Landonline

Landonline release 3.4 overview

Landonline Release 3.4 is scheduled for 24 May 2010, and is the first of two maintenance releases planned for this year. Release 3.4 contains changes to Landonline to accommodate the new cadastral survey rules, which affects surveyors and other land professionals. Other enhancements in this release apply to conveyancers and are outlined below.

For surveyors and other land professionals...

Landonline is being changed to accommodate the Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010. While there are no significant changes to Landonline processes, e-survey users can expect to see a number of changes from 24 May. For an overview of these changes, refer to the Landonline change summary – Release 3.4 fact sheet on the LINZ website.

For conveyancing customers...

New features being introduced include:

• Memorandum of Priority (MP): Changes have been made to improve the MP screen. In particular, MPs will now be able to be created in new title dealings. The addition of a Registered Proprietor area, similar to that used in the Prepare Transfer and Prepare Mortgage screens, allows MPs to be created over titles with three different statuses: Pre-allocated, Pending or Not Yet Converted.
  
  
• Improvements to business rules: Rules T058 and T059 have been improved to cater for scenarios where prior instruments in the dealing 'change ownership', however, Image Only instruments cannot automatically update the title. When a template instrument follows an Image Only instrument, rules T058 and T059 will now alert conveyancers at pre-validation that the Transferor or Mortgagor details must be manually updated.

More detailed information on the above changes will be included in the April edition of Landwrap.

New enhancement prioritisation tool a ‘one stop shop’

Work is well underway on the development of a new online tool that will provide all Landonline customers with the opportunity to suggest and prioritise Landonline enhancements for future releases. It will also allow customers to edit content, discuss suggested enhancements with others, and rate their importance.

Historically, enhancement and improvement suggestions arrived at LINZ through a variety of channels, whereas the new facility will provide a ‘one stop shop’ approach.

A research project completed in 2008 looked at more effective ways of involving customers in the enhancement prioritisation process. It involved initial investigation of best practice followed by a pilot, which has formed the basis of this new approach.

Under the current process, customers often have no visibility of what happens to their enhancement suggestions once submitted to LINZ. With the new online tool, they will be able to keep track of their particular suggestion throughout the whole development cycle.

Suggested enhancements will still need to be assessed against criteria agreed by LINZ, the New Zealand Law Society, and the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors. And, as with any proposed change to Landonline, resources required from design and development through to testing and implementation need to be taken into account.

We will provide you with more information closer to the time.

Regulatory

Discharge of Encumbrance under s113 Land Transfer Act 1952

Section 113 of the Land Transfer Act 1952 deals with the discharge of an annuity. It permits the Registrar-General of Land (RGL) to enter in the register the satisfaction or discharge of the annuity upon proof of the:

• death of the annuitant
• occurrence of the event or circumstance upon which the annuity or payment ceases to be payable, and
• payment, satisfaction, or discharge of all arrears.

Recently, the RGL was asked if section 113 can be employed to discharge an encumbrance in circumstances where a party was, in one case, a struck-off company and, in another, a dissolved incorporated society.

The RGL's view is that section 113 is limited to the discharge of an annuity originally granted to a living person. The phrase 'death of the annuitant' is unequivocal and cannot be stretched to encompass the striking off of a company or the dissolution of an incorporated society.

In the case of the former company, its interest in the encumbrance may have passed to the Crown bona vacantia under section 324(1) of the Companies Act 1993.

In both cases, the operation of sections 109–111 and 115 of the Property Law Act 2007 could be considered.