Page 3710 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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Although the practical effect of the changes in this Bill will be substantial in terms of methods of record keeping, handling of documents and provision of searches, the amendments themselves are of a minor and technical nature. Legal rights and obligations under the Real Property Act will not be altered by the move to automation. In order to accommodate the requirements of an electronic system, requirements to use forms prescribed in the Real Property Act are removed. Documents will be acceptable if produced in a form approved by the Registrar-General. This provides the flexibility necessary to utilise a range of recording media.
There are benefits to both government and users of the land titles register from automation. Conveyancers in the ACT are keen to see the register kept on computer. They have agreed to funding the automation process through an increase in charges for titles office services. Conveyancers are major users of the land titles register and are sure that there will be advantages to their clients as well as their staff. Routine conveyancing practice will be streamlined by use of additional services which can be offered from a computerised register.
Computerisation of the register will allow faster searches, including searches outside business hours. Conveyancers will be able to access the register from computer equipment in their own offices. This Bill will allow the Registrar-General to enter into agreements for periodic billing for searches done in that way. Instead of sending search staff to the titles office with funds to pay for each search, conveyancers will be able to conduct searches from their own premises and simply receive a bill, perhaps monthly. The benefits in terms of business administration are obvious.
Computerisation will also allow more than one person to access information about a particular certificate of title at one time. This will avoid the kind of backlog of search requests which can happen with the present system. The benefits to the Government are increased productivity and improved staff morale, resulting in staffing savings. A number of repetitive routines associated with the manual paper based system will disappear. Staff will be able to deal quickly with most search requests and will be able to concentrate on more difficult queries. Other benefits include reduced storage requirements, resulting in reduced accommodation costs. Automation will reduce the need for staff to spend time searching through bulky stored paper records.
Dealings with the land will spend almost no time in unregistered form, thus making searches of unregistered dealings obsolete. Searches will be easier to understand. The computerised system will allow a copy of the certificate of title to be printed out showing only current interests in the land. This will make searches much easier to read, especially for people who want to handle their own conveyancing rather than engage a professional. The historical information currently recorded on the certificate of title will be obtainable by other means, if necessary.
Placing the register on computer will improve its security. Access to the system will be restricted so that only the Registrar-General and the deputy registrars-general will be able to make entries. This will be done by means of user identifications and passwords which will be changed regularly. The system itself will record which person made each entry. In addition, physical access to the
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