One of our major digital transformation projects has been our involvement in the move to full electronic conveyancing, which was delivered in August 2019 as part of a multi-agency initiative, with further enhancements to Duties Online occurring in June 2020.
We are now leading the country with 99% of Victorian property transfers, including payments of land transfer duty, completed online.
In the first half of 2020, enhancements reduced the number of steps and amount of data entry required, and increased the number of automated transfer types, providing significant savings and convenience for customers and the conveyancing sector more broadly.
Customer collaboration
Importantly, customers have been involved throughout the project, ensuring customer-centric design solutions have created a simple, intuitive platform within a system that is quicker and easier to navigate.
We looked at what customers expect from the system and the right balance between customer needs (streamlined, automated data input, efficiency, improved design) and our needs (data veracity and easier maintenance).
Duties Online enables customers (currently 7896 registered organisations comprising 15,746 individual users) to electronically calculate and pay land transfer duty as part of the property settlement process.
Integration
Duties Online integrates with private electronic lodgement network operators (ELNOs), providing the means for transacting parties to collaborate electronically on preparing registry instruments, the settlement of funds, and lodgement of transfer instruments with the land registry.
When the electronic transaction is finalised and paid or exempted, Duties Online instantly transmits confirmation of the duty assessment to Land Use Victoria to allow the registration of title.
While there is currently only one ELNO that Duties Online interacts with, integration with a second is in development and more are likely to enter the market in the future.
We also continue to engage with property lawyers and conveyancers, and analyse customer enquiries to plan further improvements.