On 11 October 2021, the Real Property Amendment (Certificates of Title) Act 2021 commenced, which abolished the Certificates of Title (CTs) and the control of the right to deal (CoRD) framework. All existing CTs have been cancelled and CTs will no longer be issued. Existing CTs will not need to be produced, and CoRD holder consent will not be required, for a dealing or plan to be registered. All existing Guidelines subject to this change are currently being reviewed and will be updated to reflect these changes. For further information regarding the abolition of CTs, please see https://www.registrargeneral.nsw.gov.au/property-and-conveyancing/eConveyancing/abolition-of-certificates-of-title

Electronic lodgment (NSW LRS Connect)

Electronic lodgment of plans (NSW LRS Connect) by an ‘approved person’ is facilitated by section 195AA Conveyancing Act 1919.

An ‘approved person’ can only be:

  • a surveyor registered in NSW,
  • a nominated representative of a surveyor's company,
  • an authorised representative of a NSW State government agency, or
  • others who have met the requirements to be eligible as an approved person.

To become an approved person, an applicant must complete the required steps to create an online account in NSW LRS Connect. NSW LRS Connect can be accessed here.

LRS Connect access

Once issued with an account, the approved person will be able to access the features available within NSW LRS Connect. Limited features may be available to others, depending on their role – see here.

NOTE:  Approval may be cancelled by NSW LRS for breaches of the terms and conditions of use which must be agreed to when entering the site.

Preparing the plan and other documents for electronic lodgment

The legislative requirements relating to the preparation of plans and accompanying documents on approved forms (i.e. content and layout) have not been changed for plans lodged electronically, but the original documents must be lodged as a Portable Document Format (PDF).

The plan

  • The plan must be prepared using a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) application, a hand drawn plan is not acceptable.
  • No signatures will be shown on the final plan (an Administration Sheet must be used).
  • The CAD file of the completed plan will be exported as a PDF and follow PDF specifications set out below.

Accompanying documents

Documents that would normally accompany a plan and particularly those bearing original signatures include:

  • a Section 88B instrument
  • Development contract/management statement
  • Developer By-laws
  • Plan Lodgment Checklists (see NOTE below)
  • survey report and
  • the Administration Sheet, which must be created to NSW LRS specifications by using approved forms, or the Digital Form builder in NSW LRS Connect.

NOTE: The Deposited Plan Lodgment Checklist must accompany all deposited plan lodgments from 1 July 2019. The Strata Plan Lodgment Checklist must accompany all strata plan lodgments from 1 July 2020.

Documents bearing original signatures and seals must be retained by the approved person for a period of seven years from date of registration of the plan - see clause 34 Conveyancing (General) Regulation 2018.

NSW LRS PDF specifications

Using the Digital Form builder, or an approved form, you can create documents adhering to NSW LRS specifications. When submitting a plan, the PDF image must be created to the following specifications, and lodged using built in business rules in NSW LRS Connect:

  1. Size - true to the approved form size (A2, A3 or A4)
  2. Colour - must be black and white (monochrome), except for Survey Reports (R) or Letters (L)
  3. Where there is more than one sheet to a plan or other document, each file (plan or other document) must be created as a multipage PDF
  4. Must not be password protected
  5. Must not have invalid digital signatures
  6. Must be generated using up to date versions of PDF generation software
  7. Must not use corrupted or unsupported font styles. Corrupted or unsupported font styles may cause quality issues where font cannot be rendered in the same manner as they appear at the time of drafting.

How are the electronically lodged files named?

The file name followed by an underscore (_) and suffix code to identify each document type is the required naming convention for each file. The following list of suffix codes must be adopted.
 

Document Type Suffix Code
Plan P
Section 88B Instrument B
Signatures/Administration Sheet S
Survey Report R
Strata Plan Management Statement M
Strata Plan Development Contract C
Strata Plan Developers By-Laws D
DP Management Statement M
DP Development Contract C
Building Management Statement M
Plan Lodgment Checklists K
DP Pipeline Form F
Letter/Miscellaneous L

For example, if the file name is B2156 for a deposited plan, and the files to be lodged include a plan, signatures/Administration Sheet, section 88B instrument, survey report, letter and checklists, the files would be named as follows:

Document Type File Name
Plan B2156_P.pdf
Signatures/Administration Sheet B2156_S.pdf
Section 88B Instrument B2156_B.pdf
Survey Report B2156_R.pdf
Letter B2156_L.pdf
Surveyor and lodging party checklists B2156_K.pdf

NOTE: If there is more than one letter/miscellaneous item, the letter file can be created as one multipage PDF. Also, the Plan Lodgment checklist should be created as one multipage PDF.

For further information regarding the legislation and how electronic lodgment of plans works see the Lodging with NSW LRS page on the NSW LRS website.

A Help Centre and User Guide for NSW LRS Connect is also available here.

All NSW legislation can be accessed at https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/