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Snapshot

  • Cui v Salas-Photiadis raises questions about practitioners’ knowledge and use of lodgment support services.
  • Lodgment support services, when properly used, help a practitioner keep apprised of the state of a title throughout settlement in an electronic workspace.
  • When using lodgment support services, practitioners need to be aware of what they can and cannot do.

Electronic lodgment of most conveyancing transactions was made mandatory on 1 July 2019. Accordingly, most conveyancing practitioners have been lodging electronically for over five years or, for those who began practising after that date, for all of their career. As such, it would be a reasonable assumption that readers are familiar with lodgment support services (‘LSS’). LSS are the tools provided in an electronic transaction to help conveyancing professionals carry out their duty to protect the interests of their clients and, in particular, to be aware of competing interests lodged against a title in a workspace.

However, the interlocutory case of Cui v Salas-Photiadis [2024] NSWSC 1280 (‘Cui’), decided on 14 October 2024, raises some interesting questions which makes it timely to review some of the LSS tools: what they can do and, importantly, what they cannot do. Cui involved examination of the validity of a caveat protecting an equitable charge, created by an equitable mortgage, and whether it should be removed by an order under section 74MA of the Real Property Act 1900 (NSW). His Honour Hmelnitsky J found the caveator had an arguable case for the caveat to stand and declined to order that it be removed. The matter was stood over for directions pending a hearing of all the issues in full.

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