News
Major investment in processing capability
A year on in the 100% electronic lodgement environment, and LINZ has been busy working on the less visible processes that happen ‘under the hood'.
In particular, we have invested in staff recruitment, training and development at our Hamilton and Christchurch processing centres. As plans to close other offices come closer to implementation, we have ensured both Hamilton and Christchurch have the capability to support Landonline transactions into the future.
National Processing Manager Lindsay Meehan says the change in internal processes to do with electronic lodgement has been every bit as major as the external changes.
"LINZ has invested in a whole new approach to recruitment, training and skill development," says Lindsay. "We're also taking advantage of electronic tools to manage and add to the knowledge base required to support survey and title transactions."
Recruitment of new staff into the Christchurch and Hamilton processing centres has added to the depth of skill and capability LINZ has retained at these sites. New property rights analysts come from a variety of backgrounds including law, teaching and small business management. Selection criteria is rigorous and requires a high level of numeracy, verbal reasoning and spatial awareness.
New recruits are put through a structured learning programme developed specifically to support survey and title processing. The six-month programme combines classroom style instruction with practical exercises taken from real events. Graduates then work extensively with LINZ's most experienced staff in further on-the-job training. It's likely in future that this programme will be linked to the New Zealand qualifications framework.
Lindsay says just as much focus has been placed on staff collaboration, continuous learning and consistent decision making across LINZ sites. Technical specialist roles in the legal and survey fields have been expanded to be best practice mentors. An electronic knowledge database and learning tools are under development.
"Our investment in new approaches to learning, skill development, and core knowledge have been significant. That investment will support survey and title processing improvements into the future," says Lindsay.
"We're looking forward to maximising opportunities provided by the electronic environment, and providing a high level of service to land professionals in the years to come."
Landonline
Proposed new product and service fees from 1 July
LINZ has analysed feedback from our consultation on proposed new fees for survey and title products and services. The new fee structure is expected to take effect from 1 July 2010.
Late last year, we consulted with the New Zealand Law Society, New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and the Institute of Cadastral Surveyors on proposed new survey and title fees.
Based on the useful feedback we received, we are now working on a fees proposal for Ministers' consideration. Any changes to our fees structure require Cabinet approval, and, if approved, would be gazetted one month before taking effect.
We will keep customers informed as we work through this process.
Landonline unavailable weekend of 27-28 March
Landonline and Customer Support will be unavailable on Saturday, 27 March 2010 to allow LINZ to implement an upgrade to the Informix database.
The Informix database will be upgraded from Informix 10 FC9 to Informix 11.50 FC6 as the later version has a feature required by the new e-survey Offline Plan Generation functionality (due to be launched late June/early July 2010).
Landonline and Customer Support will resume normal service from 7.00 am on Monday 29 March.
As with any change, the date of 27 March is subject to successful testing.
If you have any queries, please contact Customer Support on 0800 ONLINE (0800 665 463).
Efficient name searching in Landonline
Some customers are searching for names using the surname only in Landonline. Using the Search screen with limited details can slow search performance. Following are some pointers for effective searching and the use of wildcards.
Search for a title by owner
When searching for a title by a proprietor's name, you should refine the search criteria as much as possible.
For example, if you just enter details in the Owners Family Name field, you will be searching the whole of New Zealand for every owner who shares that surname. This search will take some time to complete.
Refine your searches by entering details in at least two of the three fields below:
- Land District
- Owners Family Name
- Given Names
If you only have details of surname/family name and first given name, and you aren't sure if the person has a middle name, then enter an asterisk (*) after the given name. Landonline will check the database for everyone with that name and any other name following. This is called a wildcard search. See below for other ways to use wildcards.
To search for a title by owner's name, in the Search screen:
- Select the Land District from the Land District field, if known.
- Enter the owner's name details in both of the Owners Family Name and Given Name(s) fields, or in the Corporate Name field.
- Leave checked to restrict the search to current owners.
Uncheck this to search for both current and previous owners.
- Leave checked to search for live titles only.
Uncheck to search for all titles including cancelled titles.
- Click
to display the results of your search in the Search Results area.
- If required, use the Search Results Options to resize, print, copy or save a list of selected titles for this owner from the Search Results area. There is no charge when using these options.
- Select one or more titles from the Search Results area to print or add to the Searches tree.
Wildcards
A wildcard is a symbol used as part of the search criteria, and can be used in the Owners Family Name, Given Names and Corporate Name fields. Wildcards are used when you don't know the exact details to search on, e.g. you are uncertain whether an owner's family name is Johnson or Johnston. In this instance, you might type Johns*.
Two wildcard symbols can be used in Landonline:
- * (asterisk) – this completes a search entry
- ? (question mark) – this is used as a placeholder in a search entry.
These symbols can be used together or separately.
Examples of how wildcards may be used in the Owners Family Name field:
| Type this... |
Sample search results |
| John* |
John, Johns, Johnson, Johnston, Johnstone… |
| Sm?th |
Smith, Smyth |
| Br?a* |
Breaden, Brian, Bryan, Broad, Broadmore… |
Tips for using wildcards effectively in name fields:
- Prefix the first wildcard symbol used in a field with at least two letters.
- Refine your search as much as possible as broad use of wildcards can take some time to return results.
- In the Search screen, you can also use a wildcard in the first or second position in the Given Names, Owners Family Name and Corporate Name fields.
- A wildcard used in the first or second position of a field must be followed by at least four characters, except when used in the Given Name(s) field. In the Given Name(s) field, a wildcard can be used on its own or with one other character.
- Use at least one other search criteria wherever possible when using wildcards. This will refine your search and reduce any impact on performance.
Examples of how wildcards may be used in the name fields:
| Type this... |
Sample search results |
| M*cDonald |
Macdonald, MacDonald, McDonald |
| S?mons* |
Symons, Simons, Simonson |
| *trust* |
Anything with 'trust' in the name, e.g. First National Trust, Trustees Executors Ltd, Licensing Trust Ltd etc |
| *security |
Anything ending with 'security', e.g. Better Security, Main Street Security etc |
| Ronald* |
Ronald, Ronald Adam, Ronald Bruce etc |
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft released its new operating system Windows 7 in October 2009.
LINZ now supports Landonline running with Windows 7 32 bit Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate, having successfully completed a programme of testing.
Our system support policies for Landonline have been updated accordingly on this website.
End of support for Windows 2000
LINZ will no longer support Landonline running with Windows 2000 from July this year, in line with Microsoft ending support for Windows 2000 from this date.
Regulatory
New Rules interpretation guide published
As advised in December 2009, Part 1 of the Interpretation Guide to Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010 is now available on the LINZ website. Part 1 covers rules 1–7, 13–15, and dispensations. Part 2 will be published at a later date, and will cover rules 8–12 relating to Cadastral Survey Datasets (CSDs).
Please note that the interpretation guide is not a complete interpretation of all the Rules. The Surveyor-General has dealt only with those points where clarification was considered necessary.
We would appreciate your comments so that we can produce an improved version. We will then publish updated versions with a new effective date.
It is important to refer to the LINZ website for the most up-to-date version.
Now available online
Interpretation Guide to the Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010
Feedback form
More information
For information on transitioning to the new Rules, refer to articles Transitioning to the new Rules – important information, Timeline until the new Rules Go-live, and Surveys in workspace prior to Release 3.1 in this edition of Landwrap.
New rulings to complement the new Rules
When the new Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010 come into effect in May this year, the current rulings will be superseded.
The proposed new rulings come into effect in conjunction with the new Rules, and are now available on the LINZ website.
In response to feedback received, the list of new rulings discussed at the Rules seminars has been expanded to include an exemption from the requirement to define by survey for certain parcels.
- LINZR65300 – Ruling on official geodetic datum and projections
- This ruling specifies the official geodetic datum and the official geodetic projections for use in cadastral surveys.
- LINZR65301 – Ruling on official vertical datums
- This ruling specifies the official vertical datums for use in cadastral surveys.
- LINZR65302 – Ruling on cadastral survey network marks
- This ruling specifies the survey marks that are suitable to be used as cadastral survey network marks.
- LINZR65303 – Ruling on vertical control marks
- This ruling specifies the survey control marks that are suitable for the vertical control of cadastral surveys.
- LINZR65304 – Ruling providing exemption from use of NZGD2000 bearings
- This ruling provides an exemption from Rule 4.1 (Horizontal datum – orientation), in specified circumstances, for a transition period of one year.
- LINZR65305 – Ruling providing exemption for representation of centreline easements
- This ruling specifies the requirements for how an existing centreline easement is to be represented in a cadastral survey dataset where the width of the easement is unknown.
- LINZR65306 – Ruling providing exemption for certain parcels from the requirement to define by survey
- This ruling specifies where Class A boundaries of new primary parcels less than 0.4 ha are exempt from the requirement to be defined by survey, i.e. can be compiled from existing approved primary parcel boundary data.
The new rulings can also be accessed via the Rulings and Advisory Notes section of the LINZ website.
