By Kiren Narayan - 17 Feb 2022
Caveats are a useful tool for protecting your interest in
a property. Once you register a caveat on a property, it prevents
the property owner from selling and notifies the public that there
is another interest in the land.
You could, for example, register a caveat if you have a charge
or an unregistered mortgage over the property. It could also be the
case where the owner of the property has agreed to sell you that
property, and it appears that the agreement will not be
honoured.
But what do you do when someone has misused the process, or you
disagree that that person has an interest in your property? You
can't sell while the caveat appears on the title. This is an
increasingly common issue, particularly for developers with more
housing developments being built to combat the housing crisis.
If you are looking to sell a property but are prevented from
doing so because of a caveat which you believe shouldn't be there,
you can apply to the Land Transfer Registrar to have it lapse. It
will then be removed in 10 working days unless the caveator applies
to the Court for it to remain.
The timeframes however, are very tight - the caveator will also
have to get an interim order from the Court that the caveat not
lapse within 20 working days after that application. Even if an
interim order is made, the Court will move to determine the final
application as expeditiously as possible generally without witness
examination determined just on the documents filed and legal
submissions.
If you're trying to sell a property but are prevented by a
caveat, or if you believe you have an interest in a property and
you wish to protect that interest, contact our Litigation
team to get the ball rolling.
Contacts
Tony
Johnson
Kiren
Narayan