Registering interests over land in Western Australia
The introduction of the digital land titling system known as SmartRegister removed sketches of the land, and sketches of any interests and notifications affecting the land, from the certificates of title; making the deposited, strata and survey-strata plans the primary sources of information about the spatial definition of the parcels, lots and any new or old spatial interests such as easements, covenants and notifications.
It has been common practice for many years, when an interest does not extend over the whole of the land in a title or the whole of a lot, for sketches that show the spatial extent of interests (e.g. easements and covenants) to be included within the registered documents that create those interests.
Procedures are now in place for the depiction of the spatial interests (i.e. interests that affect only part of a lot) on a deposited plan (DP) certified by a licensed surveyor.
The Western Australian government is committed to a register of interests within a Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP). For this initiative to be effective the spatial extent of such interests can't reside as sketches within paper documents. Since all DPs are accompanied by a digital record of the spatial definitions shown on the plan, this process enables automatic updates to the spatial database known as SmartPlan and hence readily available to SLIP.
The role of the licensed surveyor will be to ensure that data captured concerning the spatial extent of various types of interests can be represented accurately on the plan and confirm all relevant land titling aspects. It will include advice to the client on the likely ground accuracies to be expected from different capture methods.
A major outcome of the move towards the digital title and the representation of spatial interests in land on DPs is to enable the faster and more accurate distribution of land title information to customers by electronic means, including online enquiry and delivery systems.
This paper describes the elements of the Registrar of Titles’ policy on registering spatial interests over land, the procedures to be used by licensed surveyors, and the requirements for deposited plans and digital data.