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NSW Lands Glossary

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A

Auto Consolidated (AC) Title

When the same owners own consecutive lots (titles) on one or more plans, all lots are consolidated into one title. Multiple individual titles do exist under the 'parent' consolidated title. Auto Consolidated titles are amended/updated by NSW Land Registry Services whenever a sale of one or more of these lots occurs.

ADIS

Automated Deed Indexing System. Completing a search on the ADIS will return Old System Deed images and other miscellaneous ADIS images.


C

Caveat

A document legally forbidding certain action pending judicial determination.

Certificate Of Title (CT)

The registered proprietor's copy of a folio of the Register, being a State Government guaranteed Torrens title to land.

Certified Copy

The term certified copy has two meanings:

  1. A copy of a registered instrument contained in the Register certified by the Registrar-General as a true copy.
  2. A copy of a document lodged as evidence in the Land Titles Office, such as a probate or death certificate, certified as a true copy by a solicitor or justice of the peace.

Company Title

Note: Also applies to home unit company. Common before the introduction of strata schemes. Company title is used for multi-occupancy buildings. A company owns the building and the company’s shares are divided into a number of blocks or classes, each block or class entitles the owner of the shares to exclusive occupation of a particular part of the building. The owner of shares does not possess a proprietary interest in the freehold only an interest in the company.

Computer Folio

A folio of the Register held at least in part as a computer record.

Crown Land

Any land which has not been alienated by the Crown, including Crown tenures (land leased from the Crown).

Central Register of Restrictions (CRR)

A centralised database containing information on government authorities proposed interest in parcels of land throughout NSW.


D

Dealing

A document, other than a caveat, which is designed to secure recording in the Register of some disposition or event, such as a transfer of ownership.

Deposited Plan

A plan lodged with NSW Land Registry Services depicting subdivision of land.

Dual Entitlement

Also Multi Entitlement. In situations in which it appears to the Registrar-General that two or more different parties have a right to take delivery of a Certificate of Title, the Registrar-General may retain custody of that certificate until the entitlement can be resolved. Dual entitlement usually occurs when a plan changes the subdivision pattern for a parcel and the prior certificates of title for the land comprised in the new parcel were produced by different parties.


E

Easement

A right, attached to land (the dominant tenement), to use other land (the servient tenement) for a specified non-exclusive purpose known to the law, for example, right of carriageway, easement to drain water.

Encumbrance

A right or claim upon land held by one other than the property owner. Includes mortgages, taxes, liens, easements, restrictions on the use of the land, etc.


F

Folio Identifier

The reference number for a folio. The term is usually employed only for computer folios. The number is usually comprised of the lot number and plan number for the parcel.


I

Identifier

The title reference or lot/(section)/plan or a volume-folio number.

Integrated Titling System (ITS)

NSW Land Registry Services computerised record for land titles.


L

Land Parcel

An area of land with defined boundaries, which forms the fundamental unit of land ownership. It is also the basis for maintaining land information, including information about rights and interests.

Land Title

The evidence of a person's rights to land.

Legal Parcel

The smallest parcel of land capable of sale without further confirmation of subdivision. The physical extent of most legal parcels is defined by plans or metes and bounds descriptions held by NSW Land Registry Services or the Crown Lands Office.

Lien

The right to hold the property of another as security for payment of a debt, for example, a crop or wool lien. A lien can also be over documents such as a certificate of title.

Lodgement

The acceptance by NSW Land Registry Services of dealings, plans and other documents for further processing.

NSW LRS

New South Wales Land Registry Services.


M

Manual Title

A folio of the register wholly in the form of a written document, not being a computer title, and numbered as a Volume and Folio.

Metes and Bounds

A method of describing the boundaries of tracts of land by giving the bearing and length of each successive line.


O

Old System Land

Land alienated from the Crown under the English Common Law title system in operation in NSW before 1863, and not yet brought under the provisions of the Real Property Act 1900.


P

Power Of Attorney

A power of attorney is an instrument by which a person (the donor or principal) empowers another (the donee or attorney) to represent them, or act in their place for certain purposes. To act in regard to deeds or dealings for land the power of attorney must be registered in the General Register of Deeds.

Production

A facility provided by NSW Land Registry Services by which a party in possession of a Crown Grant, certificate of title, old system deed or other document can give temporary custody of the document to the Registrar-General. The document will be produced for the purpose of registering a request, dealing or plan that will be subsequently lodged. When the registration action has been completed the document or issuing certificates of title will usually be returned to the producing party.


R

Real Property

Traditionally the law has divided property into two main classes, real and personal. Real Property is land.

Registration

Dealings: The recording of the effect of the dealing against the relevant folio of the Register.
Deeds: The recording of the deed in the General Register of Deeds.
Plans: If creating a new subdivision pattern the parcels are given their legal identity and the plan becomes a current plan within the meaning of section 7A Conveyancing Act 1919.

S

Strata (stratum)

The concept of layer upon layer - lots, stacked one on top of the other. Hence, a plan depicting vertical subdivision of land by buildings such as home units.

SCIMS

Survey Control Information Management System


T

Title Reference

A Title Reference refers to either a lot/(section)/plan or a volume-folio number.

Torrens System

A system employed in all Australian jurisdictions under which title to land is conferred by the official registration of a dealing in that land. Named after its creator, Robert Torrens, who introduced it in South Australia in 1858.


U

Utility Lot

A strata lot designated for a specific purpose such as garage, parking space or garden shed.


V

Volume And Folio

The numbering system used to reference manual folios of the Register. A volume contains 250 folios. The system dates from the time when each folio of the Register was a page (folio) in a book (volume).


W

Water Access Licence

Referenced by a folio number, it is associated with a water-sharing plan. It defines the rights of the holder to use a water resource in a certain manner.