Survey

Extracting Survey Data

This functionality is now available for customers to extract data from Landonline.

There are two ways to extract existing data from Landonline by:

• Surveys
• Area of Interest (this can only be used by users who have a Landonline eSearch Plus licence).

Landonline delivers a file to you in LandXML format - the standard format used in Landonline to transfer survey data. There are no fees charged for data extraction.

Please note however that there are restrictions on the size of file you can download.

For more detailed information on this process please check the User Guides in Landonline.

Example of Complex Appellation Search

Below is an example of a complex appellation, searching on "Pt Section 11, Block XV Invercargill Hundred". The method for searching would be:

• Tick the 'Part Indicator' box at the top of the screen
• Select Land District (Southland)
• Select 'Section' in 'Parcel Type' field
• Insert '11' in 'Parcel Value' field
• Select 'Hundred' in 'Sub Type' field
• Tick the suffix box by the 'Sub Type' field (because 'Hundred' comes after Invercargill')
• Insert 'Invercargill' in 'Appellation Value' field
• Insert 'XV' in 'Block Number' field
• Select the ‘Search Now' button (search results are then
• populated)
• Select the "Select" button to return the highlighted result to the tree (or to screen CCL- s12 if searching spatially).

Hint when obtaining multiple results for 'part' appellations

Sometimes when searching on appellations, particularly 'part' appellations, many results may be returned. It can be difficult to determine which of the returned appellations relates to a Title record, some may relate to a Survey record only and a search using such an appellation will not find a Certificate of Title.

To assist with this it is useful to look at the Parcel ID associated with each appellation (ie the system number for each appellation). To do this scroll to the right hand side of the ‘Search Results' field on the Search Appellation screen to display the Parcel IDs. Parcel IDs (or numbers) that are under 3 000 000 in value should always relate to a Title record.

Where there are many results you should begin your search by selecting an appellation with this numbering. Further note - at times appellations numbered above 3 000 000 may also relate to Title records.

e-dealing

When can you "Certify and Sign"?

"Certify and Sign" in e-dealing can be undertaken between 7am to 7pm on any LINZ business day. It can be undertaken by any solicitor nominated on the A & I form providing they have a Landonline digital certificate.

There is no need for the practicing solicitor to attend the file on settlement day – e-dealings can be certified and signed prior to settlement date. This can be done secure in the knowledge that the e-dealing cannot be submitted for registration until the status of all instruments are changed to 'Released' by the respective parties. The status of Released is assigned to an instrument as part of the settlement process. An instrument can also be re-certified and signed to reflect any last minute changes that may be required.

Any e-dealing preparatory work can also be undertaken in Landonline from 7am to 7pm on LINZ business days. This includes running the pre-validation check to ensure your e-dealing complies with LINZ lodgement requirements.

The final step in an e-dealing is to submit the dealing for lodgement on (or after) settlement day, effecting instant registration. The hours for effecting registration are the same as for paper dealings 9am-4pm LINZ business days.

As long as the e-dealing has been certified and signed by an A & I form nominated lawyer, releasing the appropriate instruments on settlement day can be actioned by support staff. Lodgement, (submission in e-dealing terms) can occur after the settlement date.

New NZLS guidelines make life easier for e-dealers

New e-dealing guidelines developed and approved by the NZLS will have a positive impact on the e-dealing process. The changes, introduced by the NZLS this month further enhance the e-dealing process for lawyers, clearing the way for more efficient e-dealings to be carried out.

The main area of enhancements to the e-dealing process is with the A & I forms. The two specific changes are:

1. There are now only two types of A & I form, one for individuals and one for firms

   This significant change in the A & I forms from six types down to two helps streamline this part of the e-dealing process. The content remains substantially the same, though the forms themselves are now reduced to two pages each. Less paper all round.

2. The new facility to nominate another lawyer on the A & I form who can certify and sign the dealing on behalf of the client

   • By nominating another lawyer in their firm to certify and sign, the senior solicitor is no longer bound to having a digital certificate for Landonline. All of the e-dealing preparation can be undertaken by the support staff and the certify and sign can be done by the nominated solicitor.
   • Sole practitioners can now provide themselves with e-dealing settlement cover in their absence. They now have the ability to appoint an alternate lawyer, who has the appropriate e-dealing license, to certify and sign in their absence. This mitigates the risk for a sole practitioner who adopts e-dealing and finds themselves absent on settlement day.

For more on the new guidelines and A & I forms, go to the Law Society website.

e-dealing - Can't access Landonline on settlement day?

This is the second article in a series of three that looks at Landonline availability. The first article examined some of the causes of recent availability issues and the ongoing efforts that LINZ is undertaking to resolve them.

This article suggests steps you can take to minimise the impact of Landonline unavailability on your business, especially on settlement day.

There are three fundamental practices that can mitigate the settlement day obstacle of being unable to access Landonline. These are:

• Obtain guaranteed searches prior to settlement day
• Certify and sign the e-dealing prior to settlement day, and
• Settling without Landonline

Guaranteed searches (GSN)

The GSN may be obtained any time within the first operative period and it is recommended that this occur before the day of settlement.

The 'first operative period' is specified in Section 172A of the Land Transfer Act, i.e. "first operative period, in relation to any transaction to which this section applies, means the period of 14 days commencing with the 13th day preceding the date on which the transaction is settled".

Settlement - Certify and Sign in advance

Solicitors are recommended to certify and sign the e-instruments in advance of settlement day. This practice is secure in that settlement can only be effected once all e-instruments in the e-dealing have been released. An e-dealing cannot be submitted (registered) until all instruments in the dealing are Certified and Signed and then Released.

Settling without Landonline

Settlement can still occur between the parties using an undertaking regardless of access to Landonline. This process is a continuation of practice prior to Landonline.

This from the NZLS guidelines to e-dealing, p25, Guideline W:

"The release should occur as soon as possible after settlement and always on the day of settlement. If the vendor's lawyer cannot access the Landonline workspace due to malfunction of either the lawyer's computer system or Landonline, the vendor's lawyer must facilitate such release as soon as practicable."

This guideline explains the completion of settlement irrespective of the availability of Landonline by utilising an undertaking between solicitors to settle for the parties. All documents can then be released as soon as practicable when access to Landonline is restored.

General

Escape Key use in Landonline

The inconspicuous Esc key on the top left hand corner of your keyboard has some practical uses while working in Landonline e-search and e-survey spatial windows.

The Esc key can be used to:

• Terminate a routine that is currently in progress, particularly when using the Spatial Window. Users may realise that they have too many layers selected for loading and wish to cease further progress. Users will need to press the Esc key at least twice. Just pressing the Esc key once will not terminate the routine. The routine will terminate upon completion of the loading of the current layer. It will not terminate the routine immediately
• Terminate a routine in progress when a problem occurs (instead of using Ctrl/Alt/Del), terminating the immediate process and not requiring a pause period or Landonline to be closed down
• Close exposed dropdown menus and close current screens that have been opened from dropdown menus. This is standard Windows functionality.

For those of you who didn't realise these uses, we hope this piece of information helps you.

Wizards in your PC

Landonline e-dealing, e-survey and e-search all come complete with their own wizards. You can access wizards as you work from Help on your toolbar.

Wizards are interactive pop-up boxes that guide you through a particular task. You can move forward and backwards through a wizard and it will prompt you to fill in the details as required. Wizards help you to perform tasks expertly inside Landonline. They will help you avoid errors and, for beginners, will assist you to master common or more difficult tasks.

Wizards will make your life easier. You can use them for training, for example in e-dealing by going through tasks right up to the point of certifying and/signing and then cancelling the e-dealing. Don't forget that any dealings you prepare electronically will not be actioned until you submit them to LINZ. This means that you can create and then cancel e-dealings for your own practice giving you the opportunity to see how the systems work, without fear of making a mistake. (To cancel, highlight the dealing in the tree and select Dealing/Delete from the menu.)

So go on, have a go, the wizards are in the Landonline Help menu.

Talking Dragons cause problems

If you have the voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking 6.0, you may be experiencing difficulties when you come to digitally sign an e-dealingin Landonline.

Our testing has revealed an issue occurring with the digital signing component of e-dealing when the Dragon Bar belonging to Dragon Naturally Speaking is active on your desktop.

Digitally signing is the only activity in Landonline that is affected. You can use your Dragon software at all other times, but please shut down the Dragon Bar before you commence digitally signing.

Wildcard searching

A number of inquiries recently suggest that not all customers have understood wild card searching in Landonline.

A wildcard is a symbol you type as part of your search criteria entry. You use wildcards when you don't know the exact details to search on. For example, you know a user's surname is Johnson or Johnston, but you are uncertain which spelling is correct. In this instance you might type Johns*

There are two wildcard symbols you can use in Landonline:

* (asterisk) – this completes a search entry
? (question mark) – this is used as a placeholder in a search entry

These symbols may be used together or separately. The following table shows how wildcards may be used:

Type … John* for John, Johns, Johnston, Johnstone, etc
Type … Sm?th for Smith, Smyth
Type … Br?a* for Breaden, Bryan, Broad, Broadmore, etc

Tips for using wildcards effectively:

• You must prefix the first wildcard symbol used in a field with at least two letters or numbers.
• Broad use of wildcards can take some time to return results. Refine your search as much as possible.

Without wild cards you may receive a negative response to a query where a person or street etc might exist.

NB: You should put as much information as you are to refine the search. It is not advisable to search on say Smi** alone, as the search will take a long time.

Printing online versus Request Product List

Landonline offers two main ways to obtain products, on screen (image viewing) and by email (Request Product List in the Tools Menu).
When seeking to print a product from Landonline, dial-up modem users should use the Request Product List email option for all products containing an image, such as a Guaranteed Search or a plan.

Dial-up customers printing products without images should print these products from the screen. This is because for dial-up modem customers the images will take a long time to print from the screen.
Customers with high-speed connections can print images from the screen without using the Request Product List. We recommend that Landonline customers always use a high-speed Internet connection where it is available.

Exiting frozen sessions in Landonline

From time to time a session will hang in Landonline and your screen will freeze. The correct way to disconnect is to right click on the Citrix icon on the taskbar (near the clock). Then choose 'Open Connection Centre', which will bring up the screen below. Press the Disconnect Button to end the session and then reconnect to Landonline in the normal way.

DO NOT end a session by using Control-ALT-Delete, as although you will close Landonline, you will not close the Informix session in Landonline and thus will continue to use up a software licence.

Procedure for Requesting a Credit

In order to improve our service, LINZ is standardising the procedure when a credit application is made by customers.

This procedure is being adopted by all processing centres and should be followed by customers in all instances.

If you wish to make a credit request for any reason, this is what you will need to do:

• If you have already received your invoice

1. Clearly mark each item to be credited by circling the item name and $ amount on the invoice
2. If there is more than one item, total the amount to be credited and write that amount clearly on the invoice
3. Fax (04 460 0161)or post (see below) the invoice back to us with a cover letter explaining the reason for credit

• If you have not yet received the invoice, but have a fees report

    Follow steps 1 to 3 above on the Fees Report

• If you receive your invoices electronically

1. Print the invoice
2. Follow steps 1 to 3 above

Following this procedure will help us to provide a timely resolution to your credit request.

Address for Posting

LINZ Customer Support
National Office
Lambton House
160 Lambton Quay
Private Box 5501
Wellington

Digital Certificates - do not share them…

Following the move to Landonline Stage Two on 18 November 2002 you will all be aware of Digital Certificates and are now using them when you access Landonline.

Important points:

• Your Digital Certificate is personal! One person - one certificate.
  
  

  Do not share this or let others use your certificate. The front line security for Landonline is Digital Certificates.
  
  Landonline is a single system with a variety of users, some searching, others lodging electronic surveys and others registering electronic dealings. All have access to the same system and the same level of security must be applied.

• We will revoke your Digital Certificate when we find out!
  
  When (not if) we identify that you are abusing your Digital Certificate obligations by sharing, we will revoke.
  
  This means that your access will be cut off and until a new Digital Certificate application has been processed, including fee, you will not be able to use Landonline.

• We have done this already!
  
  Where a user is not complying with the Digital Certificate obligations we are contractually obliged to revoke the certificate.

This is for the protection of the national register.