LINZ News

LINZ to offer further e-survey training

LINZ expects a further injection of free Landonline e-survey training to encourage most of the remaining survey firms to sign up for e-survey and begin lodging their surveys electronically.

Following LINZ's initial investment in free training that began last October, a new tender will be issued to enable further training to be undertaken.

e-survey Uptake Project Manager Mark Williams says more than 50 percent of New Zealand survey firms use e-survey, equating to around 165 survey firms nationwide lodging 30 percent of all surveys electronically.

During the past few months, three to four survey firms a week have lodged e-surveys for the first time.

"This is the return LINZ receives for its investment in training," says Mark. "It's a very pleasing result and I'd like to congratulate the firms involved for their commitment and effort."

The biggest impact is in Christchurch, where 55 percent of the region's surveys lodged in July were lodged electronically - the highest percentage achieved nationally to date.

"Christchurch was our pilot area, so it had a head start," says Mark. "Other regions are quickly catching up and the positive impact this is having for clients and firms is being felt throughout the industry."

Firms wanting to sign up for e-survey and receive training are welcome to contact LINZ at e-survey@linz.govt.nz

LINZ meets legal executives' training needs

Landonline e-dealing seminars for legal executives are proving so successful, legal executive organisations hosting the seminars are struggling to meet demand.

The first seminar in Wellington in 2004 saw 30 legal executives attend a lunchtime event in the LINZ National Office Pickering Boardroom.

Landonline e-dealing Training Coordinator Julie Gillatt says people had to be turned away at the first Auckland seminar hosted by Simpson Grierson where more than 100 participants turned up.

To ensure no-one missed out, Julie was invited back to Auckland to hold a second seminar.

In 2005, she has trained legal executives in Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton and Whangarei, where solicitors also enrolled to brush up on their e-dealing skills.

The New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives organise the seminars at branch level. Usually two hours long, they include a power-point presentation, a live e-dealing demonstration and question time. Julie describes the question time as lively and informative.

"After the two-hours, participants are strongly motivated to encourage their firms to adopt e-dealing because the presentation has shown them how straight forward it really is. The seminar succeeds in demystifying e-dealing," says Julie.

"Some people like to attend more than once to reinforce their knowledge and confidence and we encourage them to do this."

Legal executives keen to host a seminar should contact their nearest branch of the New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives.

Frequently asked questions at these seminars (this will link through to hot topics where the FAQs are listed)

Eighteen territorial authorities "embrace" TA e-certification

Eight territorial authorities (TAs) are now certifying cadastral surveys inside Landonline using TA e-certification and a further ten TAs are in the enablement and training process. Click on the link at the end of this story to see the list of TAs using TA e-certification.

"We are delighted to have so much interest in the short time since launching TA e-certification training," says e-survey Uptake Project Manager Mark Williams. "And many of the surveys being certified are e-surveys".

"When TAs and survey firms are both working online, the end-to-end electronic process results in significant efficiency gains."

"In some regions, TAs have lead the way in online processing. In other areas it has been surveyors. "Now that we're offering training to all parties, more regions are experiencing the real benefits of Landonline."

TAs wanting to sign up for TA e-certification and receive training are welcome to contact LINZ at e-survey@linz.govt.nz. Please put "TA e-certification" in the subject line.

Canterbury law students receive live e-dealing demonstration

Last month, 160 Canterbury law students attended a Landonline e-dealing demonstration tailored specifically to their needs. The demonstration was organised by LINZ Regulatory Senior Adviser Mike Hart and e-dealing Training Coordinator Julie Gillat.

Convinced there would be benefit in introducing law students to e-dealing, Mike and Julie designed the demonstration to give the students a head start when they join law firms.

The presentation included:

• Some LINZ and Landonline history
• The benefits to law firms of using e-dealing over the paper-based process
• A live demonstration of Landonline and e-dealing
• A look at certifying and signing electronically and how e-dealing enhances multi-party transactions
• Working through the New Zealand Law Society workflow guidance and explaining where e-dealing fits in the conveyancing process
• The positive feedback LINZ has received from customers now using e-dealing
• What customer support and the training LINZ offers e-dealing customers

Julie and Mike were very pleased with the quality of questions and feedback received following the demonstration.

LINZ is considering offering similar demonstrations to other law schools.

Landonline

More on customer software upgrade

Last month, Landwrap looked at the benefits that the Citrix ICA and UniPrint Client Server upgrades will create for you as Landonline customers.

The key points were enhanced performance, stability and reliability when you are logged into Landonline.

Landwrap also discussed in general the messages that you would receive to prompt you to begin your upgrade to the newer versions of Citrix ICA and UniPrint Client.

LINZ aims to give you a four week window to complete your upgrade. LINZ has already begun a staggered emailing process to customers enabling some of you to get a head start. When you receive your email, please follow the instructions at your earliest convenience.

Until you have completed the upgrades in full, there will be a pop-up prompt when you go to log into Landonline, reminding you to go through the upgrade process.

• The pop-up prompt will remind those of you who haven't completed the upgrade process that you have until 15 September to do so. The message will read:

  "You appear to have older versions of the Citrix ICA and Uniprint software. You have until 15 September 2005 to install the newer versions. After 15 September, you will be unable to login until you have done so. Click here to upgrade."

• After 15 September, you will not be able to log into Landonline unless you have completed the upgrade process in full. At this stage, the pop-up prompt will direct you to the software download page.

Should you require assistance during the upgrade process, please call Customer Support on 0800 665 463, choosing option 4.

LINZ plans new look for Landonline login screen

When you log-in to Landonline after late October your login screen will have a fresh, new look.

The new look is part of an overall move for Landonline to the Microsoft Windows 2003 environment. This is the first change to the login screen since Landonline was launched to customers in 2002. It currently operates in a Microsoft Windows 2000 environment.

LINZ would like some firms to volunteer to be part of a pilot group to test this new Landonline environment.

The pilot group will be testing the performance of Landonline in its upgraded environment (Microsoft Windows 2003 and the Citrix Metaframe 3.0 suite).

The test will be undertaken over a 10-day period. Participants will be asked to provide feedback to LINZ via a web-based feedback form.

If your firm is interested in participating in our pilot group to test the upgrade in mid-September, please email mcoleman@linz.govt.nz.

Digital Certificate annual renewal

It is now three years since the first Digital Certificates were issued. If you were one of the original customers to be issued with a Digital Certificate in September/October 2002, your Digital Certificate may be due for its annual renewal over the next few months.

The LINZ Customer Support team has already started sending 28-day notice reminder emails to some customers. Yours may be on the way.

These reminder emails, sent on behalf of the LINZ Registration Authority, will explain the steps you need to take to renew your Digital Certificate.

If you no longer use Landonline, please notify Customer Support by following the email instructions, so we can remove you from the database.

Every person using Landonline must have their own Digital Certificate; one person - one certificate. As a registered Landonline user, you are accessing a secure site and have accepted the security measures put in place to protect your access and the computer register itself. You must not share your Digital Certificate.

The reasons why we e-deal - By Richard Cross (Willis Toomey Robinson)

Consider Christmas 2004. Many settlements took place on 23 December before we closed the doors for Christmas. This meant returning to work on 5 January to desks covered with unprocessed, post-settlement registration plus a mailbag full of post-settlement documents.

Consider Christmas 2005. Most settlements will be completed electronically by e-dealing. Following each settlement, the primary contact will immediately be instructed to submit the registration, print out copies of the titles, and email or post a copy of the title to the instructing bank. When the doors close that night, there will be little or no holdover registration. When the doors open on 5 January, the mailbag will be considerably lighter and the registration clerk will not need to spend all day processing 23 December post-settlement registrations.

So why wouldn't you e-deal?

Regulatory

Surrenders of Easement Clarified

Part 5 'Transfers' was among the provisions of the Land Transfer Act 1952 that were corrected or clarified on 17 May 2005, by the Land Transfer Amendment Act 2005 ("LTAA").

To reflect common practice, the Act now expressly provides that an easement (or profit à prendre) may be surrendered by a Transfer Instrument or an Easement Instrument.

Note however, that LINZ prefers the use of prescribed form 4 (LT Regs 2002 Sch 2).

Whichever instrument is used:

• a surrender must be executed by the registered proprietors of the servient and dominant tenements or, in the case of an easement in gross, by the servient proprietor and the grantee [90(3)(b); 90A(4)(a) and (b)].
• the consent of any mortgagee, or encumbrancee, of the dominant land or easement in gross, is required [90E(3)(c)].

Amendments were also made to section 90E to avoid the interpretation that a variation could be effected under sections 90A or 90B.

The amendments are:

LTAA s.6	LTA
	s.90(1)(b)	"or surrender" inserted after "creation"
	s.90(2)(a)	"created or surrendered" substituted for "or created"
	s.90(3)(b)	"or surrendered," inserted after "created"
LTAA s.7	LTA
	s.90E(1)	"created under any of sections 90, 90A, or 90B, or varied under 90C" substituted for "created or varied under any of sections 90A, 90B or 90C"
	s.90E(2)	"any of sections 90, 90A or 90B" substituted for "section 90A or section 90B".
	s.90E(3)(a)	"the creation of an easement under any of sections 90. 90A, or 90B, or the variation of an easement under section 90C" substituted for "the creation or variation of an easement under any of sections 90A, 90B, or 90C"
	s.90E(3)(c)	"any of sections 90, 90A, or 90B" substituted for "section 90A or section 90B"
	s.90E(5)	"90" inserted after "Sections"

Hot Topics

Questions commonly asked by legal executives

Q.	Are legal executives able to certify and sign e-dealing documents?
A.	Legislation does not allow this but legal executives do benefit from e-dealing in many other ways.
Q.	Can a legal executive release and submit an e-dealing?
A.	Yes. This should be compared to the process used in the manual environment. The release is similar to putting the documents in the post to the other party once settlement funds have been received. Submit is similar to bundling the transaction up and sending it to the LINZ office for registration.
Q.	What happens on settlement day if I can't access Landonline?
A.	In the lawyer-to-lawyer undertakings, it is agreed the release would be completed as soon as access to Landonline is restored.
Q.	Do we need to have a paper mortgage and/or transfer signed by the client/s?
A.	No the Client Authorisation and Instruction form authorises these documents to be created electronically making the paper document redundant. The electronic versions of the mortgage and/or transfer documents become the registered record.
Q.	If I'm working for the purchaser in a multi-party transaction needing a Discharge document to be prepared, who is responsible for this?
A.	The vendor's Primary Contact is responsible for preparing the Discharge document and the vendor's Conveyancing Professional would certify and sign both the Discharge documents and the Transfer. At settlement the Primary Contact would then release these documents on confirmation of settlement funds.

Developing in-house protocols for adopting e-dealing - By Richard Cross (Willis Toomey Robinson)

• Decide who is to do what and to what level. Should secretaries or execs prepare documents? Should signing and certifying be restricted to partners only and if so, all partners or some? (ie. Only property partners) Some firms may wish to delegate authority to staff solicitors, but they would need to be supervised by a partner.



• Retention of evidence – should the firm have a separate retention folder or retain evidence on each matter file. Prime consideration should be easy access for compliance review purposes.



• Timing - all signing and certifying should be completed at least two days before settlement (at the same time as the guaranteed search is obtained).



• Undertakings - review the undertakings necessary for e-dealings. Decide who can give undertakings and review your standard settlement procedures as this may need amendment.

For a "Brief overview of what and how" click the link below to go directly to the NZLS Electronic Registration (NZLS CLE booklet May 2002) (PDF 926KB).

e-dealing timesaving Hints and Tips: #4 Complete Create Dealing Screen

• Maximise the screen before you start.
• Add all instruments before you move on to entering roles. This method is more efficient, and also allows you to take advantage of fields that default some information.
• You can add multiple rows before entering instrument codes.
• It is handy to know the instrument codes rather than using the drop down list.
• Use the document type quick codes, rather than using the Description drop down list.
• You can alter fields (eg. Instrument type) before you save the dealing.
• You can use the Tab key to move from field to field without having to use the mouse at all.
• Instead of using the Tab key, try using the arrow down key twice to get to the next document type field.
• When you are in the Enter Titles screen, be careful not to press the Enter key. If you do, the Enter Titles screen will close and you will need to re-open it.
• Use the Add button in the Enter Title screen. If you don't add the title to the list in this screen, you will have to go back and add it again as you cannot save a dealing without a title reference.
• If you are doing a full DM, use the Instrument Number to populate title references.
• Mouse click in particular fields that you want to enter data in, rather than using the tab key.
• Standardise the Client Reference, ie. use the matter number.
• Use the copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) function in fields in the roles area.
• Make a note of the dealing number.

Landwrap

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