A title search shows what the Victorian Register of land holds at the moment the search is made, and the Register is the official record of who owns land in Victoria. Land Use Victoria gives buying or selling property and borrowing from a bank as examples of when a search is needed.
General informationThis page summarises Land Use Victoria’s property and land titles information. It is not legal advice about any title. Land Use Victoria highly recommends a licensed conveyancer or an Australian legal practitioner for help, and says only a licensed surveyor can work out where a property’s boundaries actually lie.
What the Register is made of
The Register is a set of individual digital records called folios. Each folio has a certificate of title, which may be on paper or electronic. Searching the Register online gives the most up-to-date record for the land, and where the certificate is electronic, the record also shows who is managing that certificate at present.
Land Use Victoria recommends searching the Register well before any land transaction begins. A search is a snapshot. For what happens on a title afterwards, alert services exist that send word when something is recorded. Land Use Victoria lists its official titles service and a group of authorised information brokers as the places that supply searches and alerts.
The register search statement
A title search returns a register search statement, and Land Use Victoria lists four things it includes.
Register search statement · the four parts
- Registered proprietors
- The names and addresses of the current registered owners.
- Land description
- A description of the land the folio covers.
- Encumbrances
- Anything registered against the land, including mortgages, caveats, covenants and notices.
- Diagram location
- Where to find the sketch of the property, or the document it comes from.
The statement points to documents rather than reproducing them. An instrument search is the next step: it returns copies of recorded or registered documents relating to the title, such as plans, covenants, planning agreements and other encumbrances.
The plans behind a title
Plans of subdivision
A plan of subdivision shows how a piece of freehold land is broken up into parcels, commonly called lots, that can each be sold on their own. Only a licensed surveyor can prepare one, and once it is registered it becomes the title diagram for the new folios it creates. The only new parcels such a plan can create are lots, roads, reserves and common property. Anyone who knows a plan’s number can search for it online, for a fee. The reverse record also exists: a plan of consolidation joins two or more parcels into a single new one. How a subdivision gets approved is a planning matter, and outside this guide.
Parish plans
Crown land has plans of its own. A parish plan fixes the position and dimensions of every Crown allotment in its parish.
Survey plans and field records
Licensed surveyors certify survey plans and abstracts of field records, which summarise what a surveyor relied on to fix the boundaries and dimensions of a piece of land. They commonly show reference marks, the outlines of buildings, fences and measurements.
The Central Plan Office
Land Use Victoria calls the Central Plan Office the state’s “virtual storeroom” for the government surveys and plans that Victorian law refers to. The Surveyor-General of Victoria is responsible for its plans under the Survey Co-ordination Act 1958, and every one of them is under Crown copyright.
Older plans and photographs
Historical survey plans and field notes are held by Public Record Office Victoria, which has a collection of historical plans online going back to 1837. Historical aerial photographs from the 1930s to the 1990s are available through the titles service.
What the boundaries on a title say
The diagram named on the statement gives an indication of the boundary dimensions, and it may show whether an easement affects the land. Land Use Victoria is plain that these boundaries are not guaranteed.
- Suburban lots are usually measured with a street frontage and a distance to a street corner.
- Strata and multi-level developments often carry heights and depths as well.
- Rural parcels sometimes describe a boundary by reference to a river or creek.
Only a licensed surveyor can say where a boundary actually is on the ground. Changing a property or title boundary is, in Land Use Victoria’s words, “very complex”, and needs a licensed surveyor and, in most cases, a lawyer.
A search belongs to its moment
Every statement is a reading of the Register at the time it was searched. A statement printed last month says what was registered last month. The Register holds the up-to-date record, which is why a fresh online search, rather than an old printout, is the way to see it as it stands. The alert services exist for the time in between.
What a title does not hold
A title records ownership and what is registered against the land. Much else about a property is kept by other bodies, and reaches a buyer or seller on property information certificates, which are used when a property is bought or sold. Land Use Victoria says the certificates may include information about:
- land valuations and rates, and land tax
- building regulations
- water, sewers and drains, and flood levels
- planning restrictions, bushfire areas, conservation and heritage listings
- VicRoads.
A conveyancer or lawyer normally orders these certificates, though they can also be ordered online through the titles service and the authorised information brokers. Land Use Victoria strongly recommends talking to a conveyancer or lawyer about what a seller must supply or a buyer should check. Rates and land tax both rest on the Valuer-General’s valuation, which is where the guide to rates notices picks up.