Landwrap - August 2022

Kia ora koutou

In this edition:

• Changes to Section 38 ownership requirements
• New interim Landonline naming conventions
• Removing or modifying land covenants under the Commerce Act 1986
• Identifying common survey errors
• Three more councils join Notice of Change service
• Enhancements to our search projects
• Updated procedures for how surveyors manage donut parcels
• Preparing for 2-year Digital Certificates

Changes to Section 38 ownership interest requirements

Assessing ownership interests at every stage of staged developments is not necessary.

It was a requirement when unit developments were done in stages that a registered valuer had to assess the ownership interests for every unit at every stage of the development.

An amendment to Section 38 of the Unit Titles Act 2010 clarifies a valuer’s certificate of proposed ownership interests is only required for the proposed unit development plan (PUD plan). There is no need for a further assessment or valuer’s certificate for the first or later stage plans or the complete unit plan. The ownership interest of a unit in a stage or complete unit plan is the interest shown on the valuer’s certificate lodged with the PUD plan (section 38(2)(b)).

If a second or later stage development dealing has been lodged with LINZ and includes a valuer’s certificate (an OINT instrument), we will give you the option to either withdraw the OINT instrument from the dealing or confirm you would still like to register the OINT (which we will do without charging a fee).

Please note the ownership interests set out in the valuer’s certificate must be consistent with those which accompanied the proposed unit development plan. Any change to the ownership interests requires a full reassessment in accordance with section 41 of the Unit Titles Act 2010.  

Our interim guideline for Unit Titles Act 2010 - LINZG20720 has been updated to reflect these amendments.

Interim guideline for Unit Titles Act 2010 – LINZG20720

Section 38 of the Unit Titles Act 2010

New interim Landonline naming conventions

This year we will be launching the new Survey and Dealings functions. It is important to identify whether we’re referring to the current Landonline system, or its replacement.

To make it easier to identify which platform we are referring to we have introduced the following naming conventions:

• when we say ‘Legacy Landonline’ we’re referring to the current Landonline system (that has been in use for more than 20 years)
• ‘New Landonline’ refers to the new system being developed and rolled out.

We will revisit these naming conventions once the majority of people are using New Landonline.

Removing or modifying land covenants

Recent amendments have been made to the Commerce Act 1986 to prevent the use of land covenants to restrict competition in the grocery sector.

Section 28B of the Act sets out the new provisions for the removal or modification of these covenants, including that:

• the designated grocery retailer may revoke or modify the covenant, and
• the revocation or modification instrument may be executed by the designated grocery retailer alone.

The following instrument types will be added to Landonline to enable this:

• Commerce Act 1986 - revocation of land covenant – instrument code “RCLC”
• Commerce Act 1986 – partial revocation of land covenant – instrument code “PRCL”
• Commerce Act 1986 – variation of land covenant – instrument code “VCLC”.

Identifying Common Survey Errors

We’ve summarised the most common errors made under the Cadastral Survey Rules 2021, so you know what to look for.  We encourage surveyors to add these six common requisitions to their quality assurance process.

We’ll regularly update this with more common errors worth being aware of.

Common survey requisitions

Three more councils join Notice of Change service

We’re pleased to advise conveyancers can now prepare Notices of Change of Ownership for South Taranaki District Council, Kaikōura District Council and Invercargill City Council using our automated Notice of Change service, as part of your Landonline e-dealing workflow.

Our automated Notice of Change service – the preferred method for advising changes to ratings databases, where available – will result in improved data accuracy, you only enter the data once, time savings - fewer clicks and less typing, and improved timeliness of notifications.

For more information about Notice of Change, watch a short video demonstration featuring Carolyn Hintz, Senior Associate at Gibson Sheat Lawyers or check out the Landonline help page.

Enhancements to our Search products

Improving the customer experience and paving the way for future improvements are at the heart of recent Search product enhancements.

Web Search and Land Record Search users can now easily adjust the map size to suit your requirements, by clicking the arrow tab or dragging the centre bar. The map can also be removed altogether, leaving only the search results showing.

The search box has changed to a drop-down option. This change means we’ll be able to add more options as search functionality is expanded in New Landonline.

We’ll soon add a ‘My recent orders’ panel to display a list of products you’ve viewed, downloaded or had emailed.

Coming soon is the ability for you to ‘pop’ the search window out and have it ‘float’ over the full-page map, allowing you to move it freely around the page or on to a separate screen.

First request type

The first, of many, request type – the ‘Title Correction Request’ – has been added to Web Search. This means you can quickly and easily alert us to an error in a title and includes the ability to securely add attachments.

Updated procedures for how surveyors manage donut parcels

We’ve made changes to how Landonline manages donut parcels.

Find out more about donut parcel changes here

Preparing for 2-year Digital Certificates

Our New Landonline – Dealings application, scheduled to be released later this year, will enable customers to prepare and submit most refinancing and sale and purchase dealings.

From 3 October, we’ll start issuing two-year certificates for all Digital Certificate (DC) renewals. To prepare, firms will need to have the new version of DC loader installed to download and use the new two-year certificate.

To certify and sign in the new application, surveyors, lawyers and conveyancers will need to upgrade to Digisign 3.1.

To move to the new two-year DC, please read our introduction to the new two-yearly Digital Certificates. There’s no cost to upgrade ahead of your renewal date and you won’t have to worry about maintaining separate software for one-year and two-year DCs.

Our additional information sheets for Trusted Contacts and IT providers includes instructions on how to request an upgrade.

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