Landwrap February 2014 - Issue 106

Landwrap February 2014 - Issue 106

Changes in the Office of the Surveyor-General

On 29 January, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Chief Executive Peter Mersi announced the appointment of Mark Dyer to the roles of Surveyor-General, and by extension, Chair of the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB).

Mr Dyer has been in professional survey practice since 1986. He is currently Managing Director of Rotorua- based survey and planning consultancy Canmap Hawley Limited, and holds graduate qualifications in surveying and post graduate qualifications in resource and environmental planning.

He replaces former Surveyor-General Dr Don Grant, who will take up an Associate Professor role at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

Mr Mersi also took the opportunity to farewell Dr Grant.

“In a Public Service career spanning nearly 40 years, Don has built an impressive record of achievements – including preparing new rules for cadastral survey in response to the Canterbury earthquakes, helping LINZ to become the country’s first organisation to use GPS technology for surveying purposes, and working with the UN to set and define the border between Iraq and Kuwait.

“I congratulate Dr Grant on his illustrious career – wishing him all the best for his future in Australia – and I look forward to working with Mark Dyer as he leads the OSG and NZGB into the future,” Mr Mersi says.

You can read the full media release on the LINZ website. (//www.linz.govt.nz/about-linz/news-publications-and- consultations/news-and-notices/linz-appoints-new-surveyor-general)

Printing from the Search Results window

This is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in May 2013.

This is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of Landwrap. (//www.linz.govt.nz/about-landonline/newsletter/landwrap/201305/printing-search-results-window)
Landonline release 3.8 gave users the ability to print multiple items direct from the search results screen (//www.linz.govt.nz/landonline-system-updates/release-notes-3-8-conveyancers#SDM 261040) .

Since then some users have inadvertently incurred unwanted fees after selecting Print Search instead of Print List.

It is important to note that

• The Print List option allows you to print a list of selected search result items from the Search Results box. If you need to print the entire list you will need to click “Select All”. This incurs no fees. This does not print copies of the titles themselves.
• The Print Search option will print the titles in their entirety, and fees will be charged for each search result selected. It will only print those searches that have been selected and highlighted from the results list, so again, if you need to print the entire list you will need to click “Select All”.

Using the correct print function will help you to avoid incurring unwanted fees.

Help LINZ make a website that helps you

LINZ is refreshing its website so that it’s easier for you to use and to find the information that you need.

As well as giving the site a more contemporary look and feel, we’re making our content easier to find and access, updating the website search to return more accurate results, and creating audience landing pages that are tailored to the needs of different customer groups.

As part of the changes, the content of Landonline will be moved to sit within the LINZ website. This means that while the Landonline application and your access to it will remain the same, you will be able to access all LINZ from a single site. We’re expecting to make this change in the second half of the year, but will keep you updated as we work towards this. Once the changes have gone live, there will be clear directions as to where you can find the content you’re looking for on the new site.

If you’d like to help us make changes that will work for our customers, please get in touch! We are currently looking for people to give the proposed changes a trial run, preferably customers that are already users of the LINZ and Landonline websites. Testing can be done from anywhere with an internet connection, and should only take 10-15 minutes. If you’re interested, please email the LINZ Digital Services (mailto:digitalservices@linz.govt.nz) team.

Increase in number of titles that can be entered in a dealing

LINZ has recently reviewed the limits to the number of titles and instruments that can be entered for each dealing.

These limits are put in place to enable quick processing and response times as extremely large dealings could affect Landonline’s performance and ability to effectively process dealings.

The revised limits are:

• for the number of titles per instrument: 300 (up from 200)
• for the number of total unique titles per dealing: 350 (up from 250)   for the number of instruments per dealing: 50 (unchanged)

Please note that a transaction that exceeds the limits stated above is not an exception to e-dealing and cannot be lodged manually on this basis alone.

If you have questions on processing a very large transaction please contact us on 0800 665 463 or at customersupport@linz.govt.nz (mailto:customersupport@linz.govt.nz) .

Landonline warnings on dealing limits:

In Landonline, you will receive a warning message if you try to add more titles than the instrument or dealing limits allow.

Click ‘OK’ to close the message. All affected titles will then be listed, but only the maximum number allowed will be checked as affected. Uncheck and check the ‘Affected’ checkbox for titles as appropriate.
A warning message will display when you save the entered titles and get close to the allowable limit for the dealing.

An error message will display if you attempt to save a dealing with more than 50 instruments.

This article supersedes the information in the June 2011 Landwrap (//www.linz.govt.nz/kb/566) .

Providing Survey Mark Feedback

Users are encouraged to provide feedback if they encounter any issues with survey marks. Feedback assists LINZ to better monitor and maintain the geodetic system.

After the relevant mark has been selected via LINZ’s online geodetic database, the feedback form can be accessed from the left-hand menu. The feedback form allows users to include mark condition updates, comments and photos.

Understanding Mark Purposes

Landonline automatic business rules that run at CSD pre-validation and submission rely on, amongst other things, correct capture of mark details.

These attributes also have an impact on the assignment of mark order when a CSD is integrated into the cadastre. It is important that careful attention is paid to capture of mark attributes.

This article focuses on the capture of mark purpose.

Landonline provides for nine mark purposes: Accepted, Defined by Adoption, Defined by Survey, Non Boundary, PRM, PRM/Boundary, Witness, Witness/Boundary and Not Defined.

Choosing Mark Purpose

Under the Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010, only boundary points can be Accepted, Defined by Adoption or Defined by Survey [see Rule 2 definitions of these terms], so these mark purposes must only be used for boundary points.

In some circumstances, a boundary mark can also be a witness mark or a PRM [see Rules 7.3.3(b) & 7.4.3(b)], in which case the mark purpose of Witness/Boundary or PRM/Boundary must be used.

A non-boundary mark can be a witness mark or a PRM, in which case the mark purpose of Witness or PRM must be used. Other non-boundary marks must have a mark purpose of Non Boundary.

The remaining mark purpose of Not Defined can only be associated with the mark state of System Added.

This mark purpose is automatically assigned to missed marks (mandatory or optional) that are included in a CSD.

The Rules for Cadastral Survey 2010 do not make a distinction between boundary points on new or existing parcels in respect of mark purposes. Therefore, if a boundary point was created to define a boundary position, and still serves that purpose, it must be captured with a mark purpose of Defined by Survey, Defined by Adoption or Accepted, regardless of whether or not it is on a parcel being created by the current CSD.

Conversely, if a boundary point was originally created to define a boundary position, but it is no longer on a parcel boundary (e.g. a disturbed or redundant boundary mark), then it must have a mark purpose of Non Boundary unless it is used as a witness mark or PRM. Then the mark purpose must be Witness or PRM.

The diagram below shows some common scenarios.

Checking Mark Purpose

One way of checking captured mark purposes before you submit a CSD is to review the mark list in your survey capture screen. If you click on the heading of the “Purpose” column, it will order the marks by their purpose, as shown in the screen shot below. Visual checks can then be made to confirm that the mark types, mark purposes and mark states are compatible.

For instance, the selected mark shows a new mark with a mark type of ‘peg’ and mark purpose of ‘non- boundary’. This is likely to be incorrect and should be checked.

If you encounter a situation that is not covered by the guidelines provided above or require further assistance, please contact 0800 ONLINE (665 463) or submit a Survey Information Complex e-request.