LINZ News
e-survey training coming soon to your region
Coming soon: Face-to-face training for e-survey users. This is a leading LINZ support initiative to help surveyors get familiar with e-survey concepts and functions. This training, along with a range of other support initiatives, will help build the capability you need to begin electronic lodgement.
"LINZ is sponsoring Neil Pullar of Cadastre Limited to work with surveyors to build their capability as new users of e-survey," says Jeff Needham, LINZ's Customer Strategy Manager.
"Surveyors, like all land professionals, are working at a cracking pace right now," says Jeff. "That's why LINZ is developing a range of support initiatives that fit around surveyors' schedules. This training initiative will focus on the key concepts behind electronic survey data – and the technical advice surveyors need when they've initially signed up for e-survey.
"Neil Pullar has already trialled the training with some Wellington firms to ensure it is focused on up-skilling surveyors in using Landonline."
The face-to-face training will cover the core topics, from managing survey transactions and survey capture to using pre-validation and plan generation. It will also outline the exception process, and discuss how LINZ's processes work. That is, performance standards, validation work, and the availability of new e-survey + NEW TITLE FAST-TRACK (see related story). Other support initiatives for e-survey include shadowed online sessions and specialist support through the 0800 ONLINE (665 463) support service.
More details around how the training will be scheduled, and what it will consist of, will be announced as soon as the pilot testing results have been analysed and built into the training programme.
The LINZ-sponsored training will be available for a fixed-time only and scheduled on a first-come-first-served basis. It will soon be advertised in each region, so please look out for more information if you are interested in e-survey training opportunities. The next issue of Landwrap will also feature more detail on Neil's training.
LINZ on-hand to talk e-dealing at the Property Law Conference
LINZ will be demonstrating e-dealing and workflow guidance at the August Property Law Conference in Auckland. The conference theme is 'Maintaining the Momentum', and at LINZ, the momentum is around our efforts to help e-dealing work for you and your firm.
We invite you to our demonstrations – Landonline specialists will be on-hand to answer all your questions on e-dealing. We'll be demonstrating e-dealing online and how to adapt the new work-flow into your firm.
We know the conference is packed with leading-edge issues and speakers, so our presentations are only 15 minutes, allowing you enough time to talk with LINZ experts.
We also have information packs for you to take back to your firms, with all the e-dealing information you need.
LINZ will be presenting in the Princes Lounge:
- at the pre-conference registration on 22 August, 5.30-6.30pm, and
- at selected times throughout the main conference days on 23 and 24 August.
You can pick up a schedule of our demonstration times at registration. Bring your questions – we look forward to seeing you there.
Regulatory information now in Landwrap
From this issue on, Landwrap now includes survey and title regulatory information. LINZ used to publish this through our Torrenstalk magazine (no longer being published). As part of a review to ensure we communicate effectively to our customers, LINZ has decided to package regulatory and all other survey and title information together conveniently for you – in Landwrap.
Look out for key technical advice and national rulings from the Surveyor-General and Registrar-General of Land in our Regulatory section of Landwrap.
Landonline News
New workflow guidance helps you start maximising e-dealing benefits
If you're using e-dealing, you know that it also means adapting your workflow processes to gain maximum efficiency from it. To help you adapt, LINZ and the New Zealand Law Society have worked together to provide you with workflow guidance in the e-dealing environment.
The guidance was developed from work by the Law Society's Tim Jones. Those attending LINZ's recent customer events around
"The e-dealing methodology is not too different from the paper environment," Tim says. "You can have Landonline on your computer or your staff member's – in our office, we combine the two. The system saves as you go"
The guidance summarises key workflow changes
The guidance document outlines the e-dealing process, and highlights the key workflow changes that help your firm maximise the benefits of electronic lodgement.
It summarises the process at every step of an e-dealing transaction and the impact on workflow. The role of every player in the process, from the solicitor to the legal executive, is outlined.
We appreciate that every law firm is different, so your firm may need to adjust the guidance, templates and guidelines, to your workflow methods.
The benefits of adapting to e-dealing
Once cemented into your firm, adapted workflows help you start gaining the benefits of e-dealing. As Tim Jones notes, "The changes to workflow aren't great. What you get from the change to e-dealing is accuracy. The system tells you if you make mistakes: with pre-validation, Landonline comes back to you in seconds to let you know if your changes are fine.
"In our firm, we do all our discharges by e-dealing. It's a way to break the ice once you've adapted your workflow, because it helps staff get into it."
Where to get the Workflow guidance document
The Workflow guidance (pdf 189kb) can be downloaded from the New Zealand Law Society website
LINZ will provide the guidance to customers signing up for e-dealing, so if your firm has an e-dealing licence or would like to sign up, it's now part of the customised training material LINZ provides to help make your sign-up and use a smooth process.
Merger of the National Bank of New Zealand Limited and ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Limited
The merger of these banks become effective from Saturday the 26 June 2004.
From Monday 28 June 2004, details of the new bank "ANZ National Bank Limited" were available for use in Landonline.
Key details that need to be used when preparing e-dealings in terms of ANZ National Bank Limited are as follows:
- Memorandum Number - 2004/4155
- Quick Code - ANNB
For e-dealings prepared before the 26 June 2004, memorandum numbers and quickcodes should remain in their original format.
View the full list of Mortgagee Quickcodes. (Note: This link is no longer available.)
Left side of a Prepare Dealing Screen where Mortgagee Quickcodes are entered
Customer priorities built into Landonline upgrades
Ever wondered what happens to the enhancements to Landonline you or your colleagues suggest to LINZ?
As part of our commitment to continually improving and enhancing Landonline, LINZ upgrades the application every six months. "A key part of the upgrade is consulting closely with stakeholders to prioritise enhancements and fixes that will make the biggest difference to your, and LINZ's, processing," says Sharon Cottrell, General Manager Operations. "LINZ can't fix all issues or make every enhancement at once, but this prioritisation does ensure we're targeting the most crucial areas.
"Before upgrades, representatives from the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and New Zealand Law Society look at all the known issues and possible enhancements recorded. These come under the survey, title, infrastructure, geodetic and electoral categories. They prioritise the issues from your perspective, as survey and title customers.
"LINZ ensures these are balanced with our process requirements," Sharon says, "and that fixes or enhancements will not lead to unintended consequences, such as the system running slower."
Example of one of the tools used in the prioritisation process.
For instance, in preparation for the 2.5 upgrade scheduled for November 2004, LINZ's survey and title customer representatives helped us concentrate on some key areas.
One example is the title search that lawyers often have to perform after the registration of an e-dealing. An enhancement coming in with the next upgrade will mean that an automatic title search gets sent to lawyers after an e-dealing is registered. So, you will be able to see the completed title without a separate search being done.
LINZ will publish more details on the next upgrade in November. But you can call our Solutions Centre on 0800 665 463 any time to suggest enhancements, or if you find any possible issues. If your issue is a bug with Landonline, it is analysed and assessed for impact, and potentially goes on our consideration list for future Landonline upgrades.
Processing Information
Faster processing available from 1 August
From 1 August, LINZ will offer a fast new processing service for dealings lodged with an associated e-survey.
With the new service, called 'e-survey + NEW TITLE FAST-TRACK', LINZ aims to reduce the processing time for an e-survey and the associated title, to a total of 12 working days for the plan approval and title issue.
To qualify for the fast 12-day turn around, the dealing must be lodged along with the e-survey + NEW TITLE FAST-TRACK request form, on the same day as the e-survey, and neither should be requisitioned or rejected.
If the dealing or e-survey are rejected or requisitioned, the timeframe reverts to the LINZ target timeframe of 10 working days for the e-survey and 15 working days for title issue.
For more information, go to e-survey + NEW TITLE FAST-TRACK on the 'Lodgement Form' web page of the LINZ website.
Revised form must be used for all manual lodgements
As the June issue of Landwrap reported, LINZ brought in a revised lodgement form on 5 July 2004. The revised form, available from our website, must be used for all manually-lodged title documents and survey data.
LINZ no longer accepts the old form, so please:
- delete it from your computer or network, and
- ensure all your documents and data are lodged with the new form.
The main change with the revised form is that it calculates the total fees payable for dealings and surveys based on the new schedule of fees that came into force on 5 July 2004.
To download the form, and for more information:
- Click on the Survey and Title Lodgement Form page on the LINZ website
- The link to download the new lodgement form is under the heading 'Where do I get the Lodgement Form?'
Adjustment to 0800 Support menu options
From 16th August 2004, customers may notice a slight change to the wording of the 0800 options menu under the Landonline options.
LINZ now specifies 'technology' support for Landonline customers in the 0800 ONLINE (665 463) options menu.
This is in line with recent developments in our support services as part of our customer initiatives programme, and consistent with all subsequent customer information available.
Regulatory
Determination of Mean High Water Springs
A number of different procedures can be used to determine the line of Mean High Water Springs (MHWS). The surveyor needs to employ a method that delivers an accuracy that is appropriate to the class of survey being undertaken. Where the boundary is to be fixed accurately, the technique employed will often include MHWS predictions from the Nautical Almanac at a standard port as well as sea-level observations at the survey location.
The current Nautical Almanac provides two tables of tidal level predictions. The second table in the almanac, which includes all the tidal constituents evaluated over the 18.6 year tidal cycle, should be used for the purpose of determining cadastral and administrative boundaries.
A more detailed description of this requirement is available on the LINZ Website
RGL Rulings
Unit Title Developments and Shares in Access Lots
Background
New unit title developments are sometimes undertaken in respect of land which has road access via an undivided share in an access allotment. The access allotment is often 'tied' to the parent allotment by a compulsory amalgamation condition imposed in respect of an earlier subdivision. As this scenario is not specifically contemplated by the Unit Titles Act 1972, a question has arisen as to whether it is possible to include the access strip share in the unit development by showing it as part of the common property on the unit plan.
A narrow reading of the legislation might suggest that an undivided share in an access allotment cannot be included in a unit title development. Section 5(1)(b) and (c) of the Act require that the unit plan must encompass the whole of the land held in one title, which implies that the development must involve the entire estate in fee simple. If, however, as is usually the case, the share in the access allotment is amalgamated in one title with the parent allotment, it would ostensibly meet this test.
An alternative, more liberal, view is that the Unit Titles Act 1972 does not necessarily preclude development in respect of undivided shares in land. As section 3 of the Act confers the ability to convert to a unit title development on any "registered proprietor of an estate in fee simple in a parcel of land", this would arguably extend to the owners of an undivided share in an access allotment. Provided the share in the access allotment is confined to the common property, this does not present any particular difficulties at a conceptual or practical level. It appears to be feasible to have both common property and conventional undivided fee simple shares co-existing in respect of the same parcel of land.
Proposed Approach
A share in an access allotment may therefore form part of the common property shown on a unit plan, provided the plan is clearly noted as including only that share. In such cases, the existing amalgamation condition will continue to apply to the underlying fee simple and no additional covenants or conditions are required in respect of the new unit titles.
It should be noted that conversion of a fee simple share to a stratum estate in a unit is an entirely different matter. This would not be possible, as a unit, by definition, must necessarily be derived from the entire estate in fee simple.
Caveator's Consent – Requirements of s147 Land Transfer Act 1952
LINZ offices report that persons preparing Land Transfer documents often omit to make instruments subject to the rights of the caveator when registering with caveator's consent. As this is an express requirement of s 147 of the Land Transfer Act 1952, an omission to include such a statement will invariably lead to a rejection.
Practitioners are reminded to ensure that the necessary recital is included in the documents for which caveator's consent has been obtained, before submitting the dealing for registration.
NB: The recital requirement only applies to paper-based instruments – for e-dealings see s 147A of the Land Transfer Act 1952.
Application of s226A of the Resource Management Act 1991
Section 226A of the Resource Management Act 1991 allows a new cross or company lease to be registered in renewal of, or substitution for, an existing lease, where the building to be leased is shown on a plan deposited in the land registry office prior to 1 October 1991.
Generally speaking, the lessee under the new lease need not be the same person as the original lessee in order to take advantage of this exemption. If, however, it is intended that encumbrances from the prior lease are to be brought forward onto the new cross or company lease, this would bring the matter within the ambit of s 117 of the Land Transfer Act 1952. In such cases, the lessee must be same person (or that person's personal representative) and the lease must include the necessary request, as provided in s 117(1).
