When to send a Notice of Change
The requirements for a Notice of Change are set out in Sections 30 to 36 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.
Conveyancing professionals have an obligation to advise the relevant territorial authority, such as local councils, when ownership on a title changes.
Notices of Change can be automatically generated in Landonline.
The Notice of Change helps territorial authorities maintain their property records and valuation information. It means new owners can receive all future rating notices for their property.
Territorial authorities may share information from the Notice of Change with entities that provide services to them. For example, council-controlled water services.
Watercare providers
Councils, or yourself, must send notices directly to water providers. Landonline does not automatically send notices to these providers.
When we can't supply a Notice of Change
Landonline can't supply a Notice of Change if a Record of Title is hidden under s41 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 or s232 of the Family Violence Act 2018 at the time you prepare your dealing.
We recommend contacting the relevant territorial authority to discuss how the records will be updated while keeping the owners of the title safe.
How the Notice of Change works
When someone changes ownership of a title, their conveyancing professional enters the additional rating valuation information in the Record of Title in Landonline. Then the conveyancing professional can select the Notice of Change option to inform the relevant territorial authority of the change of ownership.
Selecting the Notice of Change option pre-populates a Notice of Change form. The conveyancing professional can make changes to the form, or add notes, if needed.
When the form is completed and once the related instrument is signed, the conveyancing professional selects Ready to send. This prepares the Notice of Change to link to the title instrument waiting for registration.
Once the title instrument is registered the Notice of Change is batched with other notices for the territorial authority and sent overnight.
The conveyancing professional and primary contacts also receive a copy of the Notice of Change.
Receiving Notice of Change files
A territorial authority will be sent:
- an email containing all Notice of Change forms generated on that day, sent as PDF files. Each registration of an instrument will be in a separate file
- Notice of Change information in XML format so it can be imported directly into a council's database
- a Notice of Change Lite report.
Notice of Change emails are sent to email addresses nominated by the territorial authority. You can update these addresses at any time.
Notice of Change Lite reports
A Notice of Change Lite report shows instruments, excluding Court Orders, with ownership changes registered but not completed. Territorial authorities will be sent a Notice of Change Lite report when:
- the conveyancing professionals didn't finalise a Notice of Change or mark it as Ready to Send
- a change of mortgagor occurs in an instrument. A mortgagor can change multiple instruments at once, which creates a long list of title references in a report. However this will not affect the identity of the ratepayer.
Councils can request the conveyancing professional completes the Notice of Change post registration in Landonline.