There are a few points were I completely agree that the PEXA fees should come out of the subscribers account, not the client funds. The agreement is between Pexa and the subscriber, not Pexa and the client (e.g. the Vendor or Purchaser). The invoice from Pexa for their current fee of $110.55 is addressed to the subscriber, yet the money is taken out of the client funds. The money should be taken from the person who is being invoiced. Under an all inclusive Fixed Price model that we charge our clients it becomes extremely hard to manage when we invoice our client and then need to show receipt of payment against that invoice. For example: Fixed Price quoted to client $1,000 We invoice to our client the full $1,000 (this is necessary as this is our quote and if client needs to claim GST they need a full invoice from us) Upon a Pexa settlement, Pexa deducts $110.55 from the clients funds The client needs to pay our invoice of $1,000 but since they have paid $110.55 to Pexa, the remaining balance they need to pay is now only $889.45. Our invoice now shows $110.55 still remaining to be paid. (To get around the remaining $110.55 we have a convoluted system to offset it but it is very messy and takes my bookkeeper additional time and that is assuming she is aware which settlements are Pexa and which ones are manual. What if we were doing a pro bono matter and we wanted to absorb that fee on behalf of our client. We would have to pay our client the $110.55 for Pexa taking money from the client's funds that has not been authorised by the client to do. I am not sure why you are able to deduct funds out of our general account for Caveats but not for Settlements. Everything else we do associated with a conveyance settlement is invoiced to us and paid from us including Title & Certificate searches, Settlement Agent fees, Owners Corporation Fees etc. No other professional arrangement that I am aware of seeks to bypass the direct business they have the agreement with (i.e. us a subscriber), and take the money via our client. How we choose to pass on fees and costs should be our choice.
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