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 ::.

The property market is fairing pretty well for this time of year against higher interest rates and the traditional decline in activity during the winter months. House prices are still rising, albeit at a more sedate pace. Turnover is easing, however with winter drawing to an end and spring nearly upon us, we not only expect dampened cold spirits to rise, but the property market as well.

LANDinfoNET has also noticed the typical buttoning off in volumes for this time of year. We are utilising this slightly quieter time to pro-actively look for ways to meet and exceed your expectations and enhance our products (see our new exciting products later in this newsletter).

The whole team is enjoying the bit of extra time available to spend chatting with our customers, listening to your feedback and building those ever so important relationships.

Should you have any queries regarding our service please contact us on info@landinfo.net.nz , by free phone 0800 106 206 or 0508 534-251.

LANDinfoNET'S newest team member

Introducing Marcus Reynolds, LANDinfoNET's new Business Development Manager. Marcus has degrees in both Law and Business Management. He has previous experience in market and business analysis in large companies and will bring these skills and qualifications, along with his enthusiasm, to the role of business development manager. Marcus is looking forward to building strong value-laden relationships with our customers and indentifying new and exciting ways to improve our customer service and products (see the recent customer survey section later in this newsletter). He welcomes your comments and enquiries on marcusr@landinfo.net.nz or free phone 0508 534-251.

< BACK TO TOP

LINZ Issues

Powers of Attorney

Powers of attorney that are lodged for deposit with LINZ must be originals. Practitioners often believe that copies of powers of attorneys certified as a true copy can be lodged for deposit with LINZ. This confusion has arisen because, in the past when LINZ retained the documents within their office, the original and a copy could be lodged and LINZ would retain the copy and return the original however the original always had to be presented for registration. The confusion also may have arisen because it is possible to lodge certified copies of evidentiary documents such as death certificates, probates birth and marriage certificates in support of other documents.

Alterations to documents and Correcting Fluid

Regulation 22 Land Transfer Regulations 2002 requires that any alterations to documents must be struck out but the struck out writing must be legible. Correcting fluid should not be used.

Consents of Caveators

Where a caveator consents to the registration of a document that document must be made subject to the caveat. There is an express requirement for this under s147 of the Land Transfer Act 1952 which states '…the consent of the caveator may be given for the registration of any particular dealing expressed to be made subject to the rights of the caveator…'

Company Executions

Recently we have had some interesting examples where individuals are attempting to execute documents on behalf of a company. Section 180 Companies Act 1993 sets out the execution requirements. As a reminder please find set out below a guide as to how a person or persons may sign under the name of a company:

N.B. Attorneys need to be appointed by the company and not be appointed by the directors personally

ROW/Access Lots

During subdivision work a group of allotments that do not have frontage to a road are sometimes provided with access to a road by way of an undivided share each, in an Access Allotment as part of an amalgamation condition endorsed on the subdivision plan imposed by a Local Authority.

Another way for a Local Authority to provide access to a road is by way of a Right of Way easement over other land.

One of the most important ways in which Access Allotments and rights of way differ is that when a Right of Way is created it attracts the provisions of Schedule 4 to the Land Transfer Regulations 2002 but conversely an Access Allotment is not provided with any rights and powers to control the use and maintenance of the Allotment.

As you can imagine, this can lead to each owner of the Access Allotment having a different idea about what each other can and can't do on the Access Allotment because they have no rules to guide them.

Therefore, when a subdivision contains access allotments we recommend that consideration be given to registering an Easement Instrument creating Rights of Way over the Access Allotment in order to control, maintain and provide assistance for disputes surrounding the use of the Access Allotment.

Sometimes Rights of Way over Access Allotments are shown in a table of Easements on the subdivision plan and are set up so that an Easement Instrument can be registered to create them. There have recently been several court cases where the issues of maintenance and upkeep and who is responsible have arisen.

If a Right of Way over an Access Allotment is not accounted for in a table of easements on the plan, a Right of Way can still be created over it but extra consent under Section 348 Local Government Act 1974 will need to be obtained

Our Land Transfer Consultants Roger Fielding, David Barker, Barry Green, Lana McQueen and Elaine Hancock 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
Lana 0508 534 251 LANDinfoNET Limited Auckland lanam@landinfo.net.nz
Elaine 0508 534 251 LANDinfoNET Limited Hamilton elaineh@landinfo.net.nz

Roger, Barry, Dave, Lana and Elaine have a prior cumulative experience of working with LINZ as senior Land Registrar for over 80 years, please ensure you utilise their ongoing knowledge and resources as an "extension of your office". A team of registration clerks support Roger, Barry, Elaine, Lana and Dave to ensure they are free for high-end consultancy.

< BACK TO TOP

PPSR update

Serial numbered goods

The Personal Property Securities Regulations require financing statements to include serial numbers for collateral that is motor vehicles and aircraft if they are held by the debtor as consumer goods or equipment.

This means if an existing collateral type is 'all present and after acquired personal property', then that collateral description can not be relied upon to perfect the security interest in after acquired serial numbered goods held by the debtor as consumer goods or equipment. The secured party would have to amend the financing statement to include the serial number(s).

Please contact any of our PPSR specialists should you or your clients require assistance or advice regarding this issue

Overly Broad Collateral Descriptions

The PPSA does not penalise overly broad collateral descriptions in financing statements. This is because it is the security agreement that governs the terms of the security with respect to the collateral provided to secure the obligation. In other words, if the financing statement collateral description is wider than the intention of the parties reflected in the security agreement, then the financing statement will only perfect what is described in the agreement and not any other property.

Searching tips

The 'search results list' does not establish or illustrate priority. It simply lists financing statements as at when they were registered. If a subordination has occurred or an amendment has been made to the collateral description, the results list will not display this.

Each financing statement must be delivered to ascertain the priority of the security interest. Subordination details are announced on the financing statement.

A very easy way to tell if a financing statement has been amended or has a history, is the suffix at the end of the financing statement number. C001 is when the financing change statement was initiated by the secured party and D001 is when the financing change statement was initiated by the debtor.

You can click on the collateral or item history buttons in the body of the financing statement to see a summary of changes to the collateral or item descriptions. Please instruct us to search the history if you require this additional information. Remember the suffixes indicate whether there is a history or not.

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.

At LANDinfoNET Limited we are continuing to look at systems to create efficiencies so you and your clients benefit. With this in mind, we publish these averages as a regular feature of our newsletter to assist you with providing information to your clients.

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 below).

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.

< BACK TO TOP

Recent customer survey

Recently we have sent out a survey to a random sample of our clients. Thank you very much to those who took the time to fill out these surveys and send them back to us. All of the responses were very positive and constructive, which has really helped us plan for the future and make any changes. The focus of this survey was on where LANDinfoNET can make improvements and on how we can deliver an even more superior product to you the client. We are always looking to improve our services and are always open to any feedback that you have. If you do have any comments please feel free to get in contact with Marcus our new Business Development Manager - marcusr@landinfo.net.nz.

< BACK TO TOP

Exciting new products

We are pleased to announce the imminent launching of some new products available through our website www.landinfo.net.nz that will make our service more user friendly for all of our clients. We will be shortly re-launching our website with more easy to use features to reduce the time you spend filling out your details. We are also working on our new financial software. This software will allow you to track your own personal account, therefore helping you when finalising your accounts both internally and with your clients.

We are also hoping to launch our own spatial mapping via the website in September. The focus of this map will be it's user friendliness and the ability to have all New Zealand wide property information online for your convenience. Look out for this one, it is going to speed up the way searches are done and save all it's users enormous amounts of time and effort. We will send out full details on this service when all testing is completed.

< BACK TO TOP

E-Dealing

We will be, and are working towards, providing an e-dealing service. David Graham, our managing director is presently working closely with our company solicitors and LINZ to provide the best strategy and to establish a time frame.

We will only be providing the service to solicitors as an enhancement and progression of our current services, we will not be in any way competing for conveyancing.

We are pleased to be taking on Evan Yeates in September. As well as being a Quality Assurance officer at LINZ, and therefore a valuable member of our Land Transfer Consultancy team, he has the added benefit of being a Landonline trainer and has been involved in the setting up, introduction and implementation of e-dealings.

< BACK TO TOP

Real estate statistics

The residential median selling price for New Zealand homes rose during July from $243,000 in June to $249,000. Sales declined from 8,367 in June to 7,802, down also on the July 2003 sales figure of 10,138. Days to sell has moved slightly from 31 to 30. The New Zealand median is up 15.71 per cent on a year to year basis compared with the median in June 2003 of $210,000. Values are holding up relatively well and despite the lower level of activity there doesn't appear to be any significant decline in values around the country.

To view all of 2003's statistics, please refer to our previous newsletters. These can be found on our website www.landinfo.net.nz.

Click here to view a table which depicts averages across New Zealand.

< BACK TO TOP

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 Marcus Reynolds at marcusr@landinfo.net.nz (N.B. no form of advertising will be published)

< BACK TO TOP

Westpac NZ housing market

Click on the folowing links to view this invaluable information (Acrobat Reader required).

NZ House Prices: modelling the extension

Housing and Construction

We are grateful to have this supplied by: Westpac Institutional Bank.

< BACK TO TOP