By Elyse Di Stefano -
Snapshot
- The Supreme Court has handed down an important decision dealing with electronic caveats lodged online.
- When lodging electronic caveats, practitioners should be aware that the options for the description of ‘estate or interest claimed’ listed in an Electronic Lodgment Network Operator are limited.
- There is an interim solution which, in certain circumstances, allows lodgment of caveats as dealings with exception under the Lodgment Rules.
In late 2022, Kunc J handed down the decision in Brose v Slade [2022] NSWSC 1785 (‘Brose’). The decision highlighted the issue that electronic caveats prepared via Electronic Lodgment Network Operators (‘ELNOs’) restrict the possible descriptions of the estate or interest claimed by a caveator (at [77]). In Brose, the defendant unsuccessfully contended that the electronic caveat in question was invalid because it incorrectly described the ‘estate or interest claimed’.