LINZ News

June Landonline e-survey lodgement hits 25.5 percent

In June, 25.5 percent of all surveys lodged were Landonline e-surveys, a strong sign that a growing number of firms are signing up and becoming confident users of e-survey.

"We've seen the numbers grow steadily since January 2004 when the first six firms lodged e-surveys," says e-survey Uptake Project Manager, Mark Williams. "As the graph illustrates, uptake gained strong momentum after the introduction of training in July 2004. It levelled out over December and January before climbing again to reach 25.5 percent in June 2005. Today, 50 percent of New Zealand survey firms have bought e-survey licences."

Mark sees the steady climb in uptake as a reflection of LINZ's investment in training, a shift in thinking among survey firms and strong promotional support provided by organisations such as the Institute of Surveyors and Otago University.

North Shore gives TA e-certification training the thumbs up

On July 6, the North Shore City Council earned its place as the third territorial authority to complete the 2-hour Landonline TA e-certification training.

North Shore City Council Spatial Information Services Manager, Kumar Kannan, says the council was keen to get up-and-running with TA e-certification because they could see the improved service it would offer their survey customers.

"Eager to work in partnership with survey firms, we knew we had to grab this opportunity as soon as we could," Kumar said.

"The time it takes to certify online is significantly less than manual processing but both parties need to be working online for the real time saving benefits to be maximised for surveyors.

"The North Shore City Council also sees the training as a key ongoing effort to standardise service delivery among the seven Auckland councils."

Marlborough and Christchurch were the first councils to undergo TA e-certification training. Now Palmerston North, Hamilton, Manukau and North Shore have joined them.

Territorial Authorities ready to sign-up for Landonline TA e-certification and receive training should contact Mark Williams on mwilliams@linz.govt.nz.

Read about Landonline TA e-certification and the benefits.

e-dealing training sign-ups soar

An average of 10 to 15 law firms a week are signing up for LINZ's nationwide e-dealing training workshops.

Product/Services Owner Robyn Nicholl says bookings are rolling in following the recent e-dealing events delivered to Auckland-based conveyancing lawyers and legal executives.

The last of these events took place on June 20 and Robyn expects the numbers to increase significantly over the next few months. The most recent events were held in Tauranga and Taupo on 19 and 20 July respectively. Conveyancing lawyers and legal executives keen to venture into e-dealing attended these events.

LINZ is now exploring models suitable for group training – a format that will let firms bounce ideas around with other firms in a learning environment and enable LINZ to meet demand by reaching more firms in shorter time.

New Surveyor-General appointed

Appointed Deputy Surveyor-General in 1996, Don has been acting Surveyor-General since early last year. His permanent appointment caps a 30-year career in land information. After completing an honours degree in physics and a diploma in land surveying, Don started work in the Christchurch office of the then Department of Lands and Survey. In the 1980s he took a study break, gaining a PhD in Surveying at the University of New South Wales.

Under the Cadastral Survey Act 2002 the Surveyor-General's role is primarily focused on standard setting and compliance.

"Operational matters have for some time been handled through LINZ Customer Services and its predecessor, LINZ Operations," he said. "In the recent LINZ realignment, all regulatory audit functions, including survey audits, were brought together to be managed consistently across all areas. My job is to identify risks to the survey system; our regulatory quality assurance focus dealing with how best the compliance risks are to be managed includes a focus on self compliance by surveyors."

The Surveyor-General is now part of a regulatory group managed by General Manager Regulatory, Warwick Quinn. Don's role is focused around four statutory areas:

• cadastral survey
• geodetic survey system
• electoral boundaries
• New Zealand Geographic Board.

Don's responsibilities for cadastral survey and geodetic survey are covered under the Cadastral Survey Act. The latter two are covered under their own separate legislation.

Landonline

More good news for Landonline users

Following on from our June story on the Uniprint and ICA Client Server upgrades, Landwrap can now give you more details on the benefits you will gain following this upgrade process.

Benefits of upgrading

The joint benefits of upgrading these two pieces of software include enhanced performance, stability and reliability when you are logged onto Landonline. There should also be a reduction in the number of disconnected sessions you may experience while working in Landonline.

What do I need to do?

Over the coming weeks, when you log onto Landonline, you will receive a message asking if you would like to download the new software versions. This message gives you the option to go through the process either then, or at a later date.

This message will appear for approximately one month, after which, you will no longer have the option to delay the download. You will be required to complete the download before being able to log onto Landonline.

Please ensure you follow the downloading and installation instructions carefully.

For technical support with this download, call LINZ Customer Support on 0800 665 463, choosing option 4.

Landwrap will carry more information on the upgrade in August.

LINZ updates TA e-certification templates

As part of the Landonline Upgrade in May this year, LINZ updated and added certifications to the Territorial Authority (TA) list of templates.

These changes resulted from changes to the Building Act and the subsequent Building Amendment Act.

There has been a wording change to the 224 (f) Resource Management Act 1991 certification that relates to section 116A of the Building Act 2004.

New certifications added to the Resource Management Act 1991 were;

• 224 (c) Some Conditions, and
• 224 (c) Consent Notice

The 224 (c) Some Conditions certification gives surveyors and TAs clearer options. This allows more flexibility and better reflects the intent of the certification.

The 224 (c) Consent Notice allows for a certification that only refers to the consent notice. It is separate from any other certification and can be shown independently.

Regulatory

Surveyors – remember to obtain landowner's permission

Surveyors are reminded that, without a specific authority from the Surveyor-General, Sec 53 of the Cadastral Survey Act does not give them the right to enter land without the landowner's consent.

Sec 53 provides a fall-back option for licensed cadastral surveyors who need to go onto a property for a cadastral survey but have been refused permission. In this case they may apply to the Surveyor-General for authority under Sec 53. This authority will permit a named cadastral surveyor to enter a specified property.

The Surveyor-General has not, at any stage, issued a general authority allowing all licensed cadastral surveyors the right of entry to all land under Section 53 of the Cadastral Survey Act 2002. The Surveyor-General, Don Grant, does not consider that a general authority of this nature is necessary or appropriate.

Without a general or specific authority issued by the Surveyor-General, surveyors generally have no more right to enter private land than any other member of the public and will be subject to the same laws as any other person.

It is expected that in most cases, a surveyor will seek and be granted permission by the landowner - especially if they act in a courteous manner and explain what they are doing. In these cases, Section 53 will not be required.

Where a Sec 53 authority is issued by the Surveyor-General:

• It applies to only cadastral surveyors holding a current licence. That a surveyor was previously licensed, is a registered surveyor, or belongs to a professional survey body, is not sufficient without a licence.
• It only extends to the licensed cadastral surveyor's assistants if they accompany the surveyor. Staff who go onto land without the surveyor accompanying will not be covered by the authority.
• The authorised surveyor must, "if practicable, give reasonable notice to the occupier of the land of the intention to exercise those powers".
• The authority cannot be used to enter (without permission) a house or other building. That would require a warrant issued by a District Court Judge.
• The authorised surveyor must provide evidence of their identity and their authority to enter the land.
• Any person (such as the landowner) who believes that the authority under Sec 53 has been exercised unreasonably may lay a complaint of professional misconduct, with the Cadastral Surveyors Licensing Board.

New Surveyor-General rulings – height datum and systematic adjustment

The Surveyor-General's Rulings relate to the application and implementation of rules, standards and other statutory requirements.

Two new Surveyor-General Rulings 2005/3 and 2005/4 notify surveyors of recognised height datums and systematic adjustments.

Rule 25 of the Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Survey 2002/2 states that every height must be stated by reference to a height datum for the time being recognised by the Surveyor-General. The new Ruling for Height Datum notifies surveyors of 21 recognised LINZ datums throughout the country. The use of alternative datums (eg from local authorities or an assumed datum) is also authorised in certain circumstances where any of the recognised 21 LINZ datums is not available.

Rule 28 of the Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Survey 2002/2 states that misclosures must be distributed by a systematic adjustment acceptable to the Surveyor-General. The Cadastral Survey Guidelines have previously been used to indicate the Surveyor-General's expectations concerning adjustments, but the new Ruling provides a more authoritative record of accepted adjustment methods. The Ruling advises that the "Least Squares" and "Bowditch" methods of systematic adjustment are acceptable tothe Surveyor-General.

Surveyors who wish to use height datums or adjustment methods that are not authorised in the Rulings may seek authorisation from the Senior Advisor to the Surveyor-General (via the local LINZ Processing Centre). Click here for a list of addresses.

LINZ Cadastral survey audits

Background

Under LINZ's recent realignment, responsibility for cadastral survey field audits moved to the newly formed Regulatory Quality Assurance team. In November 2004, the team set about developing audit programmes for each of the regulatory areas within LINZ. Consequently, an interim programme of cadastral field audits was developed in conjunction with the Surveyor-General.

Status of the 2004/05 Audits

During May and June, 106 field audits were undertaken. Reports for these audits are now being analysed and those requiring further comment will be sent out during the next few weeks. The report, along with the surveyor's comments will then be forwarded to the Surveyor-General.

2005/06 Audit Programme

The audit methodology and programme for the 2005/06 financial year are currently being reviewed and developed in conjunction with the Surveyor-General. Further details will be provided in a future Landwrap.

Hot Topics

Post registration title search clarifications

You may recall a Green Box message intermittently displayed in May/June of this year regarding a known problem with post registration searches.

Customers were advised to not order a post registration title search for a queued dealing but to request a search after confirmation of registration. This has now been corrected. Post registration searches can once again be ordered on queued dealings.

e-dealing timesaving Hints and Tips: #3 Certify and Sign

• Remember your password, and the difference between the Landonline password and a Passphrase. If you enter the Passphrase incorrectly three times, the system locks your digital certificate.
• Scroll to the end of the instrument details before moving on.
• Ensure you read all certifications.
• You can go directly to the instruments screens from Workspace. You don't have to open the Create Dealing screen.
• If you expand the tree in Workspace, you can see the status changes to each dealing and instrument by the change to the icon next to the instrument or dealing.
• If you make a mistake, click the Refresh button to clear all details and start again.
• The Transfer instrument only changes to a status of Signed when both parties have signed.
• Work only displays in the My Work folder in Workspace for the person who created the dealing. If you are certifying and signing, you need to look in the Supervised Work or All Work folders.
• Landonline will not allow you to certify and sign if you don't have the rights.
• The black box next to the 'Sign' button on each of the Prepare screens displays the date that the instrument was signed once signing has been completed.
• You can pre-validate both dealings and instruments.
• Certifications in the manual environment are the same as digital certifications in Landonline.
• A message is sent to the other party in the dealing once certification is completed for each multi-party instrument. For single party instruments, no messages are sent to confirm certification.
• You should print at the certify stage.

How to track dealing progress online

There are often occasions when we need to know what stage our dealing has reached in the registration process. The need will generally only relate to manual dealings as e-dealings are registered instantaneously. One exception is where an e-dealing is queued behind a manual dealing.

The most common need to know progress is for the issue of new titles on subdivision dealings. The search component of Landonline allows you to view progress online without incurring a fee.

Step 1    Select the relevant title and add to the tree on the left hand side of the screen

Step 2    Click on the '+' symbol to expand the tree for that title

Step 3    Go down the list to 'Pending Dealings' and click to open (If nothing has been lodged then nothing will show under that section)

Step 4    Click on the 'Structured Text View'

Step 5    The header details shows the 'Status'

The 'Status' options occur in sequence as follows:

1. Receive Dealing (assigned / unassigned)
2. Lodged (used for an e-dealing that has been queued behind a paper dealing)
3. Authorise Dealing
4. Registered pending Quality Control
5. Requisitioned pending Quality Control
6. Rejected pending Quality Control

NB ('Registered' is not a status because at the point of registration it is no longer pending and is noted on the title)

Summary

Although it does not provide the actual time, the Landonline search component will show you the stage your dealing is at. Timing may vary depending on the complexity of the transaction and LINZ's workload at the time. This Landonline functionality is available on LINZ business days from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Next time you want to know the status of a dealing, save time by simply logging on to Landonline and following the steps outlined above. This is generally the same information as that provided by LINZ over the phone.

Landwrap

Landwrap is the authoritative news and information source for survey and title customers.

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