What do you think about NSW moving to 100% electronic lodgment when you buy or sell land?

NSW is moving away from paper-based processes for lodgment of land transactions and needs to make several amendments to legislation to make this possible.

We're seeking feedback on the Exposure Draft of the Real Property Amendment (Certificates of Title) Bill 2020.

Abolishing certificate of title

The changes include:

• remove the words 'certificate of title' and replace with 'folio of the Register' where appropriate
• remove the concept of Control of the Right to Deal (CoRD)
• introduce a new requirement for an 'information notice' to be issued to the lodging party.
• remove barriers to lodging instruments electronically directly to the Registrar General
• update some of the language to make it technology neutral.

To allow industry time to work through the changes necessary, we aim to start the new provisions in August 2021.

The Register will still be important

Under the changes:

• the Register will still be backed by the State guarantee of title, through the Torrens Assurance Fund
• transacting parties will still have to establish that they have the right to deal with land.

Thank you for your feedback

Thank you to those who provided feedback by 5 February 2021. Your input was reviewed and shaped the draft Real Property Amendment Bill passed NSW Parliament on 24 May 2021.

From 11 October 2021 all land dealings must be lodged electronically and certificates of title are no longer necessary to keep or to transact in land.

These changes realised the NSW Government’s goal of reaching a 100% eConveyancing in NSW.

Changes in the Bill

The changes in the Bill are to:

• remove the words 'certificate of title' and replace with 'folio of the Register' where appropriate
• remove the concept of Control of the Right to Deal (CoRD) otherwise known as 'Electronic Certificate of Title (eCTs)' to allow first registered ADI mortgages to 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 replace the registration information that a lodging party would have received on receipt of a certificate of title
• remove barriers to lodging instruments electronically directly to the Registrar General. This allows dealings that can't be lodged through an Electronic Lodgment Network Operators (ELNO) to be lodged electronically. It also opens the possibility for other documents such as power 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.