The information provided in this guide is not intended to amount to legal advice. Professional assistance may be required to determine the most appropriate action to protect your legal rights. Please read our Terms of Use on the Land Titles Registration policy and procedure guides web page. Landgate accepts no responsibility where parties print this guide and seek to rely on information that is out of date.
1. Overview
Documents being lodged in paper format with Landgate must be the originally signed document/s. Photocopies or copies of document/s certified by another party are not accepted for lodgement, only originally signed documents can be lodged.
In most instances only one originally signed document can be lodged, however if you are lodging a lease, sub-lease, power of attorney or an enduring power of attorney, a second originally signed document may be lodged. Where a second originally signed document is accepted for lodgement, the second document will be returned to the lodging party as an official duplicate or client original document at the completion of the registration process.
Documents may be lodged in person in the Midland or Perth Offices between the hours of 8.30 am and 4.30 pm only.
Documents can also be lodged by posting the original documents to Landgate, refer to section 4 below for further information on postal lodgements.
Customers must pay the document lodgement/registration fee when the document is presented to Landgate for lodgement. Documents are not accepted for lodgement without the payment of fees (where fees are payable).
It is the responsibility of the person/s lodging the documents to make sure the documents have been completed correctly before they are presented for lodgement. The "lodgement acceptability guide and checklist" are publications provided to assist lodging parties to ensure documents have been completed correctly.
2. Request to Accept Paper Lodgement (Industry Practitioners only)2
A Request to accept paper lodgement form must be used with any lodgement case in paper consisting of:
- Discharge of Mortgage/Mortgage
- Transfer
- Caveat/Withdrawal of Caveat
The form must be completed by the party requesting paper lodgement, and that party must also ensure that they hold evidence that supports their request. The Registrar will monitor the use of the request form and evidence may be called upon at any time to ensure compliance with the Regulations.
The form does not need to be used in a lodgement case that includes an additional document(s) not listed above e.g. transmission, survivorship, application.
FAQs
Who needs to provide the coversheet?
The settlement agent, lawyer or financial institution who is seeking to lodge the dealing in paper is responsible for the provision and signing of the coversheet. Best practice would suggest that they notify all parties to the dealing as soon as possible of the requirement to lodge in paper to ensure all parties can be prepared.
Do I need approval to lodge a transaction in paper that is eligible but can’t be lodged electronically?
At this stage, no, the coversheet will suffice. The Registrar reserves the right to call in evidence to monitor compliance and should audit reporting show repeated misuse of the coversheet to avoid electronic lodgement an approval process will be introduced.
Why do I need to hold evidence that it could not be lodged electronically?
To ensure compliance with the Transfer of Land 2004 regulations, the Registrar requests evidence be available to support the paper lodgement request for the transaction. This is like the need to retain evidence supporting the transaction.
What is an eligible transaction?
An eligible transaction is one that meets the current eligibility requirements which can be found here: * Eligible documents for paperless conveyancing.
What happens if I don’t provide the coversheet?
Failure to provide a correctly completed coversheet for a case involving any combination of ‘big 5’ documents (or singularly) will result in the case being rejected for lodgement.
Who can sign the coversheet?
The coversheet needs to be signed by the settlement agent, lawyer or financial institution representative responsible for seeking lodgement in paper.
Does the coversheet need to be an original or will a scanned copy suffice?
To facilitate lodgement and to not cause unnecessary delays the coversheet can be provided as an original or scanned copy. It is important that the contents of the coversheet are legible and that it is completed correctly.
I have a self-represented party on the other side of my transaction, will I need to provide a coversheet or will they?
In this instance the settlement agent or lawyer will need to provide the coversheet. The coversheet allows for such a lodgement.
2Section added 21/10/2020
3. Lodgement Acceptability Check5
All paper documents presented to Landgate for lodgement are subject to a preliminary check to ensure the document has been filled out correctly and the basic information provided in the document is correct.
The preliminary check is known as the Lodgement Acceptability Check "LAC".
LAC occurs when a paper document is presented for lodgement, prior to the payment of any registration fee (if applicable). Documents that pass the LAC check are accepted for lodgement and the registration fee (if any) must be paid at this time.
Documents presented for lodgement that do not pass the LAC check will not be accepted for lodgement and are returned to the lodging party to correct any defect identified through the LAC process.
The LAC process reviews paper documents for correctness in the following general criteria:4
- lodging party details
- panels in documents completed including a correct consideration panel (where included)
- tenancy shown in transferee panels of transfer documents
- verification of Identity (VOI)
- original signing of documents
- signing/execution with evidence where required
- witnessing
- letters of explanation are originally signed (letters explaining inconsistency of signatures can be copies)3
- documents are duty noted or duty certificate provided (where applicable)
3Clarification of dot point added 23/11/2021
4Criteria updated to remove consent/s provided are original
The best way to ensure documents being presented to Landgate are completed correctly is to check the registration and document requirements set out in Landgate’s guides, including:
- How To guides
- Lodgement Acceptability Guide and checklist
- A guide to basic requirements for the preparation of paper documents
When a document is processed for lodgement, the lodging party will be provided with a receipt which notes the document reference number/s, timeclock priority of the document, payment details and a Landgate customer service contact phone number.
All enquiries relating to the processing of the document/s can be made by phoning the customer service phone number provided on the receipt.
In completing the lodgement process, the title/s the subject of the new document/s accepted for lodgement are flagged to note there is now current action on the particular titles detailed in each document.
This flagging of the title/s provides a warning to any person searching a title for current information, that there is new action pending on a particular title and there may be changes pending, following the processing of the registration of the newly lodged document/s.
5Updated 07/08/2023 to remove reference to duplicate certificate of title.
4. Lodging a Series of Documents (Joint Lodgement)
Where a number of different lodging parties are wishing to lodge a series of documents together, over the same title/s and each lodging party requires a separate receipt for each of their particular document/s, the lodging process is as follows:
- The lodging parties need to liaise together to organise the document order so documents are presented for lodgement in the correct order for registration.
- Each document must be individually numbered to indicate the order of lodgement and to also indicate the total number of documents being lodged together. For example, if there are 5 documents in total, the first document is noted 1/5, the second 2/5 and so on. The notation is shown in the "instruct if any documents are to issue to other than the lodging party" panel on the front page of each document.
- The documents are presented for lodgement by each individual lodging party in the same order as the numbering of the documents.
- Each document is then checked for LAC and if correct will be lodged and receipted individually, once all of the documents have passed the LAC check.
- As documents are being lodged together at the same time, the usual letter of consent for follower dealings are not required.
The Registration System will identify all of the unregistered documents that have been lodged against the same title/s at the examination stage and will amalgamate all of the documents numbered as part of a series and process them altogether.
If any document in the case is subject to a requisition, a notice will be issued to all of the lodging parties in the case, so each lodging party is aware of the issues that have been identified and may affect the registration of their document.
5. Lodgement by Post1 5
Documents may be lodged by post.
Any person posting documents to Landgate should provide a letter with the originally signed documents, including information such as:
- the lodging person's name, address and contact details
- the documents being lodged
- the evidence provided
- issuing details (if required)
- any other relevant information
Registration fees are required to be included when paying by cheque or money order, however if paying by credit card, do not include any credit card details in the letter detailing the lodgement. Cheques or money orders can be made payable to “Landgate”.
If paying by credit card, include your contact details in the covering letter, the best times to make contact and Landgate will call you once we receive your documents to obtain credit card details over the phone.
Any evidence being returned from Landgate by post will be returned in the normal mail system. Should persons lodging documents by post require the return of any documentation by registered or another form of post, the lodging party must provide the appropriate pre-paid self-addressed envelope or satchel to Landgate at lodgement.
The postal address for document lodgement is:
Landgate
Document Lodgement Section PO Box 2222
MIDLAND WA 6936
1 Lodgement by Post updated to include information required in letter to be included 07/04/2020
5Updated 07/08/2023 to remove reference to duplicate certificate of title.