REAL PROPERTY ACT 1900 - SECT 12
Powers of Registrar-General
REAL PROPERTY ACT 1900 - SECT 12
Powers of Registrar-General
12 Powers of Registrar-General
(1) The Registrar-General may exercise the following powers, that is to say--
(a) The Registrar-General may require any person who may have possession or
control of an instrument relating to land the subject of a dealing, or
relating to the title to any such land, to produce that instrument, and the
Registrar-General may retain any such instrument, whether produced pursuant to
this paragraph or otherwise, until it is no longer required for action in
connection with a dealing lodged with the Registrar-General.
(b) The
Registrar-General may summon any person referred to in paragraph (a) or any
person who to the Registrar-General appears to be interested in any land,
title to land, or instrument affecting land, the subject of a dealing to
appear and give an explanation respecting that land, title, or instrument.
(c) The Registrar-General may administer oaths or may take a statutory
declaration in lieu of administering an oath.
(d) The Registrar-General may,
subject to this section and upon such evidence as appears to the
Registrar-General sufficient, correct errors and omissions in the Register.
(d1) The Registrar-General may, subject to subsection (3A), on such evidence
and after such notices (if any) as appear to the Registrar-General to be
sufficient, and with the consent of the proprietors and any mortgagees of the
land, correct the Register by correcting a reference to one or more lot
numbers in a plan. The Registrar-General may make the correction on the
application of a proprietor or mortgagee or on the Registrar-General's own
initiative.
(e) The Registrar-General may record in the Register a caveat on
behalf of any person under any legal disability or on behalf of Her Majesty to
prohibit the transfer or dealing with any land belonging or supposed to belong
to any such person as hereinbefore mentioned, and also to prohibit the dealing
with any land in any case in which it appears to the Registrar-General that an
error has been made by misdescription of such land or otherwise in any folio
of the Register or instrument, or for the prevention of any fraud or improper
dealing.
(f) For the
protection of any person interested in land under the provisions of this Act
the Registrar-General may record in the Register a caveat, or may otherwise
record the interest of that person in the Register in such manner as appears
to the Registrar-General to be appropriate.
(g) The Registrar-General may, on
such evidence as appears to the Registrar-General sufficient, record in the
Register any change in the name of a registered proprietor, whether the change
is consequent upon the marriage of the proprietor or otherwise.
(h) The
Registrar-General may at the Registrar-General's discretion, and
notwithstanding anything in this Act, dispense with any advertisement or the
supply to the Registrar-General of any information or the production to the
Registrar-General of any instrument.
(h1) The Registrar-General may give
notice by advertisement or by personal service, whenever and to whomever the
Registrar-General thinks appropriate, of the intended exercise or performance
of any power, authority, duty or function conferred or imposed by this Act.
The Registrar-General may instead, if the Registrar-General considers it to be
appropriate, direct another person to give notice in a manner and form
approved by the Registrar-General.
(i) The Registrar-General may, where the
Registrar-General is satisfied that an estate or interest has been
extinguished by merger, make such recording in the Register as the
Registrar-General considers appropriate.
(1A) Notwithstanding subsection (1)
(h1), a notice of intention to bring land under the provisions of this Act or
to grant a possessory application or to register a plan of survey lodged for
the purposes of section 28V may be served by post.
(2) Where a person
required to produce an instrument pursuant to paragraph (a) of subsection (1)
fails to produce the instrument or to allow it to be inspected or, being
summoned pursuant to paragraph (b) of that subsection, refuses or neglects to
give an explanation which the person is, pursuant to that paragraph, required
to give, or knowingly misleads or deceives any person authorised to demand any
such explanation, the person shall for each such offence incur a penalty not
exceeding 2 penalty units, and the Registrar-General, if the instrument or
information withheld appears to the Registrar-General material, may reject the
relevant dealing referred to in that subsection.
(3) Where the
Registrar-General, in the exercise of the powers conferred upon the
Registrar-General by subsection (1) (d), makes a correction in the Register--
(a) the Registrar-General shall, by an appropriate recording in the Register,
authenticate the correction and record the date thereof, and
(b) to the
extent that, but for this paragraph, the correction would prejudice or affect
a right accrued from a recording made in the Register before the correction,
the correction shall be deemed to have no force or effect, and
(c) subject to
paragraph (b), the Register shall, as so corrected, have the same validity and
effect as it would have had if the error or omission had not occurred, and
(d) the Registrar-General shall, while any right preserved by paragraph (b) is
subsisting, maintain available for search a record of the date, nature and
effect of the correction, and
(e) the Registrar-General must keep a record of
every correction.
(3A) If the Registrar-General makes a correction referred
to in subsection (1) (d1)--
(a) the correction--
(i) must not make original
words or symbols illegible, and
(ii) must be dated, and
(iii) must be
initialled by the Registrar-General, and
(b) the correction takes effect as
if the error corrected had not occurred, and
(c) the correction does not
affect the construction of any instrument made or entered into before the
correction so as to prejudice any person claiming under that instrument, and
(d) the Registrar-General must keep a record of every correction.
(4) Where
the Registrar-General exercises the powers conferred upon the
Registrar-General by subsection (1) (f) otherwise than by entering the
Registrar-General's caveat, the interest recorded shall be deemed to be an
interest within the meaning of section 42 but otherwise shall have no greater
operation or effect than it would have had if not so recorded.
(5) Upon the
recording, pursuant to subsection (1) (i), of the extinction of an estate or
interest by merger, that estate or interest shall be deemed to have been
extinguished accordingly.
(6) The powers of the Registrar-General under this
section may be exercised with respect to electronic lodgments in conjunction
with powers granted under the Electronic Conveyancing National Law (NSW) .
(7) A power to correct errors and omissions conferred by subsection (1)
includes a power to correct errors and omissions resulting from a malfunction
of--
(a) an Electronic Lodgment Network or electronic system in which
information is communicated between the Electronic Lodgment Network and the
Registrar-General, or
(b) any other system, approved by the
Registrar-General, that enables the lodgment of dealings, caveats, priority
notices and other documents in electronic form.