Rebel takes banks to the commission

Rebel non-lawyer conveyancer Lester Dempster has complained to the Commerce Commission that most of New Zealand’s trading banks are refusing to deal with him.

Tuesday, May 8th 2001, 9:33PM

by Jenny Ruth

Rebel non-lawyer conveyancer Lester Dempster has complained to the Commerce Commission that most of New Zealand’s trading banks are refusing to deal with him.

That’s despite Dempster’s Court of Appeal victory last month which effectively stripped lawyers of their conveyancing monopoly and allowed him the right to act as a conveyancer.

`The banks tell our clients that they must use a solicitor because the bank wants the solicitor to act for both itself as mortgagee and the client as mortgagor. Some of our clients have been scared off by this tactic and then gone to a solicitor,’ Dempster says in a letter to the Commerce Commission.

`The problem here is that some clients do not wish to use the service of a lawyer, but are directed to use one before the bank will issue mortgage monies,’ he says.

The banks are saying a solicitor is necessary to provide fidelity protection. Most of the major trading banks prefer to transfer mortgage funds electronically into solicitors’ trust accounts, he says.

`My argument is that rather than transfer money into a trust account, that I would like a bank cheque made out to the purchaser. They refuse to issue bank cheques and change their practice for a small group like ourselves,’ Dempster says.

He is asking the commission to investigate current conveyancing practices ``which facilitates lawyers dealing in the system and no one else and allows for what I regard as restrictive trade practices.’’

The one exception among the banks is Bank of New Zealand which is cooperating with Dempster and another non-lawyer conveyancer.

`We believe that (non-lawyer) conveyancers are going to be quite a major occupation here in the future,’ says BNZ credit policy manager Mike White. `We believe Dempster and others have a licence to operate’ and so the BNZ has put in a lot of work to set up a system to deal with them.

`Lawyers from time to time tell us we might be wasting our time,’ he says.

The bank is aware of Dempster’s battle with the legal fraternity, White says.

The Law Society is still threatening to appeal to the Privy Council even though Justice Minister Phil Goff is planning to introduce legislation later this year which will strip lawyers of their conveyancing monopoly in any case.

Still, White would like non-lawyer conveyancers to look at setting up a fidelity fund. While Dempster prefers not to handle clients’ money, the other firm BNZ deals with does.

`We’ve made them take out some indemnity insurance. They’ve had to go to the US for that,’ he says.

White believes `a considerable number’ of New Zealanders are now studying in Australia to become non-lawyer conveyancers.

Dempster, a former assistant land registrar for the government, fought for 13 years for the right to practice conveyancing in New Zealand.

He finally got his landbroker’s licence in December 1999 after gaining landbroker registration in Australia and then using the occupational equivalency provisions of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act.

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