New lodging requirements by the State Revenue Office (SRO) mean that purchasers must provide more information
You will recall that Victorian laws have recently changed to only allow 30 days from the date of the transfer of land for any stamp duty to be paid. Any delay to payment of stamp duty may accrue interest, so although compliance with the following changes is simple, a failure to comply could have expensive consequences.
As part of the suite of documents required to transfer real estate from one party to another, several documents are required by Land Victoria and the SRO. The issue is that until duty is paid to the SRO, the transfer of land cannot be lodged at Land Victoria. This means that the purchaser will not become the registered proprietor of a property on the Register until the requirements of both the SRO and Land Victoria have been satisfied. In a Torrens system where registration is critical, and can ultimately determine ownership in the event of a competing claim, it is important that purchasers move swiftly to become registered on title.
Twelve months ago the SRO amended many of its forms to include areas for the purchaser's date of birth to be included, where the purchaser is a natural person. To date, a failure to complete the purchaser's date of birth has not typically resulted in a rejected lodgement.
From 7 November 2012, a failure to complete the dates of birth of all natural person purchasers in one of the accompanying documents to the transfer of land will be fatal to the lodgement. Depending on your transaction, the accompanying documents may be any of the following:
- any completed SRO form as suitable for your transaction
- a copy of the Notice of Acquisition
- a copy of a current driver's licence or other personal identification including the purchaser's date of birth
- a statutory declaration regarding the purchaser's date of birth
- a copy of any loan applications relevant to the transaction, including the purchaser's date of birth.
The SRO has also advised that:
- it will no longer accept undated transfers. A failure to include the date in the transfer of land will result in a rejected lodgement
- even if a transfer is dated, if settlement has not yet occurred, the SRO will only provide a written estimate of duty rather than pre-emptively stamping the transfer with duty.
Purchasers and their representatives should be alert to the above changes and ensure that all documentation is complete before attempting to lodge transfers and associated documents with either the SRO or Land Victoria.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
