have noticed this morning that the search function now only includes Active workspaces which is not included in the above release notes.

Had been advised when calling through there was feedback about searches taking additional time due to completed files also being searched. Is it then possible to include a tick box or option to be able to include completed workspaces?
We often search both active and completed workspaces and now need to complete this separately.

Thanks!

TJ · ‎04-02-2018

Hey @sgoscombe,

Thanks for your feedback, due to how popular this method has been - and our members letting us know, the team will be rolling back the changes tomorrow.

We're lucky to have such an engaged community keeping us informed and the flexibility to be able to react to your feedback so quickly.
Keep it coming

sgoscombe · ‎08-02-2018

Hi @TJ

Wondering if the roll back of this feature was successful as these issues are still being experienced.

Thanks

Marty · ‎11-02-2018

Hi @sgoscombe,

We had to delay the roll back until the weekend. It should all be working today. Thanks for your patience.

Martin

LG · ‎13-02-2018

Hi

The characters limitation has come back after the last release and we are receiving the below error when we copy and paste from our documents.

Error:Only standard characters are allowed in the Append to Additional Covenant field. Do not copy and paste bullet points, curly quotation marks, dashes or similar.

Will this be rolled back or is it staying?

Thanks

SimonV · ‎13-02-2018

Hi @LG Would you please be able to specify which Document you are referring to? And also if possible share with us the text you are looking to paste in, I'll PM you my e-mail.

Cheers, Simon.

HeathHill-WBC · ‎21-02-2018

just a test of subscription notification - please ignore

BrandonHetherington · ‎13-03-2018

"Only standard characters are allowed in the Append to Additional Covenant field. Do not copy and paste bullet points, curly quotation marks, dashes or similar."

I am still getting this error when I attempt to create a mortgage document. I have attempted to remove as many 'special' characters as I can, however its a mortgage, dollar signs and percentage characters are pretty necessary...

LG · ‎13-03-2018

Hi @BrandonHetherington

Paste your text in a word doc and click the show/hide feature (ctrl+shift+*) to check for any tab spaces (more than a single space) - that always seems to be the issue for me.

Marty · ‎14-03-2018

Hi @BrandonHetherington,

Due to downstream land registry requirements, we limit data entry to 'printable ASCII characters'. (See full list of characters here). So you can definitely still include characters such as: $, %, &, (, ).

As @LG says, you may have some stray tabs. Other common offenders when pasting from word are curly quotes, bullet points and dashes.

I'd be happy to take a look at what you're trying to input. Send it to me in a private message if you'd like.

Thanks,

Marty

BrandonHetherington · ‎14-03-2018

Thanks guys- it was one stray tab in the document. I have fixed it up now. Thanks for your help.

BGoodwin · ‎22-03-2018

Enhancements to Responsible Subscriber (Referencing PEXA AXL-753 AXL-749) A minor thing but it can be annoying. When the Responsible Subscriber changes automatically, the Client Ref in the lodgement instructions doesn't. Maybe that could also update to the Subscriber Ref for responsible subscriber.

Thanks

Baz

DMc · ‎16-08-2018

When will Workspace/dashboard conversations/Chat direct to;

PEXA support,

Land Registry - support, &

Revenue Office- support, become available?

Because the phones don't seem to be the way forward for E-settlements.