This whole situation is absolutely bizarre to me as an Australian. Our states converted to a system of centrally registered title (also known as Torrens title) over a hundred years ago to avoid the “old system” problem of tracing ownership records backwards in time. Although the system is still in effect for some properties, in many cases they’ve been converted anyway.
And yet my conveyancer (WA) last year still tried to hock me some expensive additional title insurance. My line to her was “this sounds like it’s protecting me from you not doing your job”. I don’t recall the response but it was unconvincing.
You’d think conveyancing would be cheaper here, but you’re still spending $2-3k on who knows what to transact property. At least the process is quick and final compared to the mess in other common law jurisdictions
That's partly because the dominant platform for electronic conveyancing, PEXA, has a monopoly. Only licensed professionals who pay subscription fees can access PEXA. This removes competitive pressure on conveyancing fees because self-represented buyers must use a slower, riskier, non-standard paper process.
