Introduction

We trust you will find this publication both newsy and useful. For further information regarding us and our services, including full Land and PPSR search and registration, please visit www.landinfo.net.nz

.:: AN EXTENSION OF YOUR OFFICE ::.

"Half the year has gone now, but it was Christmas yesterday". You can be forgiven for feeling like this, for conveyancers and property professionals it has been very busy this year and time has flown by. Property sales are breaking all kinds of records and the market just doesn't look like slowing. Although we will be watching the Auckland market with interest with Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel's latest immigration policy.

Interest rates have continued to fall and look like coming down even further before the end of the year. This will result in more people entering the market as buying becomes more affordable for the first homebuyers and the previous first time buyers move up to second homebuyers.

The building industry is working to capacity and is unable to meet with the ongoing demand. The Master Builders Federation is looking to overseas labour markets to fill the demand. The worker shortage is due to the high demand from building projects and is creating some delays on projects getting started.

Click here to read the media release from the Master Builders Federation.

Growth is being experienced right across the country with rural areas like Blenheim growing as the wine industry matures, Auckland climbing due to ongoing positive migration and Nelson leaping ahead with migration, it seems no community is immune.

This month our newsletter will continue to keep you informed on changes and developments within our industry. We trust to date your year has been prosperous and we wish you well into the second half.

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Average time for new titles to issue and plans to approve

At LANDinfoNET Limited we are continuing to look at systems to create efficiencies so you and your clients benefit. With this in mind, for all your new title work (subdivisions, unit titles etc) we will now forward with the copy of the registration abstract a report stating an estimated time for your new Titles to issue and/or your plan to approve as to survey, based on our recent averages.

We will also publish these averages as a regular feature of this newsletter to assist you with providing information to your developer client.

RECENT AVERAGES:

We are sorry to report that the days of getting your plan approved and New Titles issued within 10 working days are well and truly over under LINZ's new LandonLine environment. Please refer to the table above setting out LINZ's guidelines and the average times we are experiencing. These averages are consistent throughout New Zealand although Wellington was slower by approx 2 - 5 working days.

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) 35 working days for new Titles documentation and 65 working days for parallel registration.

Should you feel circumstances permit for you to request priority over other prior lodged new title documentation, please forward 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.

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Latest LINZ Registrar-General of Land rulings and updates

The Land Transfer (Computer Registers and Electronic Lodgement) Amendment Act 2002 (the Amendment Act) made extensive changes to the provisions of the Land Transfer Act 1952. Although most of the Amendments have been in place for some time now, two key sections relating to the lapsing of caveats and the removal of redundant easements were deferred. These remaining provisions, contained in sections 52 and 42, were brought into force by Order in Council on 12 June 2003. The effect of these changes is outlined below.

New caveat lapsing process under section 145A (no more dummy mortgages)

Section 52 of the Amendment Act inserts a new section 145A in the Land Transfer Act 1952. This provision allows the registered proprietor of any land subject to a caveat against dealings to apply to the Registrar to have the caveat lapse. The caveator is notified and lapsing occurs if no action is taken to sustain the caveat within the prescribed time period.

This is an alternative to the existing procedure under section 145, which requires the lodgement of a challenging dealing (usually a dummy mortgage). The lapsing process is otherwise identical and, as prescribed in regulation 39 of the Land Transfer Regulations 2002, the same notice periods apply. As such, to prevent a caveat lapsing when notice is served under this provision, the caveator must:

• Within 14 days after the date on which notice has been given to the caveator, give notice to the Registrar that an application has been made to the High Court to prevent the caveat lapsing; and
• Within 28 days after the date on which the caveator has given notice to the Registrar that an application has been made to the High Court to prevent the caveat lapsing, serve a court order sustaining the caveat on the Registrar.

We hold the required application, please feel free to contact our consultants should you require us to prepare or forward the application for registration, or any further clarification you may require.

Removal of redundant easements

Section 70 of the Land Transfer Act 1952 was repealed and replaced by section 42 of the Amendment Act. The substituted section 70 came into force on 12 June 2003.

The new section 70 continues to provide for the removal from the register of easements that have been determined or extinguished, but now also provides for the removal of easements that have become redundant.

In situations where the continuing existence of the easements is contentious or uncertain it is still necessary for the applicant for removal to apply to the Courts if a surrender cannot be obtained.

In terms of section 70(2), an easement may be regarded as redundant if

(a) The dominant tenement or any part of it has become separated from the servient tenement as a result of a subdivision or otherwise; and
(b) The easement no longer benefits the dominant land.

At the present time, the Registrar does not intend to specify any criteria beyond those specified in subsection (2).

Removal of Determined or Extinguished Easements

The circumstances in which an easement may be regarded as "determined" or "extinguished " are those recognised by law.

• Merger
  "At common law an easement is extinguished if (i) ownership of the fee-simple estates in the dominant and servient tenements, together with (ii) possession of both, reside with the same person". (Adams Land Transfer Act 1952 s70.4)
  
  This applies equally where the merger is of leasehold estates.
  
  
• Effluxion of time
  Will occur where a certain date for the end of the duration of the easement is set out in the Easement Instrument (whether a term of days/months/years from the date of the commencement of the instrument, or a specified expiration date).
  
  
• Other circumstances
  The doctrine of abandonment does not apply to a registered easement (Adams Land Transfer Act 1952 s70.4).
  
  If the easement instrument specifies the happening of a particular event to determine the easement, section 70 may apply
  
  If an applicant claims an easement has been determined or extinguished by some circumstances other than those listed above, such as a breach of some term, covenant or condition, then he or she cannot apply under section 70. The applicant must look to some other authority, such as the Courts' jurisdiction to modify, or wholly or partially extinguish easements, under section 126G of the Property Law Act 1952.

Application

The applicant will generally be the registered proprietor of the dominant land or the servient land of the easement, or the grantee of an easement in gross.

Please do not hesitate to contact our consultants should you require forms and assistance for application or any further clarification relating.

Our Land Transfer Consultants Roger Fielding 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 524251 LANDinfoNET Limited Hamilton rogerf@landinfo.net.nz
Barry 0800 106206 LANDinfoNET Limited Auckland barryg@landinfo.net.nz

Roger and Barry have a prior cumulative experience of working with LINZ as Senior Land Registrar for over 40 years please ensure you utilise their ongoing knowledge and resources as an "extension of your office". Roger and Barry are supported by a team of our registration agents to ensure they are free for high-end consultancy.

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PPSR Update
PPSR - ID'S, PINS & PASSWORDS

Record And Storage Systems Are Vital For Future Use

Once a Secured Party Group has been created and a Financing Statement has been registered on the PPSR, it is important to record and store the id's, pins and passwords that are unique and specific to each registration to enable each of the following.

• To renew any registered Financing Statements before they expire
• To maintain Secured Party Group details (fax numbers, email and contact addresses)
• To discharge any registered Financing Statements
• To amend collateral or debtor information on registered Financing Statements

The pins and passwords are automatically recorded and stored in our system for any Financing Statements registered by LANDinfoNET Ltd on your behalf.

Because LANDinfoNET Ltd has been registering Financing Statements on the PPSR since its inception on the 1st May 2002, we have in the course of providing this service, recognised potential problems that may affect our clients and have developed and implemented systems to prevent possible adverse situations arising. One of these issues is outlined below.

If there is more than one person in your firm registering on the PPSR or if an agent such as LANDinfoNET Ltd does some of your registrations and your firm does some, we feel it is important to maintain one single register or list of any Secured Party Groups (SPG's) created. By simply checking a list prior to creating any new SPG's, you can easily ascertain whether or not one is already in existence in which case a new one would not need to be created. LANDinfoNET Ltd provides this dual system for our clients and ex Pinnacle clients.

When a SPG is created (the secured party is the lender or creditor) all Financing Statements relating to security interests in favour of that secured party group, should fall under the same SPG, ID and password. Whilst it is possible to create a new SPG each time you register a financing statement, it is not advisable or the best practice.

When transferring Financing Statements from one SPG to another (this may happen if a member of a SPG is to be removed or added) you may wish to select a "global transfer". If all the Financing Statements have the same SPG, ID and password, the global transfer would effectively transfer all the Financing Statements. If not, you would have to do this (a global transfer) for each SPG in existence or alternatively choose "selective transfer" and transfer the Financing Statements up to five at a time. You would need to know all the Financing Statement numbers to proceed with this method of transferring. As it is not possible to search the PPSR by SPG, it would be difficult to know if all Financing Statements relating to your client had been transferred unless your own systems in place for recording your registrations were adequate. This illustrates why, if you have more than one lender or seller as your client, and some of those lenders or sellers have more than one security interest in their favour, a complete and accurate system for storing and maintaining these pins and passwords is vital.

LANDinfoNET Ltd has such systems in place, whether or not your firm registers very infrequently or very often, you may still like to utilise the accuracy and efficiencies of our system.

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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Real Estate Statistics

Record number of sales in the month of May with in excess of 11000 property sales being recorded. The cry is now out for listings as supply has again dried up; will this follow through to some record sales prices being recorded next month?

The Reserve Bank Governor announced further interest rate reductions in his last announcement with the OCR now sitting at 5.25% and comment from some economists predicting an OCR of 4.25% by the years end. Further fuel on the real estate fire!
Click here to view a table which depicts averages across New Zealand.

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Westpac NZ Housing Market

A roundup of New Zealand Market Indicators as at 02 July 2003

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

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Rating Valuations

Rating valuations (previously known as "Government Valuations") provide an independent view of value as at the date of assessment. With today's modern communication systems we can bring these to you within a two-hour timeframe, often faster, emailed directly to your desk. This service is of minimal cost at $15.00 (inclusive of GST) plus $3.50 disbursement.

Should you or your clients require this information please do not hesitate to contact LANDinfoNET Limited. Information we require to initiate the search includes at least one or more of the following:

• Address of Property
• CT Reference
• Owners Name
• Valuation reference number

Our experienced search clerks can find the details with little information. However for optimum efficiency the more information enables speedy cross-referencing.

We can accept requests from our website, email phone and fax.

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Meaningful Invoices creates clean administration

LANDinfoNET Limited has a particular focus on its accounting procedures. The back end of administration is often overlooked with the great focus on getting the job done accurately and timely. LANDinfoNET brings that same focus to the administration. It is important to communicate back to you with clear meaningful invoices. This includes a clear description of the job completed along with the author and your reference/matter numbers so it is easily related and reconciled with your accounting systems.

Should you have any queries with your invoice or statements please do not hesitate to contact us and we can discuss it to ensure we are meeting your needs.

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Good information in makes for efficient and accurate response out
(Help us to help you)

Click on the links within this article to familiarise yourself with our Land Searching system.

We are proud to be able to successfully search properties that are often very had to find. We can achieve this through excellent systems and highly trained and experienced staff. As our business grows we notice that many of our new clients are looking for strong guidance as to what information we require to effect your search requests with optimum efficiency

Information required to effect a search efficiently includes:

· CT Number
· Legal Description and/or Physical Address
· Registered Proprietor
· Search type requested

We pride ourselves in finding properties even with minimal information, so should you not have all of the above information, forward your request and let our experienced staff do the rest.

Method for ordering a search.

1. Through our website www.landinfo.net.nz Click on the "LAND" button in the middle of our home screen and then click on "SEARCHING". This takes you to a list of searches we could undertake for you. Select the one you require. Should you be unsure of which request will meet your needs please click the "ABOUT" button on the end of each search title. This will give you a detailed explanation of what information you can expect to find by undertaking that particular search (we find this the most efficient way of receiving searches).
   
   We suggest you save the searching screen in your favourites for quick access.
   
   
2. Order by email info@landinfo.net.nz If using this means please try to include the information as stated above. Should you not have all the information send everything you do have. Our staff will do the rest.
   
   
3. Fax orders. Should you prefer to order by fax, use our forms, which can be printed from our home page. Look for the printable forms icon down the left hand side of the home page. Simply cut and paste your logo and business details at the top. Should you want us to send a set of forms contact us and we will get them out to you. Anyone still using Graham and Graham or Beresfort Legal Agency forms, please contact us and we will forward our new LANDinfoNET Limited forms.
   
   
4. Phone orders. Auckland 0800 106206 or Hamilton 0508 534251. Be greeted by our friendly staff who will take your order and direct it immediately to the right area for action. We will respond to your request as per your instructions. With most of our orders being received by web and email our phone lines are free for your call, no electronic voices or complicated phone systems. Also when you are out of the office and you want to order a search now! Just phone us on our free phone number(s) and provide the details as above and your request can be waiting for you when you get back to the office.

We trust this clarify's and assists in your day-to-day dealings with LANDinfoNET Limited.

As always feel free to contact us to talk through this in person.

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