We recently successfully applied to the Recorder of Titles at the Land Titles Office to reinstate a right of carriageway easement that had been omitted from a property when it was converted many years ago from old ‘general law’ title to the current land title system.
Property ‘B’ is registered as being subject to the right of way in favour of property ‘A’, but erroneously property ‘A’ did not have the benefit of this right of way registered on its own title. The owner of property ‘B’ therefore asserted that the owner of property ‘A’ had no right to use the right of way access over property ‘B’ (which was vitally important for the business conducted on property ‘A’ in Hobart’s CBD).
A prior application to the Land Titles Office made by the client some years ago to cure this issue had been rejected on the basis that the error, which resulted in the omission on the title to property ‘A’, was caused by the fault of the owner of property ‘A’, not the Land Titles Office, when the title was converted from general law to the new land title system. The Land Titles Office ruled that its power to correct errors in property titles did not extend to errors made by the owner in these circumstances.
Our application to the Land Titles Office persuaded them that in fact the Recorder of Titles has a general power to correct errors in the Land Titles Office Register, irrespective of the source of the error and consistent with the 2018 Supreme Court decision of Nightingale v Recorder of Titles.
Errors in titles can occur due to errors in conversion of old ‘general law’ title deeds. If you wish to discuss these issues, please contact:
David Shelley
Managing Principal
M: 0427 183 217
E: dshelley@pageseager.com.au
Daniel Morgan
Principal
M: 0438 436 968
E: dmorgan@pageseager.com.au
Published: 19 February 2020
