Phone 0800 ONLINE (0800 665 463) 
Landonline and Customer Support will be unavailable on Monday, 2 June 2008. Normal services will resume from 7am on Tuesday 3 June.
If you have any queries, please contact Customer Support on 0800 ONLINE (665 463).
The Electronic Transactions Act 2002 (ETA) provides that electronic information can be just as legally valid as paper documents.
At present, the ETA doesn't apply to instruments for registration under the Land Transfer Act 1952. The authority to register electronic instruments by e-dealing comes from the Land Transfer (Computer Registers and Electronic Lodgement) Amendment Act 2002 (CRELA) and the Land Transfer Regulations 2002 (LT Regs). This is sufficient for the range of electronic instruments currently provided for from Release 3.0.
Release 3.1 will provide for 100% electronic lodgement. The LT Regs will be amended to include several new classes of electronic instruments that may be lodged electronically with conveyancer certifications. However, for some transactions conveyancer certifications are unjustifiably burdensome or inappropriate, such as:
To allow electronic lodgement of these instruments from Release 3.1 without conveyancer certifications, the ETA and its regulations are being amended with effect from 6 June 2008. These amendments will mean that once Landonline is enhanced with Release 3.1, electronic lodgement of virtually all instruments and other documents required to be lodged with the Registrar-General of Land will be authorised and have full legal effect, by virtue of CRELA and the LT Regs or the ETA and its regulations.
The only exceptions will be instruments that cannot be legally created electronically for other reasons, such as court orders or other court-executed instruments.
A computer register of Maori land will not always show a conclusive notation confirming Maori Freehold Land status. In some instances, the status must be checked and verified with the Maori Land Court.
Before a practitioner can submit an e-dealing transfer or mortgage of land, which is or could be Maori land, they must give the relevant certification, under s164A(3)(c) of the Land Transfer Act 1952 (LTA) that either:
The statutory compliance requirements applicable to e-dealing certifications, including those pertaining to Maori land, are currently specified in the New Zealand Gazette 63/1809 – 1812 (20 March 2008). They will be re-specified in a future Gazette as a result of Landonline Release 3.1.
You can also find the statutory compliance requirements in the e-dealing Statutory Requirements document on this website.
When the Maori land certification appears on the e-dealing screen, it has been prompted by the operation of the 'Maori land flag'. This is a warning device applied to computer registers, based on data obtained from the Maori Land Court, which indicates that the land in question is, or may be, Maori Freehold Land.
Whenever the certification appears, and the computer register doesn't show conclusively whether the land is Maori Freehold Land or General Land, practitioners must investigate the status of the land, by making:
If the land then proves to be Maori Freehold Land, the practitioner must obtain confirmation (or whatever else may be required) from the Maori Land Court, under Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993.
When the Maori Land Court procedure is completed, the practitioner will be in a position to make the correct certification and submit the e-dealing for registration.
In cases where the status of the land is unclear and, without proper investigation, a practitioner gives a certification that the specified provisions do not apply, the certification could be 'materially incorrect' within the meaning of s164B(2)(b) LTA. This could result in the revocation of the practitioner's e-dealing Digital Certificate.
A false certification may also constitute a breach of the NZ Law Society's Rules of Professional Conduct (see Rule 3.03).
Accordingly, it is essential that practitioners take the necessary steps to verify land status and comply with Maori Land Court requirements in these circumstances.
