DIY Conveyancing – Our History

In 1976 members of the Land Reform Committee within the Australia Party (forerunners of the Australian Democrats, but with no political connection to them) introduced a step by step conveyancing kit in NSW and Victoria. A Queensland kit followed two years later.

This enraged the legal profession. Solicitors can and do enter every trade and profession without qualification or experience. When outsiders do the same to their profession, all hell is let loose. Why the outrage in this case? Because we had burst the mysterious bubble around what a solicitor actually does in the conveyancing transaction. What do they do? Since establishment of Torrens title in the 1850s, the answer is ‘very little’.

When buying a motor vehicle, would you give someone many hundreds of dollars to purchase it on your behalf, knowing that they would never see the car? Of course not!

In the 1970s solicitors were charging a scale fee for conveyancing. This depended on property value, not on work done. In 1979 we formed an associate company in NSW called Flat Fee Conveyancing Service. With others, we overturned this unfair scale fee practice.

Over the years we had several successful bouts against the Law Society in the NSW Federal Court. The NSW Government eventually introduced licensed conveyancers. We gave up in disgust because they were under the control of the Law Society of NSW. This has since changed! We ceased operating the conveyancing company in the middle 1990s.

Our kits have helped thousands of people save hundreds of thousands of dollars when conveyancing their property in New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and Queensland–simply, safely and legally.

Mission Statement

We educate and empower people to simply, safely and legally perform their own routine legal procedures.  We continually improve our Products for the benefit of our clients.