Land Titles Act 1980

Where land is brought under this Act or the repealed Act, the Recorder – shall return to the person from whom the Recorder received them documents relating to any property other than the land included in the relevant folio of the Register; and may, in relation to any other documents – retain them in the office of the Recorder; transfer them to the Tasmanian Library Board, to be dealt with as if they were State records within the meaning of the Archives Act 1983; or subject to subsection (2), sell or destroy them.

The Recorder shall not destroy a document pursuant to subsection (1) unless – where the land was brought under this Act or the repealed Act with a title other than a qualified title, a period of at least 12 years has expired since the land was brought under this Act or the repealed Act; or where the land was brought under this Act or the repealed Act with a qualified title, the title has ceased to be qualified and a period of at least 12 years has expired since it ceased to be qualified.

Instead of selling or destroying a document under the authority of subsection (1), the Recorder may deliver it to any person who satisfies the Recorder that the person intends to preserve the document for historical purposes.

If an application is made by a person who had an estate or interest in the land specified in a document at the time that document was lodged or deposited with the Recorder, the Recorder shall, if the Recorder considers that the document is of no value for the purpose of the Register, give possession of the document to that person free of charge.

Before selling, returning or delivering a document pursuant to this section, the Recorder shall mark the document as cancelled so far as it relates to land brought under this Act or the repealed Act.

A person is not entitled to the production of a document retained by the Recorder, or transferred to the Tasmanian Library Board, pursuant to subsection (1), except upon the order of the Recorder or of the Supreme Court.

In this section, document means, in relation to land brought under this Act or the repealed Act, an instrument constituting, or in any way affecting, the title to the land, being an instrument that is left with or surrendered to the Recorder by the applicant or any other person, other than an instrument that is registered pursuant to section 28.