 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.
Assignment
2
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Assignment scenario
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.
Task 1: First home buyers
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.
(Your answer for each certificate of title should be up to 200 words.)
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.
Note: If you’ve already explained an interest in a previous title, you don’t
need to provide a further explanation of the same type of interest in
subsequent titles. However, you must identify all interests on each title.
(The explanation of each interest should be up to 200 words.)
(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?’
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Explain this term and describe to Tom and Lucy how such a limitation, if
present on a title, would affect them as potential buyers.
(Write 100-150 words per answer.)
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.
(Your answer should be 50–100 words.)
(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.
(Your answer should be 100–150 words.)
(iii) Complete this handout by explaining the process of registering the new
owner’s details on the certificate of title at LINZ.
(Your answer should be approximately 25–50 words.)
(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 (to be on the owner’s land, as distinguished from a real
estate licence or a Company Share unit license).
(vii) Equitable interests and legal interests.
(viii) Indefeasibility.
(ix) Exceptions to indefeasibility.
(x) Registered security.
(Your answer for each term should be 15–50 words.)
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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.
(Write 50–100 words per answer.)
(b) Dave Anaru asks to you appraise a small farm. Because you are aware of
areas of Māori land in the region, you order a historic title search, which
shows that this may be Māori 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?