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Manual dealing guide

Information about land title transactions lodged in paper form, commonly known as manual dealings.

If you’re new to this, ‘instruments’ is a term used to describe documents that are lodged for registration with us in a property dealing.

The manual lodgement process is open to everyone, but it still needs to meet all the exact legal requirements for transactions in the land registration system. These pages set out the basics, but they can only be a general guide and you may find you need legal advice.

While most documents can be lodged electronically in Landonline, some instruments can only be lodged by manual dealing. 

View a list of instruments that are required to be lodged by manual dealing.

Note

This information is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice. We recommend talking to a solicitor to avoid delays and additional charges for re-submission. If you are in any doubt as to the meaning of any of these terms, you should consult a solicitor.

Before you begin

Before you get started with the step-by-step below, here is some must-know information:

  • You must prepare the legal documentation required – the information we provide here is to help you lodge the document. You need to talk to a legal professional if you need assistance preparing the documents for registration.
  • Section 31 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 has notification requirements for owners who have sold property. The relevant Council should be contacted. 
  • Your paper documents must be delivered to either our Hamilton or Christchurch office. You can do this in person via our drop box, by courier or by post. Lodgement will happen at 7am the next business day. You might also want to order a copy of the new title.  
  • Your documentation may need to include statutory declarations from the parties who witnessed the signing parties signatures. This is to ensure their identities have been confirmed in order to prevent identity fraud, and there are strict requirements outlined in the Authority and Identity Requirements for E-Dealing Standard 2024 – LINZ S 01308 and the Identity Requirements for Paper Instruments Guideline 2018 – LINZG20776.
  • Any survey data related to your title lodgement must be lodged by a licensed surveyor. See Surveying for more detail.
  • There is a fee for manual lodgement – see survey and title fees (refer to the ‘Manual’ figure in the table).  
  • When your documents are received, we will check to see if they meet the legal requirements under the Land Transfer Act 2017 and the Land Transfer Regulations 2018. If they do not, they may be queried (requisition) or sent back (rejection) – see below for more information. A re-submission fee may be payable. 
  • Some constraints apply to manual dealings:
    • 250 unique titles per dealing (ie. at one time)
    • 200 titles per instrument
    • 50 instruments per dealing.
  • If you lodge a document and then decide to withdraw it before registration, you can do this by sending a request to customersupport@linz.govt.nz. If you have already paid fees, these will be refunded and you will need to provide bank account details for your refund.

Step by step

View detailed steps on how to lodge a manual dealing.

Requisitions and rejections

Find out what requisition or rejection of your manual dealing means

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