Making conveyancing easier
Toitū Te Whenua is making it easier and faster for conveyancing professionals and councils to action a Notice of Change of Ownership (NoC).
The NoC legal process can now be initiated in Landonline when any change of ownership to a property is registered via a land title transaction.
This typically happens when an instrument is registered against a Record of Title for a property. Examples of change of ownership instruments are:
- transfer a property from the current owners to new owners
- transmission – when an estate is acquired in law (for example, the death of the owner)
- change or correction of name.
Automating the NoC process
We've automated the Change of Ownership notification process.
When someone changes ownership of a title, their conveyancing professional enters the additional rating valuation information for the instrument they’re actioning in Landonline’s Record of Title.
The conveyancing professional can then select the Notice of Change option to inform the local council of the change of ownership.
This automatically pre-populates a form for the council’s rating database which, includes:
- council name
- valuation reference
- address of the property
- record of title details
- existing owners
- new owners
- solicitors acting.
Conveyancing professionals then confirm the transaction type. For example, sale.
When the form is completed, the vendor’s conveyancing professional selects the Ready to Send button. This prepares the NoC, which sits behind the land title instrument pending registration.
When the land title instrument is registered, the NoC is sent overnight to the relevant council so they can update their rating information databases.
This helps ensure new owners receive all future rating notices for that property.
The conveyancing professional also receives confirmation, including a copy of the NoC.
Benefits
NoC is an automated process co-designed by councils for councils.
It has significant benefits for councils and conveyancing professionals, including:
- time savings from faster processing and efficiencies due to less re-work
- less duplication as the service is automated
- improved data accuracy as information is from a trusted source
- councils receive the legal names of the new owners that matches the Record of Title details.
Working with councils
Toitū Te Whenua has signed up all 67 councils in New Zealand to ensure NoC can be used across Aotearoa.
Conveyancing professionals should use the automated NoC service to notify councils of a change of ownership.
Next steps for NoC
- Encourage conveyancing professionals to use NoC, if it’s available.
- Continually enhance the NoC product based on customer feedback. This includes improving data flows between LINZ, individual councils and conveyancing professionals.
Find out more
For help getting started visit our Notice of Change page:
Email us for more information on Landonline: