Queensland e-conveyancing update

Queensland’s shift towards a fully digital land registry has taken further steps forward with enabling legislation passed by the Queensland parliament in recent months.

The Revenue and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2018 expands the scope of transfers which can be carried out within an e-conveyancing network to all freehold land types (vacant, residential, commercial and industrial) with only limited exceptions.  This took effect on 7 July 2019.  New versions of the REIQ/QLS Commercial Contracts are expected to be released shortly.

Out of scope transactions for e-conveyancing

• Transfers where no duty is payable
• Transfers where a duty exemption other than relevant home, primary production or prescribed business concessions apply
• Transfers by direction
• Transfers which are required to be aggregated for duty purposes with another out of scope transaction.

The Act introduces further amendments which will facilitate the use of e-conveyancing for other transactions such as leases, transfer of water rights and dealings with leasehold land.

The Land, Explosives and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019, passed by Queensland parliament on 26 May 2019, amends the Land Title Act 1994 to:

• Abolish paper certificates of title from 1 October 2019
• Enable regulations to be made which mandate the use of e-conveyancing for particular transactions.

The government has not yet announced a timeline for mandating the use of e-conveyancing but all of the other mainland States have mandated the use of e-conveyancing networks for most transactions or announced a timeline for phasing out paper transactions.