CIB 411: Electronic Service of Statutory Notices from 7 August 2023

On 7 August 2023, Transfer of Land Act 1893 (TLA) changes, introduced by the Transfer of Land Amendment Act 2022 (TLAA), will come into effect.

Under the TLAA, the Registrar of Titles and the Commissioner of Titles will be able to formally serve statutory notices electronically. This will include the ability to email requisition notices to document lodging parties where a lodged document does not meet the registration requirements. There will no longer be an option for the Registrar and Commissioner to send the Requisition notice to a facsimile number.

Emailing Requisition Notices

Lodging parties will be asked to provide an email address at lodgement for the purpose that Landgate, the Registrar of Titles or the Commissioner of Titles can correspond with the lodging party, if required.

For a document lodged in paper, an email address should be included in the “Lodging Party details” part of the document.

Landgate is currently working with Electronic Lodgment Network Operators (ELNOs) to allow for an email address for general correspondence for a lodging party to be included in the Document Lodgement instructions. We will advise you when this functionality is available.

In the meantime, if you lodge documents with Landgate electronically and you have not previously provided an email address for requisition correspondence, please send in your preferred email address for this purpose to Dealings@landgate.wa.gov.au with a subject line of “Requisition Email address”. Please include the name of your subscriber entity in the email.

Requisition Management Secure Portal

Some of our customers have expressed concern at providing information to Landgate by way of email and email attachments due to the potential threat of email interception, email interference or other email scamming activity.

Feedback received from stakeholders who are document lodging parties has been supportive of Landgate enabling a secure Portal where lodging parties can upload their evidence to satisfy a requisition. Landgate will be building a secure Portal later in the year which would be ready for use by the end of March 2024.

In the interim period between August and the availability to upload to the Portal, lodging parties will have the following options to send evidence

• Via email, where originally signed evidence is not required.
• Provide the evidence at our Midland or Perth offices.
• Post the evidence to Landgate.

This is a continuation of how responding to requisitions is currently managed.

Address for service of notices for Caveators

From 7 August 2023, Caveators will be able to have an address for service of notices which is an email address or a postal address. A caveator will no longer be able to provide a facsimile number as an address for service of notice. Landgate is currently working with ELNOs to enable an email address to be provided for a caveator in an electronically lodged caveat document. Until this functionality is available, please continue to provide a postal address for this purpose.

The TLA amendments enable the Registrar to send statutory notices to Caveators who have previously provided a fax number as their address for service of notices if no new address has been notified in the required form.

Transfer of Land Regulations 2004

The Transfer of Land Regulations 2004 will be amended and will be available on www.legislation.wa.gov.au by 7 August 2023. The service provisions for service of notices which are not provided for in the TLA will now be prescribed by the Regulations.

The reason for moving the service provisions into the Regulations is that these are easier to change in the future as we foresee technology providing more options in the future and current methods of service being used less, as has been the case for the use of emails overtaking fax and paper communication.

If you require further information or clarification, please email TLA.Amendments@landgate.wa.gov.au.