Have you purchased a property recently and felt odd not having a shiny piece of paper to show for it? If so, you’re not alone.
In April 2020, Land Victoria ceased issuing paper titles upon registration of all property dealings and began issuing electronic Certificates of Title (eCT) only. Since the change, the team at Casa Conveyancing have received feedback from some clients that they felt nervous about not having the physical piece of paper to represent their landholding. However, Paula Bibby, conveyancer, confirms that to date, the system has worked very well. ‘The advantage of having an eCT is that there is no danger of titles being misplaced, lost or destroyed because they can easily be traced back to the CT Controller’, she says.
Electronic titles are not new. In September 2016, all of the major banks commenced replacement of paper certificates of title with electronic certificates. One month later, Land Victoria conducted a bulk conversion of Certificates of Title from paper to electronic certificates.
Since then, thousands of Certificates of Title have been converted to electronic titles upon lodgement at Land Victoria for the registration of a dealing, for example upon a transfer of the land or registration of a mortgage. When an eCT is issued by Land Victoria, control of the title is held by the CT Controller. If a bank has a mortgage over the property, then the bank is the CT Controller, or if a conveyancer has completed a conveyance of the land and no bank was involved, then the conveyancer is noted as the CT Controller.
An eCT can easily be identified when conducting a title search of the property because it is notated in the Administrative Notices section. This section also identifies who holds CT Control of the title.
If you’ve any queries or concerns regarding eCTs and CT Control of titles, contact one of the Casa Conveyancing team on (03) 5407 0162 or (03) 5303 0252 or via info@casaconveyancing.com.au to talk it through.
