LINZ News

Landonline and Customer Support's Christmas and New Year hours

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Landonline customers from the team at LINZ.

Landonline and Customer Support will be operating normal business hours leading up to the Christmas holidays.

On Monday, 24 December 2007 both Landonline and Customer Support are scheduled to close at an earlier time of 5pm (as opposed to 9pm) and will be available again in the New Year from 7am on Thursday, 3 January 2008.

LINZ's Processing Centres will also close for business on 24 December at 4pm and will re-open at 9am on 3 January.

Watch out for Release 3.0 in March 2008

Release 3.0, the next in the Landonline release series is currently on track for late March 2008. This release will primarily continue the journey to 100% e-lodgement for titles customers and reflect some suggested changes to help make Landonline easier to use.

January 2008 Landwrap will feature details about the changes Release 3.0 will introduce for Landonline customers.

NZIS honours Surveyor-General

Don Grant, Surveyor-General and NZIS Fellow

LINZ congratulates Surveyor-General Don Grant on his election as a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors (FNZIS) announced at the 9th South East Asian Survey Congress in early November.

Don was surprised to be nominated. "The nomination surprised me as I consider Fellows of the Institute to be iconic figures of the profession. I'm very proud and honoured to be elected."

A nominee must have 'rendered eminent service to the profession' to be elected a Fellow, nominated by at least six corporate members and receive not less than 75 percent of the votes cast in favour at an Annual General Meeting.

Don is one of 80 Fellows elected since the inception of the NZIS in 1887.

"I never thought of myself as being in the same league as the other Fellows especially when I consider the leadership they have provided to the surveying profession. It's a great privilege."

Don's appointment was formalised at the NZIS Annual General Meeting on 3 November 2007, having received the 75 percent required votes.

New-look Landwrap coming

The New Year will see a new look for Landwrap.

In response to suggestions from Landwrap readers, and as part of LINZ's aim for continuous improvement, Landwrap is being redesigned for easier navigation.

You will see the News, Landonline and Regulatory sections on the front page and the e-survey, e-dealing and TA e-certification sections on separate pages that will link from the front page.

We hope the new design will help you find the information important to you more easily.

The first issue for 2008 is due out at the end of January.

Landonline

Reminder: Landonline and Customer Support unavailable from 12 noon on 15 December

Just a reminder that Landonline and Customer Support will be unavailable on Saturday, 15 December 2007 from 12 noon to enable the switch across to the newly installed transaction server. The new transaction server will enable a greater volume of transactions to be processed to meet future processing projections.

There will be no changes to the Landonline application and customers will not experience any changes as a result of this upgrade.

Landonline and Customer Support will resume normal service hours from 7am on Monday 17 December.

The upgrade of the transaction server is part of a planned programme of work over the next three months to ensure currency of key infrastructure of Landonline (for more information, refer to the article Still No. 1 priority – Landonline performance and stability in this edition of Landwrap).

Still No. 1 priority - Landonline performance and stability

As reported in the September Landwrap, Landonline's performance and stability remains a top priority for LINZ. We also said we would continue to update you regularly on work in this area.

Over the past two months we have continued our planned programme of infrastructure changes. As well as providing performance gains, we are also focussing on getting greater resiliency of hardware components by reducing the risk of 'single points of failure'. Avoiding single points of failure is achieved by duplicating key areas of the Landonline infrastructure and creating automatic failover options, where possible, throughout the end-to-end service. This process ensures we provide high availability of the Landonline system. Completed activities include:

• upgrading the Informix database engine. This also ensured consistency with technology releases
• changing the batch server to supported server hardware (which undertakes processing such as Plan Generation and Request Product List (RPL) batches)
• deployment of the Edgesight tool, which provides greater monitoring capability of the citrix server farm performance
• replication of the change in network provider in our Disaster Recovery environment, and
• the addition of another server into our citrix farm increasing the total to 25 servers.

The programme of work is continuing with the following activities planned over the next two to three months:

• the addition of another server to undertake batch processing. This will allow the batch processes to be split over two servers: one dedicated to Plan Generation batch processing, the other undertaking the remaining batch processes including RPL
• replacement of the transaction server. This will also future proof for predicted increases in processing volumes, and
• upgrading the Public Key Infrastructure, which is used to issue Digital Certificates for Landonline customers.

While some of the activities are technical and may not translate into visible changes for customers, they demonstrate the range and depth of work that is being undertaken to improve Landonline's performance, stability and 'high availability' now and in the future. We will provide a further update in March 2008.

Keeping your operating system and browser details up to date

When you next call our 0800 Customer Support team (0800 ONLINE/0800 665 463), don't be surprised if they ask you a few questions. It's all about keeping our records up to date on what operating systems and browsers Landonline customers are currently using. This information helps us service your system-related queries better and assists with planing for future changes.

Customer Support agents can advise how to identify this information on your computer or alternatively you can ask your IT support staff or service provider.

More about Microsoft Vista and Landonline

Microsoft recently announced an extension to the sales availability of Windows XP software for an additional five months until 30 June 2008 instead of the planned date of 30 January 2008.

Microsoft's press statement suggests this is in response to customers around the world, such as those that provide Landonline client utilities to LINZ, wanting more time and flexibility to test and prepare to make the switch to Vista. Microsoft also states that they may have been "a little ambitious" to think that Windows XP could be withdrawn only a year after the release of Windows Vista (their official 2002 policy is four years, while recent practice has been about two years).

Last month, we advised you that LINZ was undertaking a programme to test Vista with all the components of Landonline. This is a complex area requiring a carefully staged process.

We are only testing the Business and Ultimate versions of Vista as these are the major versions that will eventually be used by businesses. Our preliminary results show that there are some client utilities that currently do not work with Vista such as Uniprint and the Print-to-Tiff driver.

Although we are yet to complete the entire testing programme, given these results to date, LINZ is currently unable to support Vista until these areas can be addressed by our Landonline suppliers.

LINZ will continue its testing programme and liaison with various client utility suppliers as well as Microsoft to enable it to be able to support Landonline with Vista by 30 June 2008.

For a list of current operating systems that operate successfully with Landonline, refer to the System support policies: what LINZ supports section on the Landonline website.

Regulatory

Revised Registrar-General of Land standards and guidelines

As part of its move to ensure regulatory standards and guidelines are optimal (or fit for purpose) and reflect today's practices and environment, LINZ has recently revised and published the following RGL standards and guidelines during October and November:

• LINZS20005 Standard for title adjustments arising from water boundary changes
• LINZG20710 Guideline for dry stream or river bed claims
• LINZG20711 Guideline for accretion claims

The standard and guidelines were effective from 30 October 2007 and supersede:

• LINZ 2003, RGL Standard 31: Standard for accretion applications, Registrar-General of Land, LINZ, Wellington, and
• LINZ 2003, RGL Standard 32: Standard for processing accretion applications, Registrar-General of Land, LINZ, Wellington

LINZG20703 Guideline for dispensations under section 167 of the Land Transfer Act 1952

This guideline was effective from 7 November 2007 and supersedes:

• LINZ December 2003, RGL Standard 24: Standard for Dispensation under Section 167 Land Transfer Act 1952, Registrar-General of Land, LINZ, Wellington

LINZ anticipates that the following standard and guidelines will be published by the end of the year:

• LINZS20002 Standard for verification of identity for registration under the Land Transfer Act 1952
• LINZG20706 Guideline for stop notices
• LINZG20709 Guideline for registration under the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998

Any revised standards and guidelines are published on the LINZ website under RGL publications.

Rules for Cadastral Survey consultation period extended to 1 March 2008

LINZ has announced an extension to the period for public comment on the draft of LINZS6500: Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Survey. The closing date for comments on the draft Rules is now Saturday, 1 March 2008.

This is in response to a number of requests for more time to consider the proposed rules and to make submissions taking into account the Christmas and January holidays.

LINZ has now completed the series of public presentations held in conjunction with the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors to provide background information about the review and explain significant changes in the proposed new Rules.

Don Grant, Surveyor-General said he and his team are delighted with the turnout and response to the presentations. "We appreciate the surveying community taking the time to attend. There was a lot of information to get through and we were pleased to give presentations in as many centres as we could."

Draft Rules and consultation documents available on the LINZ website

If you or anyone in your organisation would like to review the draft Rules and provide comments, you can obtain a copy of the draft Rules and consultation documents by either:

• downloading the Rules document, submission form and consultation booklet from the LINZ website, or
• emailing. Please provide your mailing address and allow up to five working days for the documents to arrive.

Links to the relevant documents can also be found at www.linz.govt.nz/sg-rules-review.

Comments on the draft Rules are now due by Saturday, 1 March 2008. Comments must be made using the comments form on the LINZ website and emailed to regulatorysubmissions@linz.govt.nz

Property Law Act comes into force

The Property Law Act 2007 (the Act) comes into force on 1 January 2008.

LINZ is currently analysing the impact the Act will have on LINZ and its survey and title customers. We will provide more information in the January edition of Landwrap.

e-survey

Paper plan processing update

As advised in the September Landwrap, LINZ received a massive 779 paper plans during the week leading up to 1 September 2007 (the mandatory date for survey plans to be lodged electronically) compared to the average weekly lodgement of 94 paper plans during the first six months of 2007.

Initiatives were put in place to clear the build up and the majority of paper plans were processed by the end of October.

"At the end of October, only 158 paper plans remained outstanding", says Lindsay Meehan, National Processing Manager, "and as at 30 November, this figure had dropped to less than 80, which is a great result for surveyors. Thanks to survey firms for working with us patiently, and I'm sure surveyors would agree thanks are due to LINZ staff for their efforts in clearing the backlog."

Plan Generation consultation – the inside details

We gave you an overview of the Plan Generation consultation results in the October Landwrap. This highlighted the significant preference across all groups for Option E: Offline Plan Layout (includes diagram creation) as the most preferred option and the second most preferred option (39% and 32% respectively).

In this issue, we are providing more detail about the results and giving you the opportunity to view these yourselves.

All respondents were asked to rate their most preferred solution against the following features:

• Capability – improving the functionality and usability of Plan Generation
• Presentation – improving the ability to provide an output that better meets your needs, and
• Efficiency – reducing the overall time and effort required to prepare a plan.

Of the respondents who chose Option E as their most preferred solution, efficiency was rated as the most important feature, followed by capability.

Efficiency encompassed a number of aspects for respondents, who provided comments such as:

• "Being able to completely create diagrams offline after doing the start-up work with the survey and dataset would be more convenient and save time", and
• "It doesn't tie up the Landonline licence and means that work can continue even if there are problems with internet connections or Landonline".

Feedback also highlighted that Option E 'still maintains consistency of results across the profession and country'.

Respondents felt the capability aspects included future potential:

• "By Landonline looking at and providing an offline solution, the ability is then made available to 3rd party providers being able to use that data from Landonline and thus being able to complete plan layout/Plan Generation offline and in 3rd party software", and
• "I believe the Plan Generation software is mostly fine as is, but the biggest hassles are lags, disconnects and downtime".

The consultation results report (pdf 1.5MB) is available to download along with the consultation document and questionnaire for reference.

Next steps

As indicated in the consultation document, the earliest delivery date for Option E: Offline Plan Layout (including diagram creation) is early 2009 as there are a number of steps to develop this solution. These include:

• Draft and finalise business and user requirements, which outline what the system needs to do
• Develop and finalise the detailed design options, which outline how the system can be built and what policies might be needed
• Build the proposed system based on the user requirements and detailed design options
• Carry out user acceptance testing and system regression testing to ensure it works as designed within Landonline
• Develop any education and communications material, and
• Implement the new system.

A pilot group of survey customers will be formed to provide customer input into the above development steps. This group will be selected from those who responded to the Plan Generation consultation and agreed to receiving further contact from LINZ. Through greater customer involvement, we hope the option you have selected will better meet your needs when it is finally launched.

LINZ will keep surveyors regularly updated on progress via Landwrap. We encourage surveyors to continue this discussion on the e-survey web forum.

New risk-based acceptance framework for Cadastral Survey Datasets

LINZ continuously looks for ways to help surveyors achieve first time compliance as part of our long term strategy to ensure consistent and appropriate e-survey processing between Processing Centres.

As part of this strategy, a project is underway to introduce a new risk-based acceptance framework for Cadastral Survey Datasets (CSDs). This project aligns with LINZ's optimal regulation principles: "as little as possible, as much as necessary", as well as a broader, risk-based audit strategy approach.

Landonline automated business rules help surveyors identify and address any compliance issues before lodgement, giving even greater confidence in the 100% e-survey environment that the data submitted is correct.

The new framework focuses on the risk profile of each survey taking into account the quality of the underlying data, the surveyor's profile and the complexity of the dataset. Surveyors' profiles are being evaluated from current data (requisition rates, Surveyor-General reviews, audits etc) and, once determined, will be made available to the individual surveyor.

Surveys that have a higher risk profile will undergo manual analysis in addition to that applied when reviewing the automated business rule reports. The onus remains on lodging surveyors to provide quality datasets and the new acceptance process will reinforce this.

Through LINZ's appropriate use of the automated business rules and targeted manual intervention, surveyors can be assured that the quality of the cadastre will continue to be maintained.

The new framework will:

• help ensure that the level of LINZ processing resource applied to each dataset is logical, fit for purpose and consistent, and
• provide additional statistics to assist all surveyors and LINZ to further improve their processes. (Some survey firms are already receiving their requisition rate statistics on a six-monthly basis as part of the cadastral survey audit process.)

LINZ is currently talking with key stakeholders and developing an implementation plan. Early next year we will be able to provide you with details of the new processes and answer any questions you may have on the framework or work required to further develop the Landonline business rules.

More information available

For the new process to work as efficiently as possible and deliver benefits to the survey profession, some surveyors may need to further develop their understanding of the available automated Landonline validation tools and reports to use them to best effect.

To date, some material on pre-validation has been published on the Landonline website. This material gives surveyors a better understanding of Landonline pre-validation reports and how to address the errors.

LINZ's policy is to requisition material items only. Surveyors are encouraged to use the formal review process for querying requisitions if they disagree with the materiality of a requisition, as it assists LINZ refine its processes and deliver greater consistency.

Optimal regulation : LINZ defines the 'what' – industry defines the 'how'

What happens to my suggestions for enhancing Landonline e-survey?

LINZ is continuously developing the e-survey application in Landonline and encourages both the surveying community and LINZ staff to make suggestions for enhancement.

Your enhancement suggestions arrive at LINZ in variety of ways such as calls and emails to Customer Support, the e-survey web forum and other correspondence, stakeholder meetings, as well as testing by pilot groups, LINZ staff and system developers. Clearly identifying an idea for enhancement as a suggestion that you want documented is helpful to us.

So what happens to your idea?

Categorisation

Enhancement suggestions are categorised and prioritised. Any proposed change to the system needs to take into account the resources required from design and development through to testing and implementation. Proposed enhancements may also require consultation with stakeholders.

Suggestions are categorised into groups so that analysts can more easily determine whether:

• the suggestion has already been received even if the wording differs
• the suggestion is a symptom of a bigger, underlying issue
• the suggestion overlaps with others and if a range of similar work can be more efficiently analysed or undertaken together, and
• a more minor or cosmetic enhancement might be included with significant other work in the same category. This assists with items of work that have a low individual priority.

Suggestions are grouped into common 'themes' reflecting the process areas for surveyors as well as referencing a specific Landonline window if this is appropriate.

Current themes going through the prioritisation process include:

• Spatial Window/Searching – how selections are applied when the window redraws, the need to display more information, and additional tools. Suggestions also cover the tree view, and on improving overall spatial presentation.
• Create Survey – in this area, suggestions currently focus on the use of information entered (e.g. use the data in a different part of the system), rather than changing the functionality.
• Plan Capture – suggestions in this area include improvements to the way information is entered in the survey header, presentation of data in the capture windows, and interaction of these windows with the Spatial Window.
• Plan Generation – covers all the suggested enhancements for the operation of Plan Generation (e.g. the ability to generate additional diagrams beyond those required for Landonline, as well as symbology changes for line types and weights, mark symbols, colour etc). Suggestions in this category cover usability improvements to working with the data (e.g. better capability for dealing with groups of items, altering diagram extents without having to recreate the diagram, and the addition of scroll bars) through to having more diagram management tools.
• Data Extract – suggestions in this area cover the ability to capture more data into the XML file, more easily manage the selection of data in the area of interest, and reduce the data entry requirement when multiple plans are saved to file.
• Data Import – suggestions in this area cover the import of XML data into Landonline, and suggestions to allow the partial import of data (specifically the import of title information ahead of the detailed plan).
• Plan Submit/Approval – suggestions include those for the pre-validation report. These cover suggestions for having less information through to requests for more detail. Changes have also been suggested to the application's rules, however, feedback from the Plan Generation consultation showed support for LINZ applying rules as a system check. (Note that the application's rules will be reviewed in detail as a result of the proposed changes to the Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Survey.)
• Requisitions/Exception process – the focus of these suggestions are on improving the management of requisitions and the Exception process.

Other suggestions generally fall into the categories of usability or presentation:

• Usability – suggestions include options to allow users to carry out work with fewer key stokes or mouse movements, the ability to group work items, retain changes when a later edit is made, and reduce the duplication of entry of data into fields.
• Presentation – suggestions focus on inclusion of additional data in plan diagrams (e.g. Surveyor's Client Reference), greater range of symbols particularly line types and weights, and better management of user added text (e.g. alignment of labels, movement of labels after edits).

Analysis and prioritisation

All suggested enhancements are analysed and assessed using a prioritisation process that includes an assessment against agreed criteria by LINZ, and New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and New Zealand Law Society representatives.

After the initial assessment, each item is measured against criteria that has been given a pre-allocated weighting. This enables a priority ranking to be calculated for each item. Criteria used in measuring the benefits includes the:

• value or benefits the change will provide to particular customer groups
• improvement/s to productivity that will result
• number of users that will be affected
• impact on the infrastructure
• impact of not making the change
• time the change will take to implement, and
• cost and estimated resource to implement the change.

Once the ranking is completed and agreed, the amount of time and resource to implement the change is then used to plan the timing of the change in association with other items into a Landonline release.

Enhancement suggestions to Landonline e-survey flow chart

Release dates may be determined by other projects or activities that can constrain the time available and limit what can be delivered.

New e-survey tips and hints

The e-survey Tips and Hints on the Landonline website are continually being refined and added to.

• Improved submission of plans in e-survey
• Irregular boundary capture
• Splitting irregular boundaries
• Responding to an e-survey requisition
• Access Lots - capturing new and existing lots
• Updated LandXML reference documents available

Improved submission of plans in e-survey

An improvement to the way the Complete and Submit process works in e-survey was introduced in Release 2.10. The benefit of the change was to ensure that customers, including Territorial Authorities, were presented with the correct version of the images after a plan was submitted. This change has caused some confusion for surveyors as previously draft versions of the images were able to be accessed by customers after plans had been submitted.

Landonline processes Plan Generation data as a batch. When the surveyor 'completes' work in Plan Generation, Landonline sends the job to a queue for the Plan Generation batch server. The batch server checks the queue at five minute intervals while it is waiting for jobs to process. If work is found in the queue, it then processes all the jobs that are waiting at that point in time. The image is generated at the successful processing completion of each job.

The new functionality changed the Submit process so it now ensures that on Submit, only the latest version of the image is available in Landonline with the correct status.

To avoid delays, bear the following in mind:

• Do select Complete once in Plan Generation and wait until you can view your Plan Compilation Completion notices in My Messages before you Sign and Submit your plans
• Do perform a final pre-validation on the survey to ensure that Plan Generation rules run while waiting for your Plan Compilation Completion notice to appear in My Messages, and
• Do not go back into Plan Generation and select Complete again. Selecting Complete again will delay the submitting of the plan until the final Complete request is processed by Landonline's batch server.

Irregular boundary capture

• Mark linking must occur before Irregular boundaries are digitised. All terminal marks of the irregular lines MUST be linked. This rule also applies to digitising in 3rd party software.
• Irregular lines are made up of many vertex points and react differently to right lines when it comes to linking. If users digitise an irregular line before linking marks, distortion will result in the irregular boundary.
• If an irregular line is being refixed, it is advisable that offsets to the new positions are included in capture. This will assist holding the irregular boundary position when LINZ runs the final adjustment of that plan in the Landonline database.
• When digitising an irregular line, you must first identify the start and end points of where the irregular line is going from and to. The first vertex point of the irregular line must be close to but not coincidental with the start node. Likewise, the last vertex point must be close to but not coincidental with the end node.
• Do not digitise the vertex points too closely together. This is time consuming and can cause non apparent loops to be created. Likewise, do not digitise the vertex points too far apart. The irregular line will distort and appear right lined.
• When digitising, endeavour to create a smooth irregular line between the start and end nodes.

1. The screen shot below shows a new irregular line that has been digitised from mark 1572 in the north to mark 1588 in the south.

   

2. When spatially linking a parcel for the first time in Landonline, the message to include mandatory and/or optional missed boundary marks often appears. If these marks (highlighted blue) are along the existing irregular boundary in Landonline, DO NOT include these into your survey at this point. This is because irregular lines are made up of many vertex points between the start and end points of the irregular line and the system will not know where to place them along your newly digitised irregular line.
   
   The screen shot below shows the mandatory missed marks in the survey along the newly digitised irregular line.

   

   At this point, the user should not select any mandatory missed marks but make a note of where they lie along the newly digitised irregular boundary. Then select 'ok' button and select the red cross in the toolbar of the spatial window.
3. The screen shot below follows on from the mandatory missed marks - this is the optional missed marks message. At this point the user should select 'OK' and then select the continue button in the toolbar of the spatial window.

   

   ALL mandatory blue marks along the existing irregular boundary should be identified BEFORE digitising the new irregular line.
4. The screen shot below shows that the irregular boundary originally digitised has been deleted and the two mandatory missed marks have now been selected and adopted (marks 1589 and 1590). Note the optional mark at the top of the screen has not been adopted because it is not a surveyed mark nor does it form topology for any other adjoining parcels except for this one parcel.

   

   The new irregular line can now be digitised between the linked marks, ignoring the optional mark.
   
   Optional blue marks (unless an actual surveyed mark) should not be selected or included along the irregular line.
   
   When performing parcel linking, no mandatory missed marks should appear along the irregular boundary. However, you may now have mandatory missed marks elsewhere on right lines that do need to be accepted - ensure that these are selected.
5. The screen shot below shows an optional mark that will not be selected for inclusion into this survey as it is not an actual surveyed mark on the boundary.

   

6. If a surveyor considers the underlying data to be significantly wrong, the Exception process should be invoked.

Splitting irregular boundaries

• There is no requirement to split an irregular boundary line if the entire irregular line is being dealt with by the new survey. The end points of the irregular boundary lines will be linked and so upon deposit all the existing lines will be replaced by the newly defined lines.
• Sometimes the new survey is of an easement only and this runs up an existing irregular line that is longer than the defined easement. In this instance, LINZ needs to be informed that the existing line requires splitting in order for the easement to be linked to that irregular boundary at the point defined by the new survey.
• Call 0800 ONLINE (0800 665 4633) and select option 2 to speak to one of our e-survey specialists. They will be able to do a preliminary assessment of the situation (which may be in a shadowing session). If it is a case of splitting just one line, then the call will be handled by one of our Cadastral Topology and Geometry (CTG) trained Customer Support agents who in most cases will be able to undertake the line splitting fairly quickly.
• If this action becomes complex, the Customer Support agent will advise using the Exception process as the best solution for the customer. If an Exception request is raised, the surveyor must advise LINZ of the newly captured mark where the existing line should be split. LINZ will split the line and if necessary move the node to be exactly under the captured mark quoted in the Exception request.
• If a primary parcel is only being defined by the new survey along part of an irregular line, the existing line does not require splitting. To create the remaining balance parcel, the surveyor can manually digitise the remaining portion of the irregular boundary up to the nearest Landonline node, along that boundary.
• In some instances, the irregular boundary can be dealt with by performing the Merge Irregular Boundary functionality in 'Capture' e.g. for dealing with Accretion and Erosion plans.

Responding to an e-survey requisition

When you receive a requisition on an e-survey, two options are available to you in response to that requisition:

• Full electronic - you can convert the requisition to a word processing file (using a common image handling tool included with most Microsoft desktop packages) then prepare a typed response. The New Zealand Institute of Surveyors has published instructions on how to do this on their website.
• Once you have created the file, attach it to your requisition as a supporting document and return it to LINZ from your Landonline workspace. The requisition is signed electronically by you, the surveyor, as part of the automated process.
• Partial electronic - you can print the requisition and handwrite comments on the form. The document can be scanned to create a .tif file. You then attach it to the requisition and return it to LINZ electronically from your Landonline workspace. Again, the requisition is signed electronically by you as part of the automated process and no manual signature is required.

Access Lots - capturing new and existing lots

Capturing new Access Lots

• Capture - The Lot is captured spatially and linked as for a normal Lot i.e. in the parcel details:

  • Action is Created
  • Intent is Fee Simple
  • Topology is Primary
  • Capture the 'parcel area' for this lot only
  • 'Appellation Format' is General, and
  • Capture a Lot number and plan reference

• Title Allocation - In the Title Allocation screen the Access Lot will have all pre-allocated CT references that benefit from the Access Lot as per an Amalgamation Condition for the same; i.e. if Lots 1-4 are individual owners' properties and have 4 CTs from 100201 to 100204, and Lot 5 is an Access Lot.

  Allocations would be: Lot 1 - 100201, Lot 2 - 100202, Lot 3 - 100203, Lot 4 - 100204, then Lot 5 - 100201, 100202, 100203, 100204.

• Plan Generation - In Layout sheets the Lot will appear as an ordinary Lot (e.g. Lot 1) and User Added Text is required to add the words Access Lot.

• Supporting Documents Tab - Add the amalgamation condition to a Schedule/memorandum supporting document - either on a separate page or on the same page as the schedule of easements. Attach the supporting document.

Capturing existing Access Lots

These need to be captured as per requirements 6.7.2.4 for e-survey in the Surveyor-General Guidelines (under review). Currently the following would comply:

• Capture - Do not capture the boundaries of the Access Lot that are not common with the subdivisions external boundaries. The Access Lot is searched and brought into the parcel list and given the Action of 'Affected'.

• Title Allocation - The Access Lot will appear in the Title Allocation screen. The pre-allocated CT references that will have a share in this Access Lot should be selected and added to the Access Lot parcel in the list. They will appear as 'Multiple' in this screen - see screen shot below.

  

  If the surveyor forgets to allocate the CT references at Title Allocation, LINZ staff will allocate the appropriate shares in the Access Lot and the CT's will then be updated when the Dealing to deposit the plan arrives.

• Plan Generation - In Define Diagrams, create a User Defined Diagram to use instead of the 'System Generated Primary' or 'System Generated Non Primary' diagram. The main User Defined Diagram needs to include all land in the subdivision benefiting from/and the entire (within reason) Access Lot.

  In Plan Layout Sheets add the User Defined Diagram to the title sheet and add User Added Text of Access Lot on the affected parcel.

• Supporting Documents Tab - Add the amalgamation condition to a Schedule/memorandum supporting document - either on a separate page or on same page as the schedules of easements. Attach the supporting document.

Updated LandXML reference documents available

LINZ has recently published updated versions of the following LandXML documents:

• Landonline and LandXML Extract (pdf 72KB) - updated to incorporate changes to LandXML schema v1.1
• Landonline and LandXML Import (pdf 442KB) - updated to incorporate changes to LandXML schema v1.1
• Cadastral Survey Data Exchange Format document (pdf 889KB) - updated to incorporate LandXML schema v1.1
• LandXML - Landonline Enumeration Mappings applicable to Landonline (pdf 444KB) - updated to incorporate changes to LandXML schema v1.1 and changes to Crown Subdivision, LT Subdivision and Statutory Easement/Right plans.

These documents have been prepared to provide surveyors and LandXML developers using LandXML files with all the required information to produce compliant LandXML files in survey software and Landonline.

Are you using the e-survey best practice tools and tips?

Do use the new self-help information available in the e-survey section, which is ordered by the experience level of the surveyor - novice, experienced and advanced.

Spanning a wide range of topics, the best practice section includes the tips and hints full index.

The e-survey training resources section has all the links and background on training materials provided by LINZ such as the user guide, computer based training (CBT) DVD and the support available to surveyors.

The comprehensive Landonline Education Centre can be accessed by searching any topic.

e-dealing

Caveator’s consent certification where prior withdrawal of caveat is to be lodged

This article provides guidance for conveyancing practitioners when dealing with caveator consent requirements for e-dealings.

Caveator’s consent certification 

In circumstances where a transaction affects a title subject to a caveat, and the consent of the caveator has been obtained to enable registration, the e-dealing system allows the conveyancing practitioner to make a certification to that effect. The certification is displayed automatically and must be completed in order to allow registration.

If, on the other hand, a prior withdrawal of the caveat is prepared as part of the same e-dealing the system recognises this and will not display the caveator’s consent certification.    

The same applies, of course, to notices of claim, which have the same effect as a caveat. 

Issue with prior withdrawals when lodged separately  

Difficulties may arise, however, in a minority of cases where there are back-to-back transactions and the withdrawal forms part of a separate prior dealing. In these circumstances, the system does not recognise the prior withdrawal and consequently the caveator’s consent certification, though redundant, will still be displayed as a requirement for certification and registration of the later dealing. Understandably, this can be something of an inconvenience and a source of frustration for practitioners.

Proposed enhancement

LINZ recognises this is an important issue that needs to be addressed in future system enhancements. A solution has been identified that will overcome these difficulties and ensure the caveator’s consent certification is not displayed where a prior withdrawal is to be lodged. Unfortunately, due to commitments already made for the implementation of upcoming system releases, LINZ will not have an opportunity to implement this enhancement until late 2008.

Interim solution

In the meantime, it will be necessary to adopt some interim measures to overcome these issues:

1. One obvious option is to liaise with the lawyers for the parties involved and make arrangements for the caveat withdrawal to be prepared as part of the e-dealing requiring consent. This would prevent the caveator’s consent certification from displaying. Another option would be to wait until the prior dealing containing the withdrawal is registered, thereby eliminating the issue.
2. Also, from late March 2008, Release 3.0 will allow multiple transfers and mortgages in the same dealing. Accordingly, back-to-back dealings that involve caveats may be combined into one dealing which will prevent the caveator’s consent certification from displaying once the withdrawal has been prepared.
3. Of course, it may be that the nature of the transaction is such that the withdrawal must be lodged as part of a prior dealing and settlement of the later dealing cannot wait until registration is completed. In such a case, the practitioner acting in respect of the later dealing will have no choice but to make the caveator’s consent certification to enable the transaction to proceed.

In these circumstances, it will be necessary for both LINZ and practitioners to take a common sense view of these matters. For regulatory purposes, one could argue that in this limited context ‘consent’ can be taken to have a wider meaning than would otherwise be the case so as to encompass the lodgement of a prior withdrawal. In any case, once the prior withdrawal has been registered, the consent certification is clearly a nullity.   

Accordingly, the Registrar-General of Land accepts that a pragmatic approach must be taken and has confirmed that there will be no compliance implications for practitioners who make a caveator’s consent certification in such cases.

It should be noted, however, that apart from this limited set of circumstances, the requirements relating to caveator’s consent are absolute and no such certification may be made unless a valid consent has been obtained and is held.

End of proposed e-dealing audit methodology consultation

The consultation phase for the proposed e-dealing audit methodology has been completed. LINZ would like to thank all law firms for their feedback and interest.

Following discussions, the NZ Law Society Land Titles Committee has endorsed the Registrar-General of Land's decision to implement the e-dealing audit methodology across all law firms, commencing 1 December 2007.

Traditional compliance reviews will continue by sampling a law firm's e-dealing documentation, however, LINZ will consider scaling back the level of compliance reviews for those law firms participating in an audit and receiving a satisfactory report.

The e-dealing Audit Methodology document (pdf 103KB) is available here.

Call for law firm responsiveness on e-dealing compliance reviews

By the end of this year, around 66% of the law firms using the e-dealing system will have experienced at least one compliance review. LINZ aims to have an initial review of at least one practitioner in each of the remaining firms completed by June 2008.

Trends to date show a need for significant improvement in law firm responsiveness to compliance reviews. While in most cases full compliance is ultimately demonstrated, responses are often delayed and incomplete in the first instance.

In the last six months, only 76% of lawyers responded within the 10-day statutory timeframe. Of those, 69% required further follow-up by LINZ to obtain the necessary evidence to complete the review.

The resulting follow-up activity is time consuming for both LINZ and practitioners. This could easily be avoided if law firms take additional care to respond on time and in full in the first instance.

To date, LINZ has adopted a facilitative approach in dealing with these issues. We recognised that law firms needed time to refine their office processes for e-dealing compliance reviews and a reasonable amount of latitude has been shown. It is clear, however, that a more efficient turn-around on compliance reviews is in everyone's interests and accordingly, this 'grace period' must come to an end.

The Registrar-General of Land (RGL) has discussed this issue with the New Zealand Law Society Land Titles Committee. It was generally agreed that the situation needs to improve and, if necessary, a more stringent approach should be taken to encourage first-time compliance.

The relevant powers and sanctions covering compliance reviews are set out in sections 164B and 164C of the Land Transfer Act 1952. Under section 164C(4), a request for supporting information must be met within 10 working days.

If a full response is not provided within that time frame, LINZ is authorised under the Land Transfer Regulations 2002 to charge firms on a time and attendance basis for any follow-up work required in order to resolve outstanding compliance review issues.

In addition, if a lawyer fails to respond, the RGL may revoke that individual's certification rights pursuant to section 164B(2).

While LINZ has not yet resorted to imposing charges, and certification rights have been revoked on only a few occasions, more extensive use of these mechanisms will be required if the rate of first-time compliance does not improve.

LINZ will continue to monitor these matters over the next three months. If there is no significant improvement, a more stringent policing regime will be introduced at that stage.

Practitioners can assist by meeting the statutory requirements and providing a complete response for compliance reviews within the 10-day period.

For further guidance on e-dealing document retention requirements and the compliance review process see:

• NZLS e-dealing guidelines
• e-dealing Compliance Review and Audit Information

Different registration methods

We are now less than a year away from 100% e-lodgement and as we move forward, e-dealing functionality will change to allow more complex transactions to be lodged electronically.

One of the benefits of Release 3.0 will be that conveyancing professionals will be able to work independently for the parties involved in the same instrument. This will enable common transactions such as matrimonial settlements to be worked on by separate parties represented in the e-dealing transaction more efficiently.

Release 3.0 will allow conveyancing professionals to complete all Mortgage, Transfer and Discharge transactions through e-dealing. To enable this there will be two ways to register an e-dealing transaction:

• AutoReg
• Lodge

These terms are explained below:

• AutoReg (Automatically Registrable) is currently the only way to lodge transactions by e-dealing. AutoReg instantaneously accepts or rejects a transaction and if accepted, it is registered immediately.
• Lodge, which is available in Release 3.0, means that e-dealing transactions will require LINZ staff to check the information before the e-dealing transaction is registered.

Lodge will give customers the option to add free text or images to some of their transactions; this means that things like additional clauses can be added to more complex transactions prior to being submitted electronically. You will also be able add up to three image files to your transaction. This could be a Microsoft Word file or other document saved within your own computer, or an electronically scanned image of a paper document.

More information about how to electronically scan documents can be found in the Scanning technology update article in this edition of Landwrap.

Robbie Muir, Registrar General of Land, says, "As we gain more functionality within Landonline not every instrument will continue to fall under the AutoReg heading. Release 3.0 will see transactions completed using the new Lodge functionality. These transactions will be registered electronically and processed manually by LINZ staff who still have a major role to play.

"It's a myth that the introduction of e-dealing reduced LINZ's responsibility. We still ensure that everything is checked, either through the business rules built into the application, or through processes established for manual intervention by our staff."

Marie Rollason, Legal Services Manager at Buddle Findlay, reviewed how to add text to a transaction when a mortgage was required to include a trustee limitation clause. Marie also looked at completing a transfer with a restrictive covenant that required an image to be added.

"Lodge with image always sounded a bit complicated to me but having seen some of the screens, it's actually a very easy process," says Marie "I thought it was put together really well. LINZ should get top marks for the display buttons that allow me to check my work is correct as I'm doing it. Uploading documents is really easy and I can't wait to be able to use it."

Neil Thomson, Conveyancing Partner at Cuningham Taylor, also reviewed the new functionality and agrees with Marie that adding an image is easy. Neil looked at how to do a transfer with a restrictive covenant that required an image to be added to the transaction.

"I like the reassurance LINZ staff will still be checking the final document with the new Lodge functionality. I'm very happy with the changes that are on their way. Anybody who is already familiar with e-dealing will find it all pretty straight forward."

Sharon Cottrell General Manager, Customer Services, LINZ says, "As e-dealing capability increases, it's important that every firm is represented at the presentations for Release 3.0 and 3.1. It will be a good opportunity for people to see the changes and discuss these with our trainers and other conveyancing professionals".

Release 3.0 presentations will be held around the country in April 2008.

Invitations will be sent out by LINZ in February 2008. Look for them in your inbox and make sure your firm has an e-dealing champion attending, along with a conveyancer with certify and sign privileges.

Are you preparing for 2008?

With the introduction of more complex transactions in 2008, it will become increasingly important that firms have reliable internal processes in place. This will ensure information is being disseminated to the necessary people and that these people are fully prepared for each new release.

This message was reinforced at the Release 2.10 presentations held in September and October this year. Many firms are now preparing themselves for upcoming releases by establishing a key point of contact, or e-dealing champion, with LINZ so that they can ensure new information is going through the correct channels.

Nick Clark, a partner at Lane Neave, said one of the key things for their firm in preparing for each release has been to have a partner who takes responsibility for e-dealing as well as an e-dealing champion; someone who keeps up to date with the information that LINZ sends. At Lane Neave, the partner responsible is Stephen Jeffrey and the e-dealing champion is Wendy Hughes.

Nick and Wendy both attended the Release 2.10 presentation where they heard recommendations firms could adopt to prepare for future releases as we move toward the goal of 100% e-lodgement.

"We were already doing many of the things that were recommended," says Nick. "Wendy receives all the information from LINZ and, as the e-dealing champion, distributes it to the people involved. We have a private client group meeting at least every second month and we discuss any issues. If there are new things that come out about e-dealing, this is where we discuss them."

Wendy adds, "There are one hundred people in our firm but not all of these people do conveyancing. I send relevant information out to those concerned and then they come and talk with me. If they want to discuss it, they can bring it up in our private client group meeting."

Jenny Samson, Legal Executive and e-dealing champion at Izard Weston, also attended the Release 2.10 presentation.

"I attended the presentation that LINZ held so that I was aware of what the release would include. Once the new release became available, I used the Help button and the Quick Reference Cards when I needed further instruction."

"As the e-dealing champion, I'm responsible for ensuring conveyancers within our firm are fully aware of the changes and are trained in using the new functionality with each release."

Once Jenny is familiar with the changes, she completes one-on-one training with any conveyancing professionals needing it within her firm. Jenny is also developing an in-house manual, which is a summary of the New Zealand Law Society's guidelines and the high level process of e-dealing.

"This way, conveyancers with certify and sign privileges within our firm can see exactly what they need to do at any stage in the process if I'm not available to help," says Jenny.

Firms are using a number of different processes to ensure e-dealing works for them.

Sharon Cottrell, General Manager Customer Services, agrees. "Here are two different examples of how firms have established processes to make e-dealing work for them. It's important that firms find the best process to fit in with their business practice and ensure that everyone who does conveyancing is prepared for the changes as they are released. It's great to see the effort firms are making and to hear about the processes they've established."

Scanning technology update - more about imaging in e-dealing

In July, LINZ wrote to conveyancing professionals outlining the technical requirements for scanners and scanning software. This was in preparation for future releases of Landonline that will allow information to be added to some instruments. We now have more detail for you about attaching information to your e-dealing.

Attaching information to your e-dealing

Release 3.0, currently scheduled for late March 2008, introduces 'lodge' dealing types that will allow information to be added to the instrument. This will be via the 'Add Text' or 'Add Image' buttons that will appear at the bottom of the screens in those modes where these options are available. For more information on the ways you can lodge your e-dealings from Release 3.0, refer to the different registration methods article in this edition of Landwrap.

• Add Text is a free text field that will allow you to type in any supporting information.
• Add Image will allow you to upload an image to Landonline. This will require the image file to be in the correct electronic file format. As the majority of your files will already be in an electronic file format (e.g. Microsoft Word doc), you will only need to convert these into the correct Tiff format for Landonline before they can be uploaded as part of the instrument. LINZ will provide software that will enable customers to do this.

In a very small number of instances (i.e. for less than 4% of all dealings), the information may not be in an electronic format (i.e. paper). To upload this information as part of the instrument, it will require the paper document to be scanned first and you will require access to a scanner.

The Landonline website has been updated with further information about how to add information within Lodge dealings and includes details on scanners and scanning, (i.e. scanning terminology, overview of the scanning process as well as information about scanners and scanning software compatible with Landonline, and frequently asked questions).

Further information about how to convert electronic files into the correct Tiff format so that it can be uploaded as part of an instrument will be provided in early 2008.

17 new e-capable Discharge instruments available

Make sure your firm takes advantage of the 17 new discharges and withdrawals that were made e-capable with Release 2.10.

See the new list of e-capable instruments in the Landonline e-dealing section.

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 the Landonline website.

• Lenders' mortgage memorandum available in Landonline
• Joint mortgages

Lenders' Mortgage Memorandum available in Landonline

Some lenders are no longer supplying the memorandum with their letters of instructions. Instead they refer conveyancing professionals to Landonline to obtain a copy. This will become more common. Conveyancing professionals can use Landonline to search for the memorandum they require.

Instructions on how to use Landonline e-search to search a lender's Mortgage Memorandum are available in the e-search section of the Landonline website.

Joint mortgagees

Release 2.9 resulted in the necessity to check the 'joint' checkboxes in the Mortgagee details field when the mortgagees are joint mortgage holders (see A in figure 1).

If this field is not checked the preview of the instrument will appear to be correct (see B in figure 2).

However, once registration is completed, the mortgage memorials indicate that the mortgage is in shares, which is not what was intended (see C in figure 3).

When the 'joint' checkboxes are checked in the mortgagee details (Figure 1), the information presented in the preview will be correct. Once registration is completed, the mortgage memorials display the correct information and there is no mention of shares (see D in figure 4).

From Release 3.0, when a mortgagee is added, the 'joint' checkbox will automatically be checked as this situation is more common.

Territorial Authorities

Hastings District Council encourages surveyors to submit online

Hastings District Council has been certifying plans electronically since being trained in June 2007. However, after an initial flurry of activity from local surveyors, it has been relatively quiet on the TA e-certification front for Hastings.

Environmental Consents Planner, Julie-Ann Bowker explains, "We had quite a few e-surveys to do during training as we'd asked surveyors to send some through. We got quite excited about it and started straight away but since then, it has been a bit quiet."

Julie-Ann says that out of the 34 or so applications they receive each month, only a quarter are submitted electronically. Some surveyors are printing out their digital plans and taking them in to the council for certification.

"They don't seem to know how to send them through to us electronically", says Julie-Ann. "I have since added information about TA e-certification to our standard letters. We've got one firm that does it regularly but a lot of surveyors aren't confident with the system and are still printing them off."

Surveyors can refer to the article Are you notifying your Territorial Authority when a plan is ready for certification? in the October 2006 Landwrap on how to submit a plan to their TA via Landonline.

Julie-Ann says TA e-certification saves time for some but not for others in the council. "It reduces the time taken for our GIS department to get the information on to our GIS system but currently increases the planner's time in processing. We still have to do the same checks even if it's in e-survey.

"Having said that, I can see that it saves time for surveyors, lawyers and of course our GIS people – I can see that it's good overall."

One issue Julie-Ann raises is that the TA Notice emailed to them from the surveyor only states the Land Transfer (LT) number and not the local authority's RMA reference.

"It's extra work for us to search on the legal description when it would much easier to search on our reference. Surveyors can't go back and amend the digital certificate online with the RMA reference after it has been submitted. We have told them that we won't process a digital plan unless it has something on it that says it complies with a 223 or a 224 certificate."

There is a field in the Manage Survey Transaction screen where surveyors can add the TA reference. However, as each TA has their own processes in place, surveyors should check with their local TA to confirm their referencing requirements.

Julie-Ann has advice for councils keen to get started with TA e-certification. "Get your IT people involved early, especially to help with downloading Digital Certificates and Landonline software.

"I really encourage surveyors to get on board and submit their plans electronically. Councils need to be proactive and let surveyors know that they are doing e-certifications."

If your TA is interested in finding out more about TA e-certification, email your contact details to info@linz.govt.nz or ring 0800 ONLINE (665 463) and LINZ's Customer Support staff will help get your TA started. Further information is available on the Landonline website.

New-look TA e-certification section on the web

The TA e-certification section on the Landonline website has had a makeover… a new look, improved navigation and a 'What's new' panel, 'buttons' and Quicklinks to help you get to topical and frequently referred to web pages quickly.

Six key information groupings...

In the main part of the section home page, you'll see six headings:

• Before signing up – Information on TA e-certification and the steps to take to get enabled
• TA e-certification Training resources – Training and education resources to help you with TA e-certification
• Forms and other information – Links to forms, Pricing, Fees Reports and Landonline system updates
• FAQs – Answers to key questions about TA e-certification
• Regulatory Information – Cadastral survey standards, rules, rulings, regulatory publications
• Getting started – New to TA e-certification? Find out what you need right here

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