The move to an electronic business environment for conveyancing represents the most significant change in industry practices in the last 150 years. The roles, relationships and responsibilities of many industry participants will need to evolve to facilitate the new way of working. Legislation must be adjusted in the States and Territories, business practices altered and new requirements and controls introduced that will change existing risk allocations and mitigation responsibilities.

Under the supervision of the National Steering Committee, the State Project Teams (SPT) and a National Project Team (NPT), are currently developing a NECS Requirements Definition (NRD) and associated Land Registry business practices.

The draft National Requirements Definition describes, from a business perspective, the functional and non-functional requirements for NECS. It also provides an outline of the systems scope, environment and operating capability.

To develop the National Requirements Definition, each jurisdiction is required to document their functional requirements for the NECS. The jurisdictions have also been asked to evaluate the extent that their requirements align with the National Requirements Definition and in the event of misalignment, to justify the reason in sufficient detail to provide for review and assessment by NECS stakeholders.

LPMA NSW NECS Readiness Program

The LPMA is conducting a NSW NECS Readiness program of work, to prepare and implement business practices, operational systems, legislation and stakeholder communication in NSW for national electronic conveyancing, targeted to service NECS transactions from 2010 to 2011.

Readiness development nationally

The National Implementation Strategy for NECS gives the following description of readiness activities for jurisdictions:

Readying covers the arrangements each jurisdiction may need to put in place to be ready for its industry participants to use the NECS.

This stage includes (where relevant) passing enabling legislation, specifying jurisdiction-specific requirements, building titling and other system interfaces, making arrangements for registering and accrediting users, licensing service providers, integrating third-party software suppliers, negotiating practitioner requirements, developing user support capabilities, creating stakeholder awareness and ensuring industry support. These requirements are incorporated into a Readiness Plan for each jurisdiction.

The readying stage can proceed concurrently with the building stage for NECS.

Converting is the process each jurisdiction must adopt to engage with industry participants and ultimately change their practices from paper to electronic conveyancing.

This stage includes close liaison with industry and practitioner associations, with individual practitioners and other industry participants, to progressively secure credibility, confidence, co-operation, commitment and conversion. It includes a specific Communications and Conversion Plan for each jurisdiction.

The converting stage commences at the outset, runs parallel to the setting-up, building and readying stages, and comes into its own once the NECS is available for use in the jurisdiction.

For information on readiness programs in other jurisdictions, see States and Territories information on the NECS website www.necs.gov.au.