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Docucorp launches home information software
Legal IT - UK
Docucorp has launched a software product for home information pack (HIP) providers.

HIPs are set to become a mandatory part of all domestic property transactions from June 2007 - and their introduction will have broad implications for conveyancing law firms.

Tracey Robinson, managing director at Docucorp, said: "There are around two million properties for sale in the UK every year, which will all require an HIP at a cost of around £800-£1,000 per pack."
Legal IT

Conveyancers target Sunshine State
The Australian - Australia
After breaking open the conveyancing market in Victoria, the nation's non-lawyer conveyancers are turning their sights on Queensland - the last state in which solicitors enjoy a statutory monopoly on property transfers.

Conveyancers are planning a national summit to prepare their tactics for a renewed assault on the Queensland market.

After Victoria's decision last week to open the conveyancing market to full competition, Australian Institute of Conveyancers national president Terry Allen called on the Queensland Government to fall into line with the rest of the nation. He said conveyancers from around the nation had been planning to meet in Melbourne on 18 February, but after the Victorian breakthrough, Queensland would be high on the agenda.
The Australian

Is the time right for a change in the property industry?
RodneyHayter.com - South Africa
The insurance industry did it. Why not the Estate Agency industry?

What did they do? Like the Estate Agency industry, the insurance industry had a poor reputation for service quality and was rated along with estate agents and second-hand car sales people for the level of service that they gave. The Dept of Trade and Industry (that also supervises estate agents through the Estate Agents Affairs Board) decided that the public was at too great a risk to be exposed to untrained insurance brokers and brought into effect the Financial Services Board and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 2002 (FAIS Act).

This act has very successfully controlled who is and who is not able to give advice on financially related matters such as insurance policies, share transactions, shares, securities, etc. The reason for the act was to protect the public from untrained people being able to deal in these matters as the potential financial losses to the public were considerable.
RodneyHayter.com

Betting on retirement property
Moneyweb - South Africa
Regularly on a Saturday, Capetonians wake up to scenes in their local newspapers of well-groomed, mature couples having fun in the outdoors.

It's hard to miss that roving hand squeezing a shapely thigh peeping out from a tennis mini-skirt or those mischievous knowing glances as a pair frolic through a picturesque park-like setting.

These Golden Oldies look supple, with-it and raring to go - hardly the picture you'd conjure up in your mind of a group of individuals in need of frail care as they near the end of their years. Little wonder, then, that the advertisers have been inundated with calls from retiring and retired people wanting to know when they can join in the action.
Moneyweb