Introduction

We trust you will find this publication a helpful addition to your resources. For further information regarding LANDinfoNET Limited and our services, including full Land and PPSR search and registration, please visit www.landinfo.net.nz

.:: AN EXTENSION OF YOUR OFFICE ::.

Welcome to the November 2003 issue of LANDinfoNET Limited's Newsletter. This is our last email newsletter for 2003 and what a year it has been. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support in receiving this publication.

We have enjoyed strong business levels throughout the year while maintaining our ongoing focus on service levels and turnaround times. In support of recognising the importance of maintaining our service standards we have also employed David Barker as an additional Land Transfer Consultant to bolster our registration and consultancy team. David's inclusion will ensure we maintain our standard of working on current registration. He also brings the necessary experience and knowledge to cater to your ongoing high end land transfer consultancy queries. We welcome David back to the LANDinfoNET team. Please read his profile later in this issue.

During the year we have been actively speaking with our clients throughout the country. This has provided us with excellent feedback and expectations which has assisted us in the development of our policies and systems to achieve what you require, to get the job done accurately, efficiently and timely. Should you wish for us to contact you in this regard please contact Ken Hix kenh@landinfo.net.nz or by free phone 0508 534 251.

Christmas and New Year Holiday Hours

LANDinfoNET Limited’s policy of being open when Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is open will apply this Christmas.

Please continue with your instructions and we will attend to your order when we return on the 5th of January 2004.

Seasons Greetings and we wish you the best for a safe and relaxing holiday

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Wellington Visit

Four of our team recently ventured to Wellington to assess the market place for adding value to the Wellington legal fraternity. The aim is to build on the support we already enjoy within that region and consider setting up a team to cater more directly with our Wellington clients. As mentioned in our previous Newsletter, the visit also gave us an opportunity to meet with senior management at LINZ National Office in Wellington. From this meeting we have identified some long term initiatives that will benefit in the future of LANDinfoNET Limited's ability to assist you with your conveyancing processes.

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Introducing David Barker - Land Transfer Consultant

David Barker - davidb@landinfo.net.nz   0508 534 251

We are very pleased to have David as part of our team. Please do not hesitate to make contact for clarification on any Land Transfer issues.

David brings to LANDinfoNET Limited vast experience within a legal agency that ensures all your needs are met. David welcomes all of your queries from simple to high-end Land Transfer consultancy, complex conveyancing and land law issues. David has 8 years experience with Land Information New Zealand up to and including Assistant Land Registrar. Following an overseas sojourn David has enjoyed 10 years with Graham and Graham and a further 3 years experience within the industry. David is actively building his knowledge through the pursuit of a law degree part time through Waikato University.

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Average time for new titles to issue and plans to approve

For your information above is the table setting out LINZ's guidelines and the average time we are experiencing currently for registration to be completed. These averages are fairly consistent throughout New Zealand.

Please be aware we are unable to request LINZ to give priority or urgency ahead of other dealings until the expiration of LINZ's performance standard time frames (shown above).
Should you feel circumstances permit for you to request priority over other prior lodged new title documentation, please forward to us a formal letter addressed to the Processing Centre Manager of LINZ, outlining your reasons for special priority. We will submit this letter on your behalf and advise you of LINZ's intention.

New Titles - Last date for lodgement prior to Christmas

New titles dealing (where the plan has already been approved) lodged after 2nd of December 2003 are unlikely to be completed prior to Christmas.
(Based on LINZ current performance standard timeframes)

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Latest LINZ Registrar - General of Land rulings and updates

Digital Certificate Sharing Prohibited

All Landonline users must obtain a digital certificate (DC) in order to gain access to the system. For security reasons, a DC may only be used by the individual to whom it is issued. This is reinforced in the terms and conditions for system access which expressly prohibit DC or password sharing.

DC security is absolutely critical in the eDealing environment as a practitioner is responsible for any transaction that bears his or her digital signature. Such is the importance of these requirements that the New Zealand Law Society has passed the following rule:

Rule 3.04
A practitioner must not allow use of his or her Digital Certificate (DC) or the associated password by any other person.

Please note should your regular search clerk not be available you can contact us through our website www.landinfo.net.nz, by email to info@landinfo.co.nz, by free phone 0508 534251 or free fax 0508 534252 and we will execute your search on your behalf.

Repeal of Section 230 Local Government Act 1974

Transfers from local authorities were required to have a certificate attached or endorsed thereon, that public notice of the sale had been given or that the land being transferred was for the personal occupation of the transferee. This was required under section 230 of the local government act 1974. This has been repealed by section 266 of the Local Government Act (LGA) 2002.

Section 230 has not been replaced with an equivalent provision in the LGA 2002, so there is no requirement to supply a certificate to evidence procedural compliance under the new regime. Relevant local authority transfers executed prior to 1 July 2003 should, however, have certification in terms of section 230 endorsed on them.

NB: There are restrictions that apply under the Local Government Act 2002 in respect of Parks and Reserves and endowment land. If you look at these provisions you will see that they operate in some cases to prevent any transfer of land by a local authority. Land held as reserve under the Reserves Act 1977 or as an endowment with a prohibition on sale, would, for example, be precluded from sale or transfer, and any such dealing would be rejected by LINZ. In such cases the relevant local authority would have to take action to have the reserve or endowment status removed in order to deal with the land.

Resource Management Amendment Act 2003

Most of this Act (RMAA 2003) came into force on 1 August 2003. Several amendments have an impact on land registration.

1 Statutory Time Limit Changes

Section 17 repeals the former section 37 and adds new sections 37-37B. Amongst other things section 37(1)(a) authorises a territorial authority to extend any time period in the Act whether or not it has expired. Potentially the three-year time period allowed by s224(h) for the deposit of a plan of subdivision after approval has been given can be extended before or after expiry. Because the plan cannot be altered once it has been deposited, the Council would have to notify LINZ of any extension by some other means, such as a letter from an authorised officer or under seal of the council.

Certificates under section 223 Resource Management Act can now be extended even if the three year period has expired. This notification can be in the form of a certificate or a letter from an authorised officer or under seal of the council, however this time period cannot be extended for more than twice the maximum time specified in this act unless it is by agreement with the council.

2 Term of Lease caught by Part 10 RMA extended from 20 Years to 35 Years

Leases of 20 years or more (including renewals) were deemed to be a subdivision, this period has now been extended to 35 years or more including renewals. Therefore should you be dealing with a lease, which including renewals could be for 35 years plus, it will be deemed to be a subdivision and accordingly subject to resource consent under the RMA.

Road Access and Section 321 Local Government Act 1974

Section 321 LGA 1974, which dealt with road frontage requirements for subdivisions, has been repealed by section 98(1) of the RMAA 2003, effective 1 August 2003.

Section 321 previously imposed mandatory requirements on territorial authorities and LINZ monitored compliance via the registration process to ensure physical access to an allotment either by way of appurtenant right of way or compulsory amalgamation. Section 106(1)(c) RMA 1991, by contrast, is permissive. The territorial authority will therefore be left to make a decision as to what it requires in each case and LINZ will no longer have a policing role in relation to road frontage requirements.

Section 112 deals with transitional matters including resource consents where application was made before 1 August 2003. Section 112(3) specifically deals with subdivision consents. It states that, where an application for a subdivision consent has been made, the continuation and completion of all proceedings in relation to that subdivision, including the approval and deposit of a survey plan, must be in accordance with the principal Act as if this Act had not been enacted. As this relates to the provisions of the RMA 1991 rather than the LGA 1974 or the LGA 2002, however, the transitional implications for section 321 LGA 1974 are not entirely clear. LINZ is working with the relevant agencies to clarify these matters. In the meantime, LINZ will continue to police section 321 in the traditional manner for plans approved prior to 1 August 2003 but LINZ policy is not to require section 321 certificates if the section 223 certificate is dated 1st August 2003 or later.

Consents required

Sec 102 (4) Land Transfer Act requires the consent of any other Mortgagee on titles where any Mortgage is being varied. There are inconsistencies as to whether a consent is required or not on many dealings with titles. Do not hesitate to contact our Land Transfer Consultants to clarify these issues for you.

We have available a LINZ approved form in electronic format ($25.00). Please email us at info@landinfo.net.nz and order your consent form now.

Our Land Transfer Consultants Roger Fielding, David Barker and Barry Green are always available for consultancy and technical advice issues on these and any other matters. Please do not hesitate to contact them with queries.

Roger 0508 534 251 LANDinfoNET Limited Hamilton rogerf@landinfo.net.nz
Barry 0800 106 206 LANDinfoNET Limited Auckland barryg@landinfo.net.nz
David 0508 534 251 LANDinfoNET Limited Hamilton davidb@landinfo.net.nz

Roger, Barry and Dave have a prior cumulative experience working for LINZ as senior Land Registrars for over 50 years. Please ensure you utilise their ongoing knowledge and resources as an "extension of your office". Our team of LANDinfoNET registration agents support Roger, Barry and Dave to ensure they are always available for your high-end consultancy.

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PPSR update

We are continually registering new security interests, amendments, discharges and subordinations onto the Personal Property and Securities Register for many of our clients. We have fully trained staff in both offices available to carry out your searching and registration requests and assist you with any enquiries you may have.

UPCOMING ENHANCEMENTS TO THE PPSR SITE

The Ministry will very soon be able to give users the option of receiving an email Verification Statement for Global and Selective transfers from one secured party group to another. Currently a transfer report is generated instead which makes compliance with section 148 of the PPSA (notification to the debtor) difficult, especially in respect of Global transfers where many different debtors are sometimes involved.

A Verification Statement will still not be generated for any amendment to a secured party groups contact address, fax number and email address as the Ministry does not view these changes as significant enough to warrant it.

We will keep you informed as to the availability of this new function and in the interim please contact our team if you require any assistance in notifying the debtor of any Selective or Global transfers you may undertake or alternatively like us to undertake on your behalf.

The Ministry will also be integrating the Companies Office and PPSR sites by introducing a link from the "Former Charges" tab on company search, direct to the PPSR site. The former charge information as a result will be removed from the companies register to avoid any further confusion.

What this means for you is a much quicker response time from us in being able to search both registers more efficiently when you request a company search including charge information.

PPSR SEARCHING

Searching the PPSR can sometimes be a time consuming task for you and your staff, especially when searching debtor organisations that have multiple financing statements registered against them. Each financing statement must be requested and delivered separately and cross checked for accuracy. We advise that you search the company name and number as separate requests. We have often found that if the debtor company name was loaded on incorrectly in the first instance, the financing statement will not be located, however it will be found under the company number providing that was loaded correctly. We also suggest that the company name and numbers are crossed checked against the companies office site prior to submitting the search on the PPSR to ensure you are checking the correct name, the spelling of the name and correctness of the number.

LANDinfoNET Ltd only charge an additional $3.00 disbursement fee for this additional check of the PPSR site. There is no other agency cost and no additional fee for cross checking against the companies office site. Therefore considering the time often involved in this process, it may prove more cost effective for LANDinfoNET to undertake your PPSR searching for you.

SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONS OR REMOVAL OF COLLATERAL WHEN SEARCHING

When the collateral contained in a financing statement is added, removed or altered, the original priority date may not necessarily be the relevant priority date for all the collateral contained in the financing statement. For instance, if a financing statement was registered on the 01/10/02 and the collateral type was "all present and after acquired personal property" and subsequently on the 01/11/03 an additional collateral type of "goods - motor vehicles" was added to the existing financing statement, the priority date relating to the motor vehicle would be 01/11/03, not 01/10/02. The original priority relating to the "all present and after acquired personal property" would not however be affected by the amendment.

When checking a financing statement, if the financing statement number is suffixed with C001 or D001, an amendment has been made and further checking may be required.

If you would like us to complete an additional history search to see when the item of collateral was altered on any request that you make, please indicate this to us on your search instruction

COMPANIES OFFICE UPDATE

Very soon an email address will be mandatory when incorporating a company on-line much the same as it is when creating a secured party group on the PPSR. This will be where communications from the Ministry will be sent.

This method will be more efficient and cost effective for the Ministry which will result in another fee review, the 4th since 1996.

The Companies Office is exploring an option to enhance their on-line service even further by integrating their site with the Inland Revenue Department. This will mean that when you incorporate a company on-line you will have an option to automatically get your GST number emailed with your Certificate of Incorporation.

On-line incorporations enjoy the benefits of an automated Director disqualification check and extremely quick registration times. The Ministry is also looking at further enhancements such as viewing the status of consent forms and real time uploads of constitutions.

Please contact our team if we can be of any assistance in incorporating companies on-line, including name reservations and company name changes.

ONGOING COMMITMENT

We are confident you will find our fees very competitive and our level of service and expertise of an extremely high standard. Janelle and Marian are available to take your calls regarding any questions you may have regarding our PPSR fees and services.

We are continually striving to improve on our service to you wherever we can, based on your feedback and our experience. Our systems and processes are under constant review ensuring you of accurate and timely registrations, effective advice and prompt concise feedback.

Our PPSR Consultant Janelle Weir, supported by Marian Kempster, is available for consultancy and technical advice issues. Please do not hesitate to contact Janelle or Marian with queries.

Janelle 0800 106 206 LANDinfoNET Limited Auckland janellew@landinfo.net.nz
Marian 0508 534 251 LANDinfoNET Limited Hamilton mariank@landinfo.net.nz

LANDinfoNET Limited has been registering financing statements since the conception of the PPSR, although there is no case law to provide rulings, our knowledge is forever increasing from our policy of having the latest resources available along with discussing issues with liquidators, accountants and financial institutions. Please ensure you utilise our ongoing knowledge and resources as an "extension of your office". Both Janelle and Marian are supported by a team of our PPSR search and registration agents.

A full PPSR search and registration service is available on our web site www.landinfo.net.nz alternatively www.ppsrinfo.net.nz will also take you the same site.

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New Microsoft Word Forms Available

Receiving instructions via our website is our preferred method for reasons of accuracy and timeliness, however we do accept requests via email, post and facsimile. Due to the high volumes of instructions coming in on the printable forms found on our website, our team have designed some new electronic user friendly search and registration Microsoft Word forms that you may prefer to utilise. You can find them on our website under printable forms within the sections marked Microsoft Word Forms.

Click here to link to web page

Simply open the appropriate form in Microsoft Word, tab through the text fields and follow the directions applying to each field, shift tab to go backwards. Once on a check box, by pressing the spacebar it will mark and unmark the boxes. Save it with its own name if you want to keep a soft copy of your completed form. Print out to fax or email to info@landinfo.net.nz.

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Real Estate Statistics

Sales numbers continue to increase to previously unrealised figures. The number of days to sell is now down too, although this can be expected to increase again as the traditional summer listings commence providing extra supply to the market.
Click here to view a table which depicts averages across New Zealand.

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Your issues of interest (legal practitioners network)

We would like to extend an invitation for you to forward any situations regarding the legal implementation of land you have recently encountered, that you would like to share with others. We would like to offer this as a regular feature of this Newsletter as an informative tool to help enlighten your colleagues of unusual situations or traps for the unwary. To help us encourage a network forum for the benefit of legal practitioners any published articles would be accompanied by the authors name and contact address. LANDinfoNET Limited will have sole discretion as to relevance of articles published. Please forward all correspondence to Ken Hix at kenh@landinfo.net.nz. (N.B. no form of advertising will be published.

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Westpac NZ Housing Market

A roundup of New Zealand Market Indicators as at 06 November 2003

Click here to view this invaluable information. We are grateful to have this supplied by:
Westpac Economic Unit.

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