Welcome to the November edition of Landwrap.
Processing times and updates – important information for November and December
Christmas/New Year close-down dates
Landonline will close at 10pm Wednesday 24 December 2025 and will remain closed until 6am Monday 5 January 2026.
The processing times published on our website reflect the average time it currently takes us to handle compliant transactions. Transactions which aren’t compliant will always take longer to process.
As we approach the end of the calendar year, we anticipate higher volumes of work and increased urgency requests from our customers, particularly between mid-November and mid-December. The volume of requests submitted are usually driven by settlement timeframes. To help manage expectations, we’ve provided guidance on the priority of work and what you can do during this period to help us process work efficiently.
Survey plans
We prioritise plans linked to a lodged dealing transaction as we have received feedback that these linked transactions are a priority for you and your clients.
Plans and dealings don’t need to be lodged at the same time. They are automatically identified as being linked upon lodgment and will be prioritised accordingly. This means that plans which are not linked to a lodged dealing may take longer to process than linked plans. Complex plans will also take longer to process than routine plans, whether linked to a dealing or not.
While not a definitive list, these are elements that can make a Survey plan complex:
- Water boundaries
- Ground Movement
- Unit titles
- Limited titles
- Height Limited
Dealings
We are conscious that customers lodging Titles work are often under pressure. We always endeavour to work with you to ensure that any deadlines can be met, noting that compliant work is always processed more quickly.
To help manage you and your clients’ expectations, the information below gives you an indication of how Titles work is categorised and processed.
| Category | Type of work | Priority and processing information |
|---|---|---|
| Non-New Title | Most commonly Transfers, Caveats, Certificates, Covenants and Easements | We expect to meet published timeframes for this work. |
| New Title | This is a broad category of work ranging from simple 2 lot subdivisions to large and complex multistage unit title developments | We prioritise already lodged and in progress work with associated plans approved. Processing times will increase during peak periods due to volumes. This work is the largest driver of Urgency requests. |
| Applications | Adverse Possession, Accretion, Extinguishment of easements and other similar work that require advertising and/or notice periods. | Unless accepted as Urgent, this work will not be prioritised ahead of New Titles work. If the application requires a notice period of 40 working days or more, it will not be registerable until 2026. |
How you can help
Things you can do to help us process your work efficiently:
- Ensure all work is compliant when first lodged.
- Lodge work when it is ready and at the earliest possible date.
- Plan around our published timeframes.
- Where a plan and dealing are linked, ensure good communication between the Surveyor and Conveyancer.
- Read our guidance on lodging urgency requests, and only lodge a request where you consider that the conditions truly require us to prioritise your client’s work ahead of others. Many of our customers will have dealings waiting for titles needed for settlement and added pressure on settlement timeframes created by the end of year and holiday break, affecting the availability of law firms, banks and other parties. It’s difficult to justify providing priority for one customer over many others with similar pressures and implications for their transactions.
See Requests to process a transaction with urgency - If lodging an urgency request, provide specific and relevant information and do not provide information not relevant to the request. Many urgency requests are refused because they lack information like critical dates and specific details about the actual circumstances for the client requiring priority. We do not require documents like sale and purchase agreements to be attached to urgency requests.
Please note, a surveyor or solicitor going on leave in December and January will not in itself be grounds for urgency.
Statutory and Evidentiary Requirements for E-Dealing Standard published
The Registrar-General of Land has published the Statutory and Evidentiary Requirements for E-Dealing Standard 2025 – LINZ S 01317.
The new standard sets out practitioners’ certification obligations to comply with the statutory requirements specified by the Registrar-General of Land for a particular class of instrument and hold and retain evidence showing the truth of their certifications under section 30 of the Land Transfer Act 2017. The standard updates and replaces the Certification of Electronic Instruments (Statutory Requirements and Retention of Evidence) Standard 2018 – LINZS20012.
As mentioned in the October edition of Landwrap, the standard came into force on 20 October 2025. On that date, the Certification of Electronic Instruments (Statutory Requirements and Retention of Evidence) Standard 2018 was revoked.
Statutory and Evidentiary Requirements for E-Dealing Standard 2025 - LINZ S 01317
What's changing with NoC
From 10 November, you won’t be able to mark a Notice of Change (NoC) as Ready to Send until the related instrument is signed. You will still be able to prepare and save the Notice of Change prior to the instrument being signed.
Why this is happening
Marking a Notice of Change as Ready to Send before the instrument is signed can lock in outdated data, even if the instrument is later updated. This change ensures the data sent to councils reflects the final, signed version.
What you can do
Once the instrument is signed, you will be able to mark the NoC as Ready to Send. If you haven't marked it as Ready to Send by the time you go to release the instrument, you will be prompted to go back to the NoC.
If you have already marked your NoC as Ready to Send prior to the change being released, it will retain the status unless you revert the NoC back to In Progress by editing it.
We appreciate your help in making sure more accurate Notice of Change data goes to councils.
New guidance on limited title surveys and a webinar
We’ve updated the guidance on surveys to remove limitations as to parcels in the Cadastral Survey Guidelines on our website.
The key changes are:
- Reinforcing that long-standing occupation can take precedence over title dimensions when appropriate.
- Clarification of when a boundary defined on a prior removal of limitations survey can be used to define the common boundary with the land under survey.
- Clarification that new residue parcels should only be created where the occupation evidence is likely to support a claim for title by adverse possession.
- Allowing for residue land from an adjoining cancelled limited title to be included in a removal of limitations survey without making an application for adverse possession, in some circumstances.
We’re hosting a webinar to share more about these changes on Wednesday 19 November 12-1pm.
More information on limited title surveys:
Limited title surveys
Cadastral survey guidelines
We're recruiting - Please help to spread the word
We are keen to recruit:
Senior Survey Expert / Plan Approver
- Location: open to Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton
- A National Certificate in Surveying (Level 3) or a NZ Diploma in Surveying (Level 3) or a Bachelor of Surveying from Otago University required
Applications close on Monday 17 November 2025
Sign up
Media contact
Email: media@linz.govt.nz