When to use Memorandum of Priority
Use the Memorandum of Priority to change the priority of existing instruments, such as a mortgages or encumbrances.
Adding affected titles
All affected titles must have a status of Live or Part Cancelled to be able to complete a Memorandum of Priority. If they don't you must wait until the title's status changes to Live or Part Cancelled before you prepare or submit a dealing, or create a manual dealing for the Memorandum of Priority.
Adding roles
The default setting for a Memorandum of Priority is multi-role. Usually in most situations the same firm will be acting for the owner or mortgagor and the new lender or mortgagee taking priority.
All parties need to be signed for. Specifically:
- the owner (mortgagor)
- mortgagee gaining priority, usually the new mortgagee
- the mortgagees losing priority
- those otherwise affected, for example having a different mortgagee take priority over their interest.
You'll need to add additional roles where any or all of those parties are separately represented.
How existing instruments are displayed
When you first open the Prepare Memorandum of Priority page all relevant instruments, such as mortgages and encumbrances, will be shown in Title groups in the Ranking section.
In most cases there will just be 1 Title group as you'll be dealing with a single title or with titles containing instruments in the same priority order.
If you are transacting with titles containing different combinations of instruments or priority orders we consolidate these into separate Title groups – 1 for each combination of instruments.
You can also use View/split group titles to create your own customised groups to prioritise instruments.
Instruments which can be affected
The following instruments can be affected by a memorandum of priority:
- Certificate of Change under Public Works Act (C221)
- Encumbrance (ENC)
- Family Benefit Charge (FBC)
- Lien (LN)
- Mortgage (M)
- Mortgage of Licence under Crown Forest Assets Act 1989 (MFL)
- Mortgage of Mortgage (MM)
- Mortgage varying Mortgage (MVM)
- Statutory Land Charge (SLC)
- Tax Charge (TC).