Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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REAL PROPERTY (UNIT TITLES) AMENDMENT BILL 1998


Bill presented and read a first time.

Mr REED (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, for an on behalf of the Chief Minister, I move that the bill be now read a second time.

I foreshadow that this bill will be passed on urgency later in these sittings. It is appropriate that this should occur because the bill seeks to amend an anomaly, recently identified by the Registrar-General, in the operation of the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act. Unless the problems are rectified, they may have the effect of unnecessarily delaying the issue of titles for land that is in the course of development. The basic anomaly is that the act requires the consent of all registered proprietors of interests in land being developed under the Unit Titles Act for each stage of the development of that land even though earlier stages may have been registered already.

This bill will amend the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act by removing the requirement that developers of land under the Unit Titles Act must, for each stage of release of titles, obtain a consent from each person who has a registered interest in the land.

The Unit Titles Act provides for a system of land development and land title whereby the proprietors of the developed land share common property and some common obligations. In developing such land, the developer must obtain a development approval under the Planning Act and must also obtain a ministerial approval under the Unit Titles Act for the proposed development. In seeking this ministerial approval, the developer must obtain the written consent of all persons, other than the crown, to the proposed subdivision. When the development is completed in accordance with the approved proposal and with any requirements imposed under the Planning Act, the developer is, subject to registration requirements, entitled to be issued with titles by the registrar-General. These registration requirements for the issuing of titles are contained in the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act and in regulations made under the act.

Section 7 of the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act provides that the Registrar-General must register a units plan and issue titles after various documents are lodged with the Registrar-General. These documents include the written consent to the registration of the units plan of every person, other than the crown, having a registered estate or interest in the parcel. This means that written consent must be provided by all of the registered owners of the land, by the registered mortgagees and by persons who have interest under easements and restrictive covenants.

The Unit Titles Act and the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act were amended in 1986 to permit staged developments of land - that is, developers could sell off the completed parts of the development notwithstanding that all of the works for the whole development had not been completed. This amendment occurred after various developers ran into financial difficulties because they could not receive any income until the whole development was finalised. The legislation provided that these developments, known as condominium development, have to be completed in accordance with the disclosure statement that is approved by the minister and registered by the Registrar-General.

The effect of section 7(d) of the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act is that the consent of all persons with registered interests must be obtained for each stage of the development. This obligation runs counter to one of the basic conceptual underpinning's of the Torrens legislation. This underpinning provides that, once consent is given to a dealing, that is the end of the matter. That consent should be binding on both the person who gave the consent and all persons who come to own the land owned by that person.

Accordingly, this bill provides that, for all stages after registration of the initial stage of a unit title development, there is no need to obtain the consent of the person referred to in section 7 (d) of the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act. This amendment will apply to both developments in the future and developments that are currently taking place.

In line with these changes, section 7 will also be further amended so that a person will be deemed to have given consent if that person either gave consent to the proposed development, at the time when the minister considered the proposal, or purchased the land after the time of the registration by the Registrar-General of the disclosure statement in relation to the proposed development.

Additionally, the bill provides for the repeal of section 7 (e), on the basis that there is no practical reason to require developers to produce duplicate copies of the instruments that have created all of the registered interests in the land. The originals of these documents are all held by the Registrar-General.

I should say also that the Northern Territory Attorney-General's Department is examining what should be rights of persons whose consent is required for the lodgement of unit titles proposals and for the registration of unit plans arising from those proposals. This is being done in the context of a review of the Unit Titles Act and the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act. I commend the bill to honourable members.

Mr BAILEY (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, again I ask whether the minister will table the explanatory memorandum as outlined in the Interpretation Amendment bill that was passed at the last sittings. My understanding is that it is supposed to be tabled at the time when the second reading speech is delivered. I move that the debate be adjourned.

Madam SPEAKER: Perhaps we can get some clarification on that.

Debate adjourned.

 

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