Office Circular No. 4/2024
DATE: 6 February 2024
DISTRIBUTION: GENERAL
SUBJECT: ISSUING OF THE RECORDER'S DIRECTIONS
As noted in Office Circular 3/2023, the Land Titles Act 1980 has been amended to give the Recorder of Titles power to issue binding Directions relating to the preparation and lodgement for registration of applications, dealings, instruments, and other documents for the purposes of the Act.
On 22 December 2023, the Recorder circulated a draft of the proposed Directions. The Recorder has today issued the Directions by publishing the Directions on the Land Titles Office website.
The Directions issued differ from the draft Directions circulated on 22 December 2023. Attached to this Circular, is a marked-up copy of the issued Directions showing the variations from the draft Directions circulated.
The material changes are as follows:
- Clause 1. – Has been amended to provide further clarity to stakeholders.
- Clause 2.1.2 – Clarifying the definition of Signer by ensuring persons required by statute or who have appropriate legislative delegated authority are able to sign.
- Clause 2.1.2. – Changes to the definition of Law Practice to allow the Crown Solicitor and other government legal practitioners to meet the definition of Representative in the Client Authorisation Form in Schedule 3.
- Clause 11 – Updates to clause 11 regarding certifications to facilitate the removal of a Schedule which would have contained the relevant certifications given by each party depending on dealing type and party type. This information will still be made available to the conveyancing industry via the Land Titles Office website. Practitioners and other relevant parties will be notified when this information is made available.
- Clause 12 – has been made to require Subscribers to provide contact details to the lodging party and for the lodging party to provide, to the Land Titles Office, certain contact details of Subscribers participating in the relevant Conveyancing Transaction. This is for the purposes of undertaking Compliance Examinations and will be provided for on the request to register (lodgment form).
- Schedule 3 – A minor change to update the Client Authorisation Form to Version T7 which updates a reference to a single ELNO to multiple ELNOs, which aligns it with the soon-to-be published Version 7 of the form used in National Electronic Conveyancing.
- Schedule 8 – The list of Excluded Dealings will not be available as a schedule to the Recorder's Directions and instead, to ensure the Land Titles Office is able to update this list as and when required, will be available on the Land Title Office website on the Recorder's Directions webpage.
The Recorder's Directions are available on the Land Titles Office website, linked below:
Recorder's Directions
Further, a significant amount of educational material relating to the Recorder's Directions and the requirements contained therein are also available on the Land Titles Office website, linked below:
Lodgment Requirements
Section 160A(6) of the Land Titles Act 1980 requires that the Recorder publish Directions at least 20 working days before the date on which they come into effect.
The effective date for these Directions is 7 March 2024.
These Directions apply to all applications, dealings, instruments and other documents for the purposes of the Land Titles Act 1980 which are dated on or after the effective date of these Directions and lodged with the Land Titles Office on and after the effective date, other than those excluded.
Given the nature of the reforms, practitioners may choose to take this opportunity to implement changes to accommodate the reforms in their practices prior to the Directions coming into effect.
The Land Titles Office will be performing Compliance Examinations to ensure the Recorder's Directions are being complied with. For more information on our Compliance Examination process, please see the link below:
Compliance Examinations
ROBERT MANNING
Recorder of Titles