Cancellation of certificates of title and 100% eConveyancing from 11 Oct 2021
Cessation day
The Registrar General of NSW has declared that 11 October 2021 is the day on which all certificates of title (CTs) will be abolished, known as ‘cessation day’.
By order under section 33AAA of the Real Property Act 1900, from cessation day all current CTs will have no legal effect and the Registrar General will no longer issue CTs for any reason.
The Torrens Title Register remains and has always been the single source of truth as to a person’s ownership or interest in land. View the Gazette notice here (page 11).
Required dealings
In addition, the Registrar General has also declared under Rule 8.8 of the NSW Conveyancing Rules the remaining list of electronic dealings as ‘Required Dealings’. This includes all residual documents in Batch 2 and Batch 3, as well as the Lease.
This means that from 11 October 2021 paper dealings will no longer be accepted for lodgment and only electronic dealings will be accepted.
Electronic dealings can be lodged by a subscriber to an Electronic Lodgment Network Operator, such as PEXA and Sympli. Subscribers are typically lawyers, licensed conveyancers, banks and government departments. The full list of electronic dealings that are acceptable for lodgment can be found in the Schedule of eDealings.
Next steps
From now until 11 October 2021, a number of changes will be made to remove the paper process from the rules and legislation. The following will be made with an estimated timeline:
- update to Conveyancing Rules – late July
- proclamation of the Real Property Amendment (Certificates of Title) Act 2021 – late July
- revocation of various Conveyancing Rules waivers – late August
- update to the Lodgment Rules – late August
Resources
Please visit the Abolition of CTs page for a comprehensive guide on the changes from 11 October 2021.
These changes represent the final reforms for the NSW land titles system to be 100% electronic, which is faster and more secure than the traditional paper process. We will continue to work with industry stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition away from paper and to a fully digital process.