Consultation: draft laws to allow for digital innovation in land titles
The NSW Government is seeking feedback on the Exposure Draft of the Real Property Amendment (Certificates of Title) Bill 2020 (‘the Bill’).
About the draft bill
The purpose of the Bill is to allow for 100% electronic lodgment of land transactions and move away from paper-based processes. The Bill makes several amendments to legislation to achieve this – the key one being the abolition of certificates of title.
The Bill proposes the following reforms to achieve its purpose:
- Remove the words ‘certificates of title’ wherever they appear in legislation. Where appropriate, ‘certificates of title’ has been replaced by ‘folio of the Register’.
- Remove the concept of Control of the Right to Deal (CoRD) otherwise known as ‘eCTs’. On commencement of the Act, first registered ADI mortgagees will no longer be recorded as holding CoRD and all current CoRD notifications will be cancelled.
- Introduce a new requirement for an ‘Information notice’ to be issued to the lodging party. This notice is a more comprehensive version of the current registration notice and will replicate the registration information that a lodging party would have received on receipt of a certificate of title.
- Remove barriers that prevents instruments being lodged electronically directly to the Registrar General. This allows dealings that can’t be lodged through an Electronic Network Operator (ELNO) to still be able to be lodged electronically. It also opens the possibility for other documents such as powers of attorney and deeds to be lodged electronically in the future, if they can’t be lodged through an ELNO.
- Update some of the language and make it technology neutral.
The Act will commence on a date to be proclaimed. This will allow industry time to work through the required system and process changes necessary to enable the reforms in the Bill to start. On current projections we are aiming to commence the new provisions around August 2021.
The proposed amendments do not affect the importance of the Register, which will continue to be backed by the State guarantee of title, through the Torrens Assurance Fund. Also, the changes will not alter the common law requirement for a transacting party to establish that they have the right to deal with land.
The Exposure Draft of the Real Property Amendment (Certificates of Title) Bill 2020
Submissions
You can provide your feedback via email to the Office of the Registrar General at email ORG-eConveyancing@customerservice.nsw.gov.au with the subject line 'Exposure Draft of the ‘Real Property (Certificates of Title) Bill 2020’.
OR by post to:
Office of the Registrar General
NSW Department of Customer Service
2-24 Rawson Place
Sydney NSW 2001
Submissions close on 5 February 2021.
We may publish your submission or refer to your feedback in any public report, unless you request that all or part of your submission is to be kept confidential.