1Short title
This Act may be cited as the Property Law Act 1969.
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Bill homepageThis Act may be cited as the Property Law Act 1969.
This Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by proclamation.
[3. Deleted: No. 10 of 1998 s. 76.]
On the coming into operation of this Act —
the Acts of England and the United Kingdom specified in the First Schedule cease to have effect in the State and the provisions of the Acts by which the first mentioned Acts were adopted in the State are repealed; and
the Acts specified in the Second Schedule are repealed to the extent mentioned in that Schedule.
Without prejudice to the operation of the Interpretation Act 1918 1, any alteration, by this Act, of the law whether by the repeal of an enactment, or otherwise, does not, unless otherwise expressly provided by this Act affect —
any right accrued, or obligation incurred, before the date of the coming into operation of this Act under the law so altered; or
the validity or invalidity, or any operation, effect or consequence, of any instrument executed or made, or of anything done or suffered before that date; or
any action, proceeding or thing pending on that date or uncompleted on that date and that action, proceeding and thing may be carried on and completed as if the enactment had not been repealed, or the law otherwise altered.
Except as in this Act expressly provided, this Act so far as inconsistent with the Transfer of Land Act 1893, the Community Titles Act 2018 or the Strata Titles Act 1985, does not apply to land that is under the provisions of any of those Acts.
[Section 6 inserted: No. 42 of 2011 s. 21; amended: No. 32 of 2018 s. 228.]
In this Act unless the contrary intention appears —
bankruptcy includes insolvency and liquidation by arrangement, and also any other act or proceeding in law having under any law for the time being in force, effects or results similar to those of bankruptcy;
conveyance includes a mortgage, charge, lease, assignment, appointment, transfer, assent, vesting declaration, disclaimer, release, surrender, extinguishment and every other assurance of property or of an interest therein by any instrument, except a will; and convey has a corresponding meaning;
Court means the Supreme Court or a Judge;
deed in relation to land under the Transfer of Land Act 1893, includes an instrument having the effect of a deed under that Act;
disposition includes a conveyance and also a devise, bequest or an appointment of property contained in a will; and dispose of has a corresponding meaning;
encumbrance includes a legal or equitable mortgage, a trust for securing money, a lien and a charge of a portion, annuity, or other capital or annual sum; and encumbrancee has a corresponding meaning, and includes every person entitled to the benefit of an encumbrance or entitled to require payment or discharge of the encumbrance;
fine includes a premium or foregift and any payment, consideration or benefit in the nature of a fine, premium or foregift;
income in relation to land includes rents and profits;
instrument includes deed and will but does not include a statute, unless the statute creates a settlement;
land includes land of any tenure and mines and minerals whether or not they are held apart from the surface of the land, a building or part of a building, whether the division of the building is horizontal, vertical or made in any other way, and other corporeal hereditaments, and also includes a rent and other incorporeal hereditaments and an easement, right, privilege or benefit in, over or derived from the land and an undivided share in land;
land under the Transfer of Land Act 1893 means any estate or interest registered, or incorporated in the Register, under that Act;
lease includes an under‑lease or other tenancy;
lessee includes an under‑lessee and a person deriving title under a lessee or under‑lessee;
lessor includes an under‑lessor and a person deriving title under a lessor or under‑lessor;
mines and minerals include any strata or seam of minerals or substances in or under any land and the right to work and get the minerals and substances;
mortgage includes a charge or lien on any property for securing money or money’s worth;
mortgage, “mortgagee” and “mortgagor” in relation to land under the Transfer of Land Act 1893, have the same respective meanings as they have in that Act;
mortgage money means the principal interest or other money or money’s worth secured by a mortgage;
mortgagee includes any person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagee and mortgagee in possession means a mortgagee who in right of the mortgage has entered into and is in possession of the mortgaged property;
mortgagor includes any person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagor or entitled to redeem a mortgage, according to his estate, interest, or right in the mortgaged property;
notice includes constructive notice;
periodic tenancy means a tenancy of no fixed duration and in respect of which the rent is payable weekly, monthly, yearly or for any other recurring period;
personal representative means the executor, original or by representation or the administrator for the time being of a deceased person;
possession in relation to land includes the receipt of income therefrom or the right to receive the income;
property includes real and personal property and any estate or interest therein and any thing or chose in action;
purchaser means a purchaser in good faith for valuable consideration and includes a lessee, mortgagee or other person who for valuable consideration acquires an interest in property; and where the context so requires “purchaser” includes an intending purchaser and purchase has a corresponding meaning;
registered or duly registered means registered in the manner provided by the Transfer of Land Act 1893 where the land affected is under that Act, and otherwise means registered in the manner provided by, or incorporated in the Register under, the Registration of Deeds Act 1856 (19 Vic. No. 14);
rent includes a rent service or a rent charge, or other rent, toll, duty, royalty or annual or periodical payment or money or money’s worth reserved or issuing out of or charged upon land but does not include fee‑farm rent;
represented person means a person in respect of whom an administration order is in force under Part 6 of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990;
right of redemption in relation to a mortgage includes an option to repurchase only if the option in effect creates a right of redemption;
sale means a sale properly so called;
securities include stocks, funds and shares;
valuable consideration includes marriage but does not include a nominal consideration in money;
will includes codicil and every other testamentary disposition.
[Section 7 amended: No. 24 of 1990 s. 123; No. 32 of 2018 s. 229.]
In every deed, contract, will, order and other instrument that is executed, made or comes into operation after the coming into operation of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
month means a calendar month;
person includes a body corporate;
every word in the singular number shall be construed as including the plural number;
every word in the plural number shall be construed as including the singular number;
every word of the masculine gender shall be construed as including the feminine gender;
every word of the feminine gender shall be construed as including the masculine gender;
every word in either of the said genders or numbers shall be construed as including a body corporate as well as an individual;
where the effect of a provision, however expressed, is by the terms of that instrument made to depend upon the value placed or to be placed upon property —
in the assessment of death duty or any other duty or tax which by the law of any place is or may be payable consequent upon the death of a person in respect of any property, or which would or might have been payable had the duty or tax to which reference is made in the instrument not ceased to be payable at the time the valuation is required; or
in any valuation obtained or to be obtained for the purposes of any such duty or tax,
and by reason of any change in the relevant legislation since that instrument was executed, made, or came into operation a value is not placed thereon for that purpose, the instrument shall take effect as if it directed that a valuation of the property be made by a duly qualified person and the valuation so made shall, subject to the provisions of section 8A, be adopted for the purposes of that provision.
[Section 8 amended: No. 102 of 1979 s. 3.]
On the application of a person having a proper interest in respect of a provision of the kind to which section 8(h) refers, the Court may, if it considers it desirable in all the circumstances (including any question as to the person who is to be responsible for causing the valuation to be made, any proposal for the making of such a valuation, or the circumstances attending any valuation made), direct that in lieu of that paragraph taking effect the provisions of the instrument shall be varied in such manner as the Court considers most likely to give practical effect to the intention underlying the instrument, and the Court may, in addition or in the alternative, make any other order in relation to the matter that the Court thinks desirable.
Where for the purposes of the Administration Act 1903, or any other Act by which no method of making such a valuation is prescribed, a value is required to be placed on any property the provision of that Act requiring the valuation shall have effect as though the provision had been contained in an instrument of the kind to which section 8(h) refers.
[Section 8A inserted: No. 102 of 1979 s. 4.]
Every deed, whether or not affecting property —
shall be signed by the party to be bound thereby; and
shall be attested by at least one witness not being a party to the deed but no particular form of words is required for the attestation.
It is not necessary to seal any deed except in the case of a deed executed by a corporation under its common or official seal.
Formal delivery and indenting are not necessary in any case.
Every instrument expressed or purporting to be an indenture or a deed or an agreement under seal or otherwise purporting to be a document executed under seal and which is executed as required by this section has the same effect as a deed duly executed in accordance with the law in force immediately prior to the coming into operation of this Act.
A deed shall be deemed to have been duly executed by a corporation aggregate in favour of a purchaser, if the seal of that corporation is affixed to the deed in the presence of and attested by a person who is its clerk, secretary or other permanent officer or his deputy, and a member of its board of directors, council or other governing body.
Where a seal purporting to be the seal of a corporation aggregate has been affixed to a deed, attested by a person and a member purporting to be such a person and such a member as is referred to in subsection (1), the deed shall be deemed to have been duly executed and to have taken effect accordingly.
The board of directors, council or other governing body of a corporation aggregate may, by resolution or otherwise, appoint an agent either generally or in any particular case, to execute on behalf of the corporation any agreement or other instrument not under seal in relation to any matter within the powers of the corporation.
When a person is authorised under a power of attorney or under any statutory or other power to execute any instrument in the name of, or on behalf of a corporation, sole or aggregate, he may as attorney for the corporation execute the instrument by signing the name of the corporation and adding the words “by its attorney” and his own signature in the presence of at least one witness and subject to the compliance by such person with the provisions of section 85(3), an instrument so executed takes effect as if duly executed by the corporation.
Where a corporation aggregate is authorised under a power of attorney or under any statutory or other power to execute any instrument in the name or on behalf of any other person (including another corporation), an officer of the corporation aggregate appointed for that purpose by the board of directors, council or other governing body of that corporation by resolution or otherwise, may execute the instrument in the name of that other person; and if the instrument appears to be executed by an officer so appointed, then in favour of a purchaser the instrument shall be deemed to have been executed by an officer duly authorised.
The foregoing provisions of this section apply to transactions wherever effected, but only to instruments executed after the date of the coming into operation of this Act, except that, in the case of powers or appointments of an agent or officer, those provisions apply whether the power was conferred or the appointment was made before or after that date.
Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, any mode of execution or attestation authorised by law or by practice or by the statute, charter, memorandum or articles, deed or settlement or other instrument constituting the corporation or regulating the affairs thereof, are (in addition to the modes authorised by this section) as effectual as if this section had not come into operation.
A person may take an immediate or other interest in land or other property, or the benefit of any condition, right of entry, covenant or agreement over or respecting land or other property, although he is not named as a party to the conveyance or other instrument that relates to the land or property.
Except in the case of a conveyance or other instrument to which subsection (1) applies, where a contract expressly in its terms purports to confer a benefit directly on a person who is not named as a party to the contract, the contract is, subject to subsection (3), enforceable by that person in his own name but —
all defences that would have been available to the defendant in an action or proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction to enforce the contract had the plaintiff in the action or proceeding been named as a party to the contract, shall be so available;
each person named as a party to the contract shall be joined as a party to the action or proceeding; and
such defendant in the action or proceeding shall be entitled to enforce as against such plaintiff, all the obligations that in the terms of the contract are imposed on the plaintiff for the benefit of the defendant.
Unless the contract referred to in subsection (2) otherwise provides, the contract may be cancelled or modified by the mutual consent of the persons named as parties thereto at any time before the person referred to in that subsection has adopted it either expressly or by conduct.
Any deed, whether or not it is an indenture, may be described (at the commencement thereof or otherwise) as a deed simply or as an agreement under seal, or as a conveyance, deed of exchange, settlement, mortgage, charge, transfer of mortgage, appointment, lease or otherwise according to the nature of the transaction intended to be effected.
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