Real Estate Practice: Land Ownership Titles and Key Property Law Definitions

Task 1: First home buyers

You will be assessed on the following learning outcomes:

Explain land ownership titles and key property law definitions as they apply to real estate practice.

Discuss key points of the law relating to ownership (including co-ownership) and transfer of land in New Zealand.

For the purposes of this assignment, you have recently joined the team as the newest salesperson at Waterford Real Estate Ltd, working at the Waterford East branch under the leadership of John Canon.

You are working with customers, Tom and Lucy Bradshaw, who are keen to purchase their first home. Over a period of about 3 weeks you have shown them several properties, and they’ve shown considerable interest in five of them. You have given them a copy of the certificate of title for each of these properties.

(a) Tom and Lucy mention that they are rather confused by the titles of the five properties. They ask you to:

(i) identify the current owner/s of each home, and

(ii) explain each property in terms of tenure. In your explanation, describe how the tenure affects the rights and obligations of the owners.

You can access the certificates of title from the Assessment area of this course.

The titles to be explained are:

1. WN711/236.

2. WN127/488.

3. WN58A/764.

4. 911224.

5. 727372.

(b) Lucy says, ‘I have an idea of what a mortgage is, but can you please explain this and the other interests on these titles? Some of these things sound as if they might impact on what we can or can’t do if we bought one of these properties. We really don’t want to make a mistake!’ Identify and explain the interests registered on each certificate of title listed in

(a) above.

(c) Tom says, ‘I’ve been talking to our lawyer, and she says there’s also something called limited as to parcels. She doesn’t think we need to worry about that. Can you please give us a brief explanation?’

Explain this term and describe to Tom and Lucy how such a limitation, if present on a title, would affect them as potential buyers.

Task 2: Helping new immigrants into the housing market You have been asked by the Waterford Community Centre to talk to a group of new immigrants about property ownership in New Zealand. Most have low levels of English.

(a) You decide to support your speech with a handout, because you mayhave future customers in the audience. Here are the key points you need to include in the handout:

(i) A brief overview of the Torrens land transfer system used in New Zealand.

(ii) Explain what the customer, client, customer’s solicitor and client’s solicitor do, starting with the sale and purchase agreement, and ending with the completed sale.

(iii) Complete this handout by explaining the process of registering the new owner’s details on the certificate of title at LINZ. 

(b) You also plan to explain to your audience that people buying and selling real estate may come across the following terms in relation to the land transfer system. Write notes on the terms to add to your handout.

(i) Real property.

(ii) Personal property (three types).

(iii) Ownership.

(iv) Possession (real and personal property).

(v) Lease.

(vi) Licence (in land, as distinguished from a real estate licence).

(vii) Equitable interests and legal interests.

(viii) Indefeasibility.

(ix) Exceptions to indefeasibility.

(x) Registered security.

Task 3: Forms of co-ownership

(a) Jason and Crystal Flood are a young couple preparing to buy their first home. After asking about how they want to structure the ownership, you realise they don’t know about the different forms of co-ownership. Explain the following terms and the effect they have on home ownership:

(i) Joint tenancy.

(ii) Tenancy in common.

(iii) Civil unions.

(iv) Trusts.

(b) Dave Anaru asks to you appraise a small farm. Because you are aware of areas of M?ori land in the region, you order a historic title search, which shows that this may be M?ori land.

(i) What information on the certificate of title might suggest this? (List three items.)

(ii) What legislation applies to the possible sale of this land?

(iii) Who could advise you or your client about this?