Discovery API - Test

The three main entities

There are three main entities that the brokers and other customers interact with, Parcels, Titles and Properties. In Victoria, each of these entities have their own purpose, and are linked to each other in either LASSI or VOTS. Other states do not necessarily have the same entities, or the same complex relationships between them, and as such it is important for our brokers and our staff to understand them and their relationships to use the Broker APIs successfully.

Parcels

A parcel (or land parcel) is generally a piece of physical land as defined by a geographic shape, and is sourced, in Landata's perspective, from LASSI.

A parcel has two general methods by which it is defined.

1. Lot\Plan: This is the more modern way of defining a parcel, and this defines the allocated lot number on a particular subdivision plan. For example 101\PS328573 is lot 101 on the plan of subdivision 328573.
2. A crown allotment: This is generally an older style of parcel definition and it comes from the fact that the land was generally granted (allotted) by the Crown of Australia (or Crown of England before Australia was a thing). A crown allotment parcel is defined by up to five different factors including Allotment, Block, Portion, Section and SubDivision. For example: 12~10A\PP5762 is Allotment 12 in Section 10a on the Parish Plan 5762.

No matter the method by which it is created, each parcel has a standard parcel identifier (SPI) that is made from either the lot and plan identifiers, or from elements of the crown allotment joined together in a defined manner. For example, 101\PS328573 and 12~10A\PP5762 are two such SPIs. A lot identifier is not mandatory for a parcel so it is possible for the SPI to just include the plan number, such as CP174310.

It is possible for a parcel to not be a physical piece of ground, but be defined also by where it is vertically. Modern sub developments which include multi-storey apartments will now typically have each floor divided up into lots. This subdivision plan example below for a three story apartment shows that lots 1, 2 and 3 are on the ground floor, 4, 5 and 6 are on the first floor and 7, 8 and 9 are on the top floor even though they have the same physical latitude and longitude boundaries.

Parcels can be subdivided, consolidated or altered, and generally the method by which they were created is reflected in the plan type seen in the SPI. For example, PS means plan of subdivision, PC means plan of Consolidation and TP means Title Plan. There are at least a dozen plan types but they do not, in practice, change the behaviour of the parcel.

When a parcel is subdivided, the old parcel is cancelled, and brand new parcels are created in its place. When a subdivision application has been made, there is a point in time when the new parcels are created as proposed parcels, but the old parcel is not yet cancelled. The moment the subdivision dealing is registered, the old parcel is cancelled and the proposed parcels become active.

Parcel & Lot Types

A parcel has a parcel type. The parcel types do change what can be done with the parcel. Here are the common parcel types:

• Lot: A normal parcel of land which is either identified with either numbers or letters or both. (eg. 15\PS12345)
• Unit: A parcel of land that belongs to a unit/apartment development which is either identified with either numbers or letters or both. (eg. 1501\PS52345)
• Common Property: When a parcel has the letters CM in its lot identifier, such as CM1\PS12345, that means it is common property jointly owned as defined by something such as a Body Corporate. It can generally not be bought and sold as its ownership is defined by a contract.
• Road: Typically containing R or RD in its lot identifier, roads are either not owned, or owned by councils, VicRoads , or government etc. Roads are created in sub developments that are large enough to require new public roads to be created (see image below).
• Reserve: Typically containing RES in its lot identifier, and again are generally owned by councils or Governments.

There are four lot types, which can give an indication of the use of the parcel or describe any lot limitations, and is applied generally when the parcel has a parcel type of ‘lot’ or ‘unit’. The lot types are:

• RESTR (Restricted) - Must be sold together with another parcel (i.e. units and their connected carpark)
• UNRES (Unrestricted) - Does not have to be sold together with another parcel when it may be expected.
• ACCES (Accessory Unit) - A storage area or carpark normally found in apartment developments
• CARPRK (Carpark) - A carpark normally found in apartments or commercial developments.

Titles

A land title is the official record of who owns and has interests a piece or pieces of land. The Victorian Register of Land (stored in VOTS) maintains the record of Land Titles recording all interests and rights affecting the parcel or parcels of land described on the title. The title includes information about ownership, mortgages, covenants, caveats and other encumbrances affecting that land.

Each title has a unique identifier, called a Volume/Folio which does not change even when the title is cancelled. Historically, the Victorian Register of Land was a series of books that had all the titles recorded. Each book was called a Volume, and section of each book was called a folio. A duplicate title record was given either to the mortgagee (if the title was mortgaged), or to the owner to prove ownership, called the paper Certificate of Title (pCT).

The Certificate of Title (CofT) is stored in the Victorian Online Titles System (VOTS), and is always the truth. If the Title is an Electronic Certificate of Title (eCT), that means the Certificate of Title is only stored in VOTS.

If the Title is a Paper Certificate of Title (pCT), then there are two Certificates of Title, one in VOTS and the other on paper held by the owner or bank.

This historical practice of a paper Certificate of Title is rapidly declining as all titles transfer over to having an electronic Certificate of Title (eCT), that is, they are only stored in the electronic registry (VOTS) and the paper copy is scanned for audit purposes only and destroyed.

Types of titles

There are a number of types of titles, but the two main broad categories are Freehold and Crown. Freehold can be owned by individuals and companies, and crown titles is not ‘owned’ but ‘administered’ by a public authority such as the state or federal government. Note that there is a difference between Crown titles, which is administered by an authority, and Crown Grants which is a type of freehold title, the second being just that title was originally created by being granted by the crown. Other types of Freehold titles include Crown Lease, Alpine Lease, City Link Lease, Mineral Include, Mineral Exclude, Treasurers Receipt, and Identified each with their own peculiarities.

Each title has a Certificate of Title in the Registry (VOTS), and therefore a Copy of Title (also called a Register Search Statement or Title Search) can be purchased from the registry showing the title details at a particular point in time such as the example below. It is not a title, it is a copy of the title.

The parcel(s) associated with the title are described in the Land Description section of the Register Search Statement (RSS) and in the example you can see a verbal description of the title highlighted in yellow.

Examples

Example 1: One title, one parcel

This is by far the most common scenario, in that there is only one title associated with only one parcel and very common in suburban Melbourne. The parcel is described in the land description of the title. For example, the title 11394/129 below shows that the land parcel of 35\PS701045 is owned in joint by Janise and Lia.

Note: Each plan carries an alphanumeric checksum following the plan number, in this case the letter U. This should be ignored where considering the SPI, so that is why the SPI is 35\PS701045, not 35\PS701045U.

Example 2: One title, many parcels

Having one title with many parcels is common in farms and large commercial properties where the one title covers more than one parcel of land. The parcels are generally touching but need not. Here is an example below of title with two parcels.

Example 3: Many titles, one parcel

There are a number of situations where there can be many titles each with the same parcel(s). The common ones being:

• Life Estates: Where there is a title that only exists ‘for the life’ of a person, and second title that claims ownership when that person dies. (see example below where one parcel has two titles)
• Crown Leases and Crown Land: The crown lease has an expiry date for leasing the crown land, in which time, ownership goes completely back to the Crown Land Title, and both are for the same parcel/parcels
• Shared Tenants in Common: Where a commercial relationship has been struck by two parties dividing land into ownership shares, and each of these shares can be individually bought or sold. For example, you will see below that the two owners noted on 11027/526 only own 5 of the total 15 shares. This is another title that owns the remaining 10 shares, which can be bought and sold independently.

Example 4: One parcel, no owner

There are parcels that do have a title, but it is not a real title, that is, an Identified Title. No one can own an Identified title and it is used as a placeholder in case ownership is ever determined at which time a new Freehold title will be created for that owner. For example, parcel 2\PS434798 is a small triangle of land that no one owns and thus there is no Certificate of Title, as shown on the example below.
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Property

What defines a property is generally decided by the Local Government Authority (aka, the council). A simple example is a free standing house on a block of land is considered a property by the council and therefore attracts council rates, and will be allocated a property number that is unique for that council.

Sometimes a council will put a number of parcels together into one property, such as a farm or a two neighbouring blocks, and they will carry one council rate as a result.

All councils have a concept of multi-assessment properties. This is where more than one property belong to the same parcel. A typical example might be where individual shops belong in a shopping centre property. In this instance, each shop property will be marked as a multi-assessment property, meaning that whilst each individual shop will have its own council rates assessment, the shopping centre is still the entity that must be sold as a whole, not each individual shop. This is because each individual shop property does not fully own the parcel outright.

There are also proposed properties which are attached to proposed parcels. This is where a parcel sub-division has not yet been fully completed but has gone through a significant way through the approval stage and so recognised as proposed.

Lastly, there are properties which do not have a council property number, but has been defined as a property by LASSI. These often have a property code as NCPR (no council property record) and are typically common property areas of apartments and as such, cannot be bought or sold.

LASSI will also contain a unique Property Number to the Property which is called the Property Persistent Feature Identifier (PFI) that can also be used by our customers to find the property they are after.

Everything said, Landata will allow the user to find any property that is active in LASSI regardless of its type or status, because Landata is trying to allow the user to use any means possible to find the property they want to transact on or the title that want information for.

Examples

Example 1: One Property, one Parcel

2 COAL COURT EPSOM 3551 has council property number 235318 in the GREATER BENDIGO council on parcel 36\PS701045. A nice simple example.

Example 2: One Property, many parcels

It is quite common for a property to have more than one parcel, and this could mean either one title or many. The example below has one property with three parcels (next door to each other) on three separate titles.

You will see that the property’s address is a compound address, i.e. 19-21 Schnapper Point Drive, and once this property was created, LASSI will no longer have the addresses of 19 Schnapper Point Drive or 21 Schnapper Point Drive.

Example 3: One Parcel, no property

There are approx. 64,000 parcels for active titles in VOTS that do not exist in LASSI, and so therefore the property or location cannot be determined. Nearly all of the parcels appear to be Title Plans and/or are Reserve or Common Lands.

Example 4: One Parcel, many Properties.

At 113-133 MOLLISON STREET BENDIGO 3550 is a small shopping centre with a number of properties which all share the same parcel of CP174310, but have their own property numbers

Example 5: Proposed Parcels

For example, the following subdivision has parcels which are still proposed, and marked in LASSI with a cross-hatch. You will note also that the property is proposed (with a placeholder address) as you cannot have an active property on a proposed parcel.

Addresses

How about addresses?? Whilst not strictly an entity, we do have addresses in LASSI that are attached to properties. Addresses are defined created and assigned by councils, usually at some stage during the sub division process, usually on Proposed Properties.

Each address can be broken down into a large number of individual components, but LASSI has created an ezi-address, which uses a set of rules to create a common address string based on those components, such as 1/32 BENDIGO STREET RICHMOND 3121.

Addresses do change with things like suburb or street name changes, like ROSEBUD WEST changing to CAPEL SOUND. It is also common for an address to now refer to a different property than it did in the past. For example, When 2 Smith Street was subdivided, it could be subdivided into two new properties with the addresses 2 Smith Street (reused) and 2a Smith Street.

Properties may have more than one address, especially when on a corner, and in these instances, one address is declared the primary address, and any others will be aliases,

Whilst a title does not specifically have an address (addresses are allocated to properties), where this is a one address for that title, it will be added as a Title Address for convenience. 97% of titles can be related to one address, and where there is no address, or more than one address, there is no Title Address shown. 1857/705 is an example where it has multiple addresses from it being part of multiple properties with more than one address, so it does not have a title addresses shown on its title.

All properties appear to have at least one address.

Examples

Example 1: Two addresses, one property

for example 113 MEW LANE BAMAWM 3561 and 50 TWADDLE LANE BAMAWM 3561.

Example 2: Complex Address in one property

One property may have a single-entry point and a single address in Vicmap, but has numerous buildings and dwellings (complexes) within the site, and they are given their own addresses to help emergency services and so forth. Examples of these complex sites commonly include: Caravan parks, Schools, Universities, Shopping centres, Retirement villages, housing estates, Industrial sites, Tourist venues, Sporting precincts, Closed-gate communities and Solar and wind farms. However, LASSI does not hold these complex addresses so we do not need to worry about it.

Example 3: Many properties, one address.

Because properties can be multi-assess, that means many properties can share the same parcel, and therefore can have the same address connected to those properties. This is common in commercial/industrial situations, and makes finding the right property quite hard. For example, Basement, 2 Lonsdale Street Melbourne is shared by 3 properties.

Example 4: Address without Council Property Number

For things like Common Property. There is no actual property at that address that pays rates, but that is the address that the common area is referred to. Sometimes the address does not even include a street number.

Further Reading

For those that want to understand a little more, below is a document which describes how to maintain properties in LASSI. Whilst the maintenance tasks are not important, it does touch on all the peculiarities of properties and parcels as we have them in Victoria.

https://www.land.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/499812/M1_documentation_2023.pdf