Limited Titles
What are Limited Titles?
A title to land that is “limited” means that at the time the first title was issued for that land, a guaranteed title could not be issued as there were concerns the existing surveys and land records for the land may not have been quite up to scratch. These days “limited as to parcels” is the most common type of these. It appears on the title where the existing surveys at the time were not considered accurate enough to guarantee the position of the boundaries or area of the land concerned. This could mean that a neighbour may actually be in adverse possession of part of the title. Difficult to say without an accurate survey.
Why fix it?
Limitations are unlikely to affect your day to day use of the property but could become a problem if you are if building a dwelling or substantial structure near a boundary, or even for something as simple as wanting to re-fence. Also, if wanting to sell and a purchaser makes a resurvey a condition of the sale and purchase agreement. For those wanting to subdivide the property as Unit titles or Cross Lease titles, a full survey would be firstly be required to remove the limitations of the title.
In summary, getting a limited title properly surveyed removes any head-scratching on what the accurate boundaries and area of your title are. The end result - you end up with a better quality title with accurate areas and dimensions, for your land!
How we help
To remove limitations on a title we will swat up on all of the relevant survey and title records, attend on-site, and ground mark all boundaries and boundary points, generally with brand spanking new pegs, (unless a reliable boundary mark from an adjacent survey is found to be already in the correct place and sitting there grinning at us). Positions of any current and historical occupation including fences are vital information when determining limited title boundaries. We then draw an eSurvey plan that shows the correct boundaries and area to support the issue of a guaranteed title and lodge it with Land Information NZ (LINZ).
Once LINZ has examined and approved the survey plan, your solicitor will lodge the legal documents for your new guaranteed title/s with LINZ. Consent of the adjoining neighbours is required to be sought to approve the boundaries on the new plan. We are able to answer any questions they may have.
Once all the above is satisfied the Registrar-General of Land can issue a guaranteed title for the land, which will now have accurate boundaries and an accurate area.