Transmissions and the e-dealing environment
Transmissions are routinely encountered in the course of conveyancing transactions. This most often arises where land has vested in an executor or administrator upon the death of a registered proprietor, or where a joint tenant has died and the property has devolved to the surviving joint tenant.
Transmissions may also occur where a remainderman acquires clear title upon the death of a life tenant or where the property of a registered proprietor who is adjudged bankrupt vests in the Official Assignee.
In such cases, to facilitate further dealings, the person in whom the land has vested must arrange to have a transmission application lodged with LINZ in order to acquire registered title.
This applies equally in the e-dealing environment. A person who provides an authority and instruction for an electronic transfer of – or other dealing with – land they have acquired by transmission must therefore first ensure the requisite transmission application is lodged for registration.
Practitioners acting in these matters should be aware that under no circumstances is it acceptable to skip the step of registering the intervening transmission. For example, an unregistered executor does not have the capacity to authorise a transfer to the beneficiary of a deceased proprietor's estate, without first obtaining probate and making arrangements to acquire registered title by transmission.
LINZ monitors compliance with these requirements through its e-dealing compliance review programme.
Information about the process for registering transmissions electronically can be found on this website.
e-dealing watch points for practitioners
e-dealing watch points are continually being added to. You will find these and links to other e-dealing related articles on this website.
Don't leave pre-validation to the last minute
Instrument pre-validation
When you pre-validate an instrument, Landonline checks that the content of the instrument is correct.
To pre-validate an instrument, you must be a Primary Contact (PC) or Conveyancing Professional (CP) for the instrument or be in the same firm and have the appropriate privileges.
The details of the current pre-validation results for a dealing or instrument display in the Validation Report screen. You can check the results for the current pre-validation of an instrument or dealing using the menu options in Workspace.
Landonline displays a message above the Pre-validate button (on the Prepare Instrument screen) as to whether the pre-validation Passed or Failed along with the date and time.
What does pre-validation check?
Pre-validation runs business rules that ensure all necessary details for the instruments have been completed. For an AUTO REG instrument, if pre-validation passes then the instrument is in order to be automatically registered. For a LODGE instrument or IMAGE ONLY instrument, pre-validation checks that the instrument meets the minimum requirements to enable successful lodgment to LINZ. Pre-validation checks, for example, that:
- all mandatory fields have been completed
- there are no stops preventing registration on the titles
- titles have a status of Live or Part Cancelled
- the registered proprietors in the instrument match those on the Register
- an image has been attached to an IMAGE ONLY instrument
Note: Certification and signing are not checked as part of pre-validation.
Pre-validating an e-dealing
Pre-validation of an e-dealing runs all the checks for all the instruments in the dealing and works in the same manner as instrument pre-validation.
To pre-validate an e-dealing, you must be a PC or CP for an instrument in the e-dealing or be a user from the same firm with the appropriate privileges.
Limitations of the pre-validation check
Pre-validation checks that all mandatory fields have been completed but cannot always validate the content of those fields, such as free text or attachments.
Pre-validation may fail where an instrument has been prepared correctly but is dependent on earlier registration being completed, e.g. a prior unregistered transfer that will update the ownership of the titles. Pre-validation rules check the details in the instruments against the details on the register or any relevant prior instruments in the same dealing.
Timing of pre-validation
You can pre-validate an instrument or e-dealing at any time and as often as you want before you submit the e-dealing to LINZ.
Early pre-validation of an e-dealing is recommended to identify any potential issues affecting registration.
Note: Pre-validation does not incur a fee.
You should pre-validate an e-dealing before submitting to LINZ for registration
This provides a final check that the dealing is in order and that no registered interests may affect the e-dealing.
However, when you submit, Landonline will automatically pre-validate the e-dealing if you have not done so. The only exception to this is where there is a pending dealing with LINZ affecting the same title(s) and the e-dealing has already been pre-validated within the last 24 hours. When the e-dealing is automatically pre-validated by Landonline at submit, a message will only display if pre-validation fails.
If pre-validation fails due to a warning only, you can still submit the e-dealing as this will not prevent registration. You can receive a warning for example when:
- New titles are included in the dealing – their status will not yet be 'Live'.
- A trust or trustee has been recorded as part of a name when it is not a recognised corporate trust name – the name is correctly recorded but not included in the automatic checklist of names.
- There is a prior transfer that is changing the ownership of the title(s) – the instruments have been correctly recorded but do not match the current names on the register.
For more information on pre-validation, check out Landonline 
from Workspace screen or the help button 
located in every e-dealing screen.
