// Customer Information Bulletin

Customer Information Bulletin #148 – March 2015

Download CIB #148

Land Victoria moves to new department

Land Victoria is now part of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). While the new DELWP website is developed, our information remains on our previous department’s website at www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/property.

Notification will be sent when our information, including the Forms, guides and fees web page, is relocated to the DELWP website.

Transfer functionality now in PEXA

Transfer functionality, including financial settlement and online lodgement, is now available in PEXA.

PEXA – Property Exchange Australia – is a purpose-built national electronic conveyancing system. It provides an electronic business environment for completing property transactions, including electronic lodgement with Land Victoria and the electronic settlement of funds.

PEXA now provides functionality for completing and lodging online:

  • mortgages
  • discharges of mortgage
  • caveats
  • withdrawals of caveat
  • transfers and financial settlement
  • nominations
  • withdrawals of nomination.

Visit www.pexa.com.au for more information, including how conveyancers, lawyers and financial institutions can subscribe.

New adverse possession forms and guides

Land Victoria has added six new adverse possession documents to the Forms, guides and fees page at www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/property >Forms, guides and fees.

The documents include:

  • Two new editable PDF forms – customers are encouraged to use the forms and can save them onto their own computers.
    • Adverse possession – TLA60 form. Guidelines on how to complete this form are in the new Guide to adverse possession.
    • Request to waive survey for adverse possession application. Guidelines on how to complete this form are in the new Guide to request to waive survey for adverse possession application.
  • An updated checklist.
    • Adverse possession Section 60 checklist. This checklist must be completed, signed and produced when lodging at Land Victoria. The signed checklist indicates that the lodging party has taken responsibility for providing all required documents.
  • Guides to help prepare and lodge adverse possession applications and complete the above forms.
    • Guide to adverse possession. This guide sets out how to complete the Adverse possession TLA60 form and the document requirements for lodging at Land Victoria.
    • Guide to evidence supporting an adverse possession claim. This guide details the evidence and encumbrance requirements in an adverse possession claim.
    • Guide to request to waive survey for adverse possession application. This guide sets out how to complete the Request to waive survey for an adverse possession application and the document requirements for lodging at Land Victoria.

Paper settlement with an electronic Certificate of Title

Land Victoria requires a Certificate of Title (CT) to support lodgement of most conveyancing transactions. Two types of Certificates of Title are accepted by Land Victoria for this purpose – the paper CT (pCT) and the electronic CT (eCT).

The pCT is traditionally provided at the settlement of a conveyancing transaction. It is, however, also possible to attend settlement when the CT is an eCT. In this case, the eCT Control nominates the eCT to the paper transaction prior to settlement.

A Register Search Statement will indicate if a CT is an eCT by providing the name of the eCT Control. Details of the nomination of the eCT to the transaction being settled should also be recorded. Additionally, the nomination will be shown on the final search. If not, the eCT Control should be contacted and requested to nominate the eCT to the transaction.

At lodgement, Land Victoria will confirm that the CT is an eCT and a nomination has been recorded. The lodgement process can then continue unimpeded.

After registration of the transaction, the new CT will generally issue to the lodging party. Whether it is an eCT or a pCT is determined by the lodging party’s VOTS customer code. If the VOTS customer code provided has been established for use in an Electronic Lodgment Network (ELN), for example PEXA, then the CT will issue as an eCT. If the VOTS customer code provided has not been established for use in an ELN, the CT will issue as a pCT.

For further information refer to Guide to attending a paper settlement when the Certificate of Title is in an electronic format at www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/property>Forms, guides and fees (under the ‘National Electronic Conveyancing’ heading).

Certificate of Title nomination process

The form required to accompany a paper Certificate of Title that is to be nominated to facilitate lodgement by another party (previously known as the ‘made available’ process) has been revised.

The new form available on the Forms, guides and fees web page is known as ‘Application to nominate a paper Certificate of Title to a paper instrument or electronic lodgement case’. It replaces the previous form.

Customers should delete any version of the old form on their own systems and adopt the new form as soon as practicable.

For details on the Certificate of Title nomination process, refer to previous editions of the Customer Information Bulletin: No 139 December 2012, No. 140 March 2013 and No. 142 November 2013. Land Victoria is preparing comprehensive guides to the Certificate of Title nomination process, which will soon be online.  More information will be in the next edition of this bulletin.

Revised guides

Some of the most common guides used by customers have recently been revised. These include the guides to:

  • Searching a land title
  • Changing your address in the Register
  • Correcting a name in the Register
  • Applying for a new Folio of the Register
  • Replacing a lost or destroyed Certificate of Title
  • Transfers of Land
  • Application by surviving proprietor
  • Application by legal personal representative
  • Caveat
  • Withdrawal of Caveat
  • Subdivide or consolidate land
  • Adverse possession
  • Owners corporations.

The guides are on the Forms, guide and fees web page at www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/property >Forms, guides and fees.

Joint proprietors, all deceased

Land Victoria often receives enquiries about which application is required in the case of a property with two or more registered joint proprietors, and all are deceased. The ‘Application by legal personal representative (APR)’ form must be used. The applicant(s) must be the executor(s) or administrator(s) of the last deceased of the joint proprietors. Details of the requirements are in the new Guide to application by legal personal representative, now on the Forms, guides and fees web page at www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/property >Forms, guides and fees.

Service of court documents on the Registrar of Titles

When requiring personal service in any proceeding, the proper officer to serve is:

The Warrants Officer

Level 27

570 Bourke Street

Melbourne

In all other cases, ordinary service may be effected by post or facsimile. Again, the proper officer to serve is the Warrants Officer. Documents should not be emailed to either specific people or generic email addresses.

When an appearance is filed on behalf of the Registrar, documents should be served at the address for service set out in the appearance. Directing court documents to the Warrants Officer ensures they are dealt with efficiently. Customers should also ensure that the Registrar is served in a timely manner, having regard to the appropriate rules of court.

Victorian Water Register

Conversion of take and use licences

When take and use licences were converted to water shares in 2007 and 2008 following the unbundling of water rights in Victoria, co-owners were deemed to own the water share as tenants in common in equal shares (Clause 18, Schedule 15, Water Act 1989). This was the case regardless of whether the co-owners held the land where the water was being used as joint proprietors or as tenants in common.

The conversion of take and use licences was different in this respect to the conversion of other types of rights (water rights and domestic and stock rights), which were rights based on land. Generally, for these rights, the co-owners of water shares issuing from those rights were deemed to hold the water share in the same manner as they held the land associated with the right.

The conversion of take and use licenses has led to some difficulties when, for example, one tenant in common of the water share has died, particularly when the water share is the deceased co-owner’s only asset. In such cases the Registrar, Victorian Water Register (the Registrar), is only able to deal with the deceased’s legal personal representative.

Customers are reminded that in cases of co-owners wanting to jointly hold the water share, a ‘Transfer of water share’ form is required to change the manner of holding.

Deceased estates

An ‘Application by surviving owner of a water share’form may be used by the surviving owner(s) when two or more people are recorded as joint owners of a water share.

If the deceased owner of the water share is recorded as the sole owner of a water share or as a tenant in common, an ‘Application by legal personal representative in respect of a water share form must be used by the deceased’s executor(s) or administrator(s). Customers should note that the Registrar is only able to deal with the deceased’s legal personal representative, and is unable to waive the requirement for legal personal representatives to obtain a grant of probate or letters of administration.

Return to the Customer Information Bulletin Index

Disclaimer

The Customer Information Bulletins (CIB) Search Tool (“Tool”) is provided by SERV to assist users in locating Customer Information Bulletins (CIBs) issued by Land Use Victoria (https://www.land.vic.gov.au/land-registration). This Tool provides a list of available CIBs based on search terms entered by users, displaying results in order from newest to oldest.

By using this Tool, users agree to these terms and acknowledge that SERV makes no warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the search results. Users accept responsibility for verifying the information obtained through the Tool against the original sources, including the official Customer Information Bulletins found here (https://www.land.vic.gov.au/land-registration) and any other requirements issued by the Registrar of Titles from time to time in accordance with the Transfer of Land Act 1958.