Land Titles Act 1980

Land Titles Act 1980

This Act may be cited as the Land Titles Act 1980.

This section and section 1 shall commence on the date of assent to this Act.

Except as provided in subsection (1), this Act shall commence on such date as may be fixed by proclamation.

In this Act, except in so far as the context or subject matter otherwise indicates or requires – approved form means a form approved by the Recorder under section 169A;Assistant Recorder of Titles means an Assistant Recorder of Titles appointed pursuant to section 4(3A); assurance fund means the assurance fund referred to in section 150; caveator means the person by whom or on whose behalf a caveat has been lodged; dealing means any document in writing (other than a grant) which is registrable or capable of being made registrable under this Act or in respect of which any recording in the Register is by this or any other Act required or permitted to be made and includes a priority notice, but for the purposes of Part IX does not include a caveat or a withdrawal of a caveat;Deputy Recorder means the Deputy Recorder of Titles appointed pursuant to section 4(3); duplicate registered dealing means the duplicate of a registered dealing delivered pursuant to section 48(6); electronic communication has the same meaning as in the Electronic Transactions Act 2000; electronic dealing means a dealing that is an electronic communication; encumbrance means any charge on land created for the purpose of securing a current, future or contingent payment of an annuity, rent-charge, or sum of money other than a debt; encumbrancee means the proprietor of an encumbrance; encumbrancer means the registered proprietor of land subject to an encumbrance; forestry right has the meaning assigned to that expression in the Forestry Rights Registration Act 1990; grant means the grant of any land of the Crown; instrument includes any grant, certificate of title, conveyance, assurance, deed, map, plan, survey, will, probate, or exemplification of will or probate, or any other document in writing relating to the disposition, devolution, or acquisition of land or evidencing title to land; land includes – messuages, tenements and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, of every kind and description (whatever may be the estate or interest in them), together with all paths, passages, ways, waters, watercourses, liberties, privileges, easements, plantations, gardens, mines, minerals and quarries and all trees and timber on land or lying or being under land; and any structure which is above land but permanently anchored to, or otherwise kept in place above, the land; legal practitioner means an Australian legal practitioner; lessee means the registered proprietor of a lease; lessor means the registered proprietor of the reversion immediately expectant upon the expiration of a registered lease; mortgage means any charge on land created merely for securing a debt; mortgagee means the proprietor of a mortgage; mortgagor means the registered proprietor of land subject to a mortgage; newspaper does not include a newspaper published solely in electronic form; office copy, in relation to an order, means a copy of the order that is certified by a legal practitioner, a justice or a Commissioner for Declarations to be a true copy of the order; proclaimed date means the date fixed by proclamation under section 2(2); proprietor means any person seised or possessed of any estate or interest in land at law or in equity, in possession, in futurity, or in expectancy; public record means a public record referred to in section 36; qualified title means a folio of the Register on which is recorded a caution in accordance with section 21(2);Recorder means the Recorder of Titles appointed pursuant to section 4(1);Register means the register of title referred to in section 33; registered means registered under this Act or any of the Acts specified in Schedule 2; registered land means land which is subject to this Act; registered proprietor means any person appearing by a folio of the Register, or by any registered dealing, to be the proprietor of any estate or interest in registered land; repealed Act means the Real Property Act 1862; transfer means the passing of any estate or interest in land under this Act, whether for valuable consideration or otherwise; transmission means the acquisition of title to, or an interest in, land, consequent on the death, will, intestacy, or bankruptcy of a proprietor.

The describing of any person as owner, proprietor, transferor, transferee, mortgagor, mortgagee, encumbrancer, encumbrancee, lessor, or lessee, or as seised of or having or taking any estate or interest in any land, shall include the executors, administrators, and assigns of that person.

This Act binds the Crown, not only in right of Tasmania but also, so far as the legislative power of Parliament permits, the Crown in all its other capacities.

The Governor may appoint a State Service officer or State Service employee to be Recorder of Titles, and that officer or employee is to hold that office in conjunction with State Service employment.

A person is not eligible for appointment as Recorder of Titles unless the person is – a legal practitioner of not less than 5 years' standing; or an Australian lawyer who has been a legal practitioner for at least 5 years.

The Governor may appoint a State Service officer or State Service employee to be Deputy Recorder of Titles, and that officer or employee is to hold that office in conjunction with State Service employment.

The Governor may appoint State Service officers and State Service employees to an office of Assistant Recorder of Titles and officers and employees so appointed are to hold office in conjunction with State Service employment.

Subject to and in accordance with the State Service Act 2000, such persons as may be considered necessary may be appointed or employed for the purposes of this or any other Act.

The Recorder shall have and use a seal of office, bearing the impression of the arms of the State, and having inscribed in the margin thereof the words "Recorder of Titles, Tasmania".

Anything that is by law or practice appointed, authorized, or required to be done by the Recorder may lawfully be done by the Deputy Recorder or a person appointed to the office of Assistant Recorder of Titles who when so doing has the same immunities and protection from suits as the Recorder.

All documents, whether purporting to be issued or written by or under the direction of the Recorder, and purporting either to be sealed with the Recorder’s seal of office or signed by the Recorder or by the Deputy Recorder or a person appointed to the office of Assistant Recorder of Titles, shall, if admissible, be received in evidence, and shall be deemed to have been issued or written by or under the direction of the Recorder, without further proof, unless the contrary is shown.

Whenever it is required or permitted by this or any other Act that the Recorder, the Deputy Recorder or an Assistant Recorder of Titles sign any document, memorial, recording, certificate, endorsement, or plan, the Recorder, Deputy Recorder or an Assistant Recorder may –

attach; or authorize an officer to attach –

a facsimile of the signature of the Recorder, Deputy Recorder or Assistant Recorder of Titles, respectively, to the document, memorial, recording, certificate, endorsement, or plan and the facsimile so attached has the same force and effect as if the Recorder, Deputy Recorder or an Assistant Recorder, as the case may be, had personally signed the Recorder’s, Deputy Recorder’s or Assistant Recorder of Titles’ name in the place of the facsimile signature, and all courts and judges shall take judicial notice of the facsimile signature of the Recorder, Deputy Recorder and Assistant Recorder and shall presume that it was properly attached.

Except as provided in section 10(3), all unalienated lands of the Crown, when alienated in fee, become subject to this Act.

Except as provided in subsection (3), land of the Crown that is not under this Act shall not be granted by letters patent but shall be granted by transfer in an approved form as if it had already been brought under this Act.

The Recorder, upon receiving a transfer under subsection (1), shall create a folio of the Register for the land comprised in the transfer, and upon a folio being created the transfer shall be deemed to be duly registered, and duly enrolled of record.

When the Crown grants an easement to be appurtenant only to land that is not registered land, the grant shall be effected by letters patent as if this section had not been enacted.

Where an easement is granted by letters patent in pursuance of subsection (3), the letters patent shall be registered under the Registration of Deeds Act 1935 as an instrument and delivered to the grantee.

On the registration of letters patent as provided in subsection (4), the letters patent shall be deemed to have been duly enrolled of record.