Mechanically, this Regulation sets detailed, practical rules for how land-related instruments, plans and certain deeds are prepared, lodged, recorded and indexed in New South Wales. It: defines key terms (clause 3); prescribes what must accompany lodged instruments and plans (for example, certificates and administration sheets) (clauses 5, 22); specifies how deposited plans must be drawn and numbered and what information they must show (clauses 10–12); deals with creating or releasing easements and other section 88B interests (clauses 18–20); lists who may be a prescribed witness to a deed (Schedule 4); prescribes fees and how those fees are indexed (Schedule 1; Part 2 of Schedule 1); and identifies a range of prescribed authorities and corporations relevant to easements, covenants and certificates (clauses 27–29; Schedule 3).
It also sets procedures for the General Register of Deeds (how distinctive references are allocated and copies sent for electronic lodgment) (clauses 6, 6A), renewal and vacation of registrations (clauses 7, 35), how long plans and documents are retained (clause 34), and what documents are treated as "identified documents" for certain recording purposes (clause 36). The Regulation includes approved forms for particular applications (Schedule 2).
Who this affects
People and firms lodging instruments or plans for registration or recording with the Registrar-General — including surveyors, solicitors, property developers, owners, conveyancers and public authorities (clauses 5, 22, 31).
The Conveyancing (General) Regulation 2018 is subordinate legislation made under the Conveyancing Act 1919 (the Act). Its primary function is to prescribe the detailed machinery that gives practical effect to the Act’s registration and dealing provisions. It does this across five Parts and five Schedules.
Part 1 contains preliminary matters. Clause 3 supplies 14 defined terms used throughout the Regulation, including “administration sheet”, “deposited plan”, “section 88B instrument”, “strata plan” and “the Act”. Clause 4 states that the Regulation applies in addition to the Real Property Act 1900 regulations and lodgment rules, but prevails to the extent of any inconsistency.
Part 2 governs the General Register of Deeds. Clause 5 prescribes who may sign the certificate required by s 184D(3) of the Act (the lodging party, a party to the instrument, or their solicitor or agent). Clause 6 (as substituted in 2023) sets out how the Registrar-General allocates distinctive references and affixes the seal for instruments lodged by hand or electronically. The new cl 6A requires the Registrar-General to send a copy of any electronically lodged instrument to the lodging party as soon as practicable after registration. Clause 7 prescribes the approved-form application for renewing registration of writs, court orders or legal proceedings under s 186(2). Clause 8 requires notices of resumption not under the Real Property Act 1900 to be in the Form 1 set out in Schedule 2.
Part 3 is the longest and most technical division. It regulates the Register of Plans. Division 1 requires particulars of all deposited plans to be recorded (cl 9), insists that deposited plans must be plans of survey unless the Registrar-General permits otherwise (cl 10), and imposes strict numbering, dimension, address and information-panel rules (cl 11). Clause 12 adds survey-connection, road-width, boundary-establishment and road-name particulars. Clause 13 empowers the Registrar-General to determine standard technical requirements for electronic lodgment. Clause 16 expands the definition of “miscellaneous plan” in s 195(1)(c) of the Act to include sites of easements, profits à prendre, restrictions, positive covenants, boundary adjustments under the , and certain pre-1920 structural divisions. Clause 17 prescribes plans supporting adverse-possession primary applications as “plans of identification”.
Current sections
Direct links to the current provisions in Conveyancing (General) Regulation 2018.
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Official source available
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Prescribed authorities and listed corporations who deal with easements, certificates and land-related obligations (clauses 27–29; Schedule 3).
Anyone who needs certified copies, official searches, plan examinations or other registry services and therefore pays the fees in Schedule 1.
People executing deeds who must use an acceptable witness where applicable (Schedule 4).
Why it matters (official purpose-claims and practical test)
The Regulation is presented as a rules-and-procedure instrument that implements and supplements the Conveyancing Act 1919 ("the Act") and related land laws by prescribing forms, technical standards, fees and administrative practice (see generally Parts 1–5 and Schedules). For example, it provides for electronic lodgment standards to facilitate lodgment of plans and documents electronically (clause 13).
Testing those purpose-claims against practical effects (source-grounded):
Costs and who pays: Fees for registry services are set out in Schedule 1 (e.g. registration in the General Register of Deeds: 1.2618 fee units; plan lodgment fees vary by plan type and number of lots). Fee amounts are converted to dollars by reference to the fee unit and an indexation formula (Part 2, clause 2; Schedule 1). Clause 29 prescribes small fees payable to prescribed authorities for issuing certificates (0.35 or 0.1 fee units). These provisions make clear that users of registry services bear the direct monetary cost (Schedule 1; Part 2).
Compliance burden on private actors: The Regulation requires specific documentary content and formats (e.g. administration sheets with endorsed certificates, survey certificates, subdivision certificates where applicable) and technical plan-drawing requirements (clauses 11–12, 22, 31). Electronic lodgment may require adherence to technical standards determined by the Registrar-General (clause 13). These requirements impose preparation and possibly professional service costs on surveyors, solicitors and lodgers (clauses 11–12, 22, 13, 31).
Bureaucratic discretion and decision points: The Registrar-General has approval and dispensation powers (for example, approving forms and standards, dispensing with a survey certificate, permitting non-plan-of-survey deposited plans, requiring numbering of roads) (clauses 3 (definition of "approved"), 10, 11(2), 13(1), 22(1)(b)(i) note). That discretion concentrates decision-making with the Registrar-General and creates an administrative compliance pathway for lodgers.
Effects on private choice and market activity: By prescribing form, content and fee structures, the Regulation channels how private parties prepare documentation and when they choose to lodge or amend plans (clauses 9–12; Schedule 1). Indexation of the fee unit ties registry service prices to the CPI (Part 2, clause 2), which affects the ongoing cost of registry services for businesses and individuals.
Implementation risks and substitution effects: The Regulation permits electronic lodgment and the Registrar-General to publish technical requirements (clause 13). If the standards are prescriptive or change frequently, lodgers may need software or intermediary services, creating demand for compliance service providers and potential switching costs. The text does not specify procurement or transition support—only that the Registrar-General may publish guidelines (clause 13(3)).
Concentrated benefits and diffuse costs: Several provisions list prescribed authorities and corporations that benefit from streamlined registration of easements, certificates and rights (clauses 27–28; Schedule 3). The direct costs are paid by a broader group of registry users via fees and compliance efforts (Schedule 1; clauses 13, 22, 31).
Who decides, who pays, and what behaviour changes
Who decides: the Registrar-General has central administrative authority to approve forms, set or publish technical requirements, accept or dispense with certificates and register instruments (clauses 3 (definition of approved), 6, 6A, 13, 22, 23). Prescribed authorities and listed corporations are specified for certain land obligations and easements (clauses 27–29; Schedule 3). Courts/registries process applications for vacation or other court-related matters as required (clause 35; clause 7 references the approved form).
Who pays: the person or entity lodging or requesting registry services pays the fees set out in Schedule 1 (e.g. registration, plan lodgment, searches). Prescribed authorities charging certificates may charge the small fees in clause 29. Indexation adjusts these fees over time (Part 2).
Behaviour changes required: lodgers must supply administration sheets and specified certificates, number and draw plans to the stated technical requirements, use approved forms for specific applications (Schedule 2), use prescribed witnesses where relevant (Schedule 4), and pay the applicable indexed fees (clauses 5, 11–12, 18–22, 31; Schedule 1; Part 2).
Trade-offs and opportunity costs (concise)
The Regulation standardises registry inputs and fees, which supports consistent processing but requires compliance with technical and documentary requirements (clauses 11–12, 22, 31, Schedule 1).
Granting the Registrar-General discretion (approvals, dispensations, technical standards) enables administrative flexibility but concentrates decision-making in a single office and may require lodging parties to seek approvals or adapt to changing standards (clauses 10, 13, 22).
Indexing fees to CPI stabilises real revenue for registry services but increases costs to users over time (Part 2, clause 2).
Sources: specific provisions of the Conveyancing (General) Regulation 2018 cited throughout (for example, clauses 3, 5–13, 18–22, 27–31, 34–37; Schedule 1; Schedules 2–4; Part 2 of Schedule 1).
Community Land Development Act 2021
Division 2 deals with easements and interests. Clause 18 requires a legible statement of intention on the administration sheet when a plan is to create an easement, profit à prendre, restriction or positive covenant under s 88B, prohibits inclusion of the full terms or benefited/burdened lots on that sheet, and mandates a separate approved-form s 88B instrument. Height or depth limitations must be related to Australian Height Datum. Clause 19 (substituted 2025) mirrors these formalities for releases. Clause 20 permits “proposed” designations on plans for interests created by separate instruments, making clear that such notation does not engage s 88B. Clause 21 requires a statement of intention on the administration sheet for road dedications or reserve creations.
Division 3 regulates administration sheets and s 88B instruments. Clause 22 lists mandatory content: repetition of plan heading and surveyor reference, survey certificate (unless dispensed with under s 195C(1)(c)), subdivision certificate (with special rules for lease-purpose subdivisions in caravan parks, manufactured home estates or forestry), other Registrar-General-required certificates, and, for compiled plans, a statement of source information. The administration sheet itself is registered in the register of plans. Clause 23 provides that an accompanying s 88B instrument is registered in the same register if accepted.
Division 4 adds rules for Torrens-title land. Clause 25 requires residue land to be shown to scale and numbered as a separate parcel when only part of a folio is subdivided, consolidated or acquired; the Registrar-General may dispense with this for Transport for NSW land, public roads, railways, irrigation channels or where compliance would be unduly onerous. Clause 26 requires full scaled depiction and separate numbering of common property when its external boundaries are altered.
Part 4 prescribes authorities for the imposition of restrictions or public positive covenants. Clause 27 lists 14 bodies (including Australian Gas Networks (NSW) Pty Ltd, energy services corporations, Hunter Water Corporation, Water NSW, Sydney Water, Landcom and others) for the purposes of s 88D(1)(c). Clause 28 lists a similar but not identical set for s 88E(1)(c) regulation of land not held by the authority. Clause 29 sets the fee for a s 88G certificate at 0.35 fee units (if land inspected) or 0.1 fee units otherwise.
Part 5 contains miscellaneous provisions. Clause 30 prescribes the notation required on plans of subdivision for lease purposes in caravan parks, manufactured home estates or forestry so that they are “marked” for the purposes of ss 23H and 23J of the Act. Clause 31 imposes a two-year currency rule for survey certificates; after that period a certificate of currency must attest that boundaries, marks, occupations and improvements remain unchanged or have been updated in accordance with the Surveying and Spatial Information Act 2002. Clause 32 requires a duplicate approved-form notice when documents are deposited under s 64 to comply with a covenant to produce. Clause 34 prescribes a seven-year retention period for plans and documents under s 196AB(2)(c). Clause 35 prescribes Form 2 for applications to vacate registrations. Clause 36 lists seven classes of “identified documents” (including s 88B instruments, building management statements, strata by-laws, development contracts and community management statements) that may be lodged electronically or in other approved ways under s 203A(2). Clause 37 contains a savings provision continuing the effect of acts done under the repealed 2013 Regulation.
Schedule 1 sets fees in fee units (exclusive of GST). The 37 items cover registration, digital images, official searches, name searches, plan lodgments (with multipliers for extra lots, management statements, s 88B instruments, building management statements and consolidations), requisitions, certificates of ownership, deposits under s 64, and marginal notes. Part 2 of the Schedule contains the inflation-adjustment mechanism: a fee unit was $102.07 in 2018/19 and is recalculated annually by reference to the Sydney CPI (All Groups) March quarter, with a floor preventing reduction below the previous year’s amount. Editorial notes show the unit rising to $126.59 for 2025–26. Copyright fees for plan images are adjusted under a separate Copyright Tribunal formula.
Schedule 2 supplies the two prescribed forms: Form 1 (notice of resumption) and Form 2 (application for vacation of registration).
Schedule 3 lists prescribed authorities for easements in gross under s 88A(1)(c). It includes classes (energy services corporations, irrigation corporations, pipeline licensees) and 37 named corporations, many added or amended between 2018 and 2025.
Schedule 4 prescribes witnesses for deeds executed in Australia/external territories or foreign countries. The lists include legal practitioners, justices of the peace, medical practitioners, notaries, police officers, mayors and others.
Taken together, the Regulation translates the broad powers in the Act into precise, enforceable steps that every practitioner must follow if a dealing is to be accepted for registration.
Who it affects
The Regulation’s reach is wide but targeted. Surveyors must comply with cll 10–12 and 22 when preparing deposited plans and survey certificates. Conveyancers and solicitors sign certificates (cl 5), prepare s 88B instruments (cl 18), and advise clients on the form and content of administration sheets. Lodging parties (frequently solicitors or licensed conveyancers) are responsible for ensuring statements of intention appear on administration sheets and that all required certificates are endorsed.
Developers and landowners creating or releasing easements, restrictions or positive covenants under s 88B are directly affected; their plans will be rejected unless cll 18 and 19 are observed. Local councils, water authorities, electricity distributors and transport agencies appear both as prescribed authorities (cll 27, 28 and Schedule 3) entitled to impose restrictions or easements in gross, and as recipients of notices or certificates.
The Registrar-General is both regulator and administrator: the Regulation repeatedly grants the Registrar-General discretion to approve forms, dispense with certificates or residue diagrams, determine technical requirements for electronic lodgment, and accept or reject instruments. Land registry staff apply the fee schedule daily. Owners corporations under the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 and community, precinct and neighbourhood associations under the Community Land Development Act 2021 must navigate the additional requirements for management statements and development contracts (cl 36 and Schedule 1 items 11 and 14).
Ultimately any person dealing with land in New South Wales—whether buying a suburban lot, subdividing a rural holding, granting a pipeline easement, or registering a resumption—is indirectly affected because their title and its encumbrances depend on compliance with these rules.
Key duties and rights
Duties are predominantly procedural. A surveyor must ensure every deposited plan is a plan of survey (cl 10), numbers parcels consecutively with no more than four numerals (cl 11(1)), shows complete dimensions and areas (cl 11(4)), and includes all required information-panel data (cl 11(6)). When an easement is to be created under s 88B, the lodging party must print a statement of intention on the administration sheet but must not include the full terms or the benefited and burdened lots on that sheet (cl 18(1)–(2)); a separate s 88B instrument is mandatory.
The Registrar-General’s rights include the power to determine standard technical requirements for electronic lodgment (cl 13), to dispense with survey certificates (cl 22(1)(b)(i)) or residue diagrams (cl 25(4)), and to require road-name evidence when a plan differs from the cadastral record (cl 12(3)). The Registrar-General also sets the approved forms that appear throughout the Regulation.
Rights of applicants are largely rights to procedural certainty: if the prescribed form is used, the correct certificates endorsed, and the fee paid, the instrument must be accepted for registration (subject to the Registrar-General’s satisfaction as to substantive compliance). Clause 6A gives the person who lodged an electronic instrument a right to receive a copy promptly after registration. Owners of land subject to s 88D or s 88E restrictions have the right to obtain a s 88G certificate on payment of the prescribed fee (cl 29).
Witnessing rights are set out in Schedule 4: deeds signed in Australia may be witnessed by any of the 25 listed classes of person; deeds signed overseas have a shorter but overlapping list.
Penalties and enforcement
The Regulation itself contains no offence-creating provisions or direct penalties. Enforcement occurs indirectly. Non-compliant plans or instruments are simply rejected by the Registrar-General and returned with a requisition (Schedule 1 item 29 imposes a fee of 0.9258 fee units for each such requisition). Repeated failure to meet technical standards can result in the plan being withdrawn or its registration refused, exposing the client to delay, additional survey costs, or loss of a development approval deadline.
Breach of the underlying Conveyancing Act 1919 provisions that the Regulation supports can attract civil remedies (e.g. compensation for breach of a positive covenant) or, in extreme cases involving fraud on the register, criminal sanctions under the Real Property Act 1900. The fee for a requisition operates as a financial disincentive. The seven-year retention rule in cl 34 is enforced by the Registrar-General’s administrative practice; after that period documents may be destroyed, removing the ability to produce them in court.
How it interacts with other laws
The Regulation is expressly parasitic on the Conveyancing Act 1919. Almost every operative clause is expressed to be “for the purposes of” a particular section of that Act. It also sits beneath the Real Property Act 1900: cl 4 provides that it prevails over any inconsistent provision in the regulations or lodgment rules made under that Act. References to “the Register” and “folio of the Register” are to the Torrens register kept under the 1900 Act.
Heavy cross-referencing occurs with the Surveying and Spatial Information Act 2002 and its regulations (definitions of “plan of survey”, “survey certificate”, “permanent survey mark”, “reference mark”). The Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 supplies the meaning of “strata plan”, “building alteration plan” and “common property”. The Community Land Development Act 2021 is now woven throughout: cl 16(c) treats minor boundary adjustments of development lots and association property as miscellaneous plans; cl 36(f)–(g) lists development contracts and management statements as identified documents; and Schedule 1 contains specific higher fees for community, precinct and neighbourhood plans.
The Roads Act 1993 and Local Government Act 1993 are engaged when plans dedicate public roads or create reserves (cl 21). The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 supplies the development-consent condition that must be noted on lease-purpose subdivision plans (cl 30). The Energy Services Corporations Act 1995, Water Management Act 2000, Electricity Network Assets (Authorised Transactions) Act 2015 and State Owned Corporations Act 1989 define classes of prescribed authorities appearing in cll 27–28 and Schedule 3.
The Interpretation Act 1987 applies to the Regulation by virtue of the note to cl 3(1). The Subordinate Legislation Act 1989 repealed the predecessor 2013 Regulation on 1 September 2018 (cl 2 note).
Recent changes and why
The Regulation has been amended on at least ten occasions between 2018 and 2025. The most significant are:
2021 amendments (No 6 and No 10) updated cross-references to the Community Land Development Act 2021 (replacing the repealed Community Land Development Act 1989), inserted new fees for community plans, and adjusted the definition of miscellaneous plans to include boundary adjustment plans.
2023 (564) substituted cl 6 to deal with electronic lodgment seals, inserted cl 6A (obligation to send copies), repealed cll 14 and 15 (which had dealt with certain plan notations now covered by lodgment rules), amended the list of prescribed authorities in cl 28 by repealing one entity, updated cl 31 by removing a spent subclause, and made further changes to Schedule 3.
2025 No 50 amended cl 3 (updated survey-certificate definition), cl 16 (further refinement of miscellaneous-plan categories), and substituted cl 19 to simplify the statement-of-intention requirement for releases.
These changes were driven by three policy imperatives: (1) modernisation of titling practices to accommodate fully electronic lodgment and reduce paper handling; (2) alignment with major legislative reforms such as the replacement community-land-development regime and new utility structures; and (3) maintenance of the real-value of fees through annual CPI indexing. The addition of new prescribed authorities (e.g. Amplitel Pty Ltd, Lumea Pty Limited, Transport Asset Holding Entity) reflects the commercialisation and restructuring of former government utilities and the need to give them statutory power to create easements in gross without dominant tenements.
Court challenges and controversies
The source text contains no reported court challenges. Because the Regulation is purely procedural, disputes tend to surface in administrative law proceedings (judicial review of a Registrar-General’s refusal to register) or in civil actions where a party alleges that an easement or covenant is invalid for want of compliance with cl 18 or cl 19. No specific cases are recited in the Regulation itself, and the instruction prohibits invention of doctrine. The controversies that do arise are therefore practical rather than constitutional: surveyors complain that the residue-diagram requirement in cl 25 can be disproportionately expensive for linear acquisitions; practitioners debate the exact content that may appear on an administration sheet without breaching cl 18(2); and there is perennial argument about when the Registrar-General’s dispensation power under cl 25(4)(b) should be exercised. These remain matters of negotiation with the Registrar-General rather than litigated precedent.
Gotchas
Most practitioners miss that a “statement of intention” on the administration sheet under cl 18(1) must not incorporate the terms of the easement or identify the benefited and burdened lots; those details belong exclusively in the separate s 88B instrument. Lodging the terms on the sheet itself is a common rejection trigger.
The two-year survey-currency rule in cl 31 is unforgiving. Even a one-day overrun requires a full certificate of currency that must address boundaries, permanent survey marks, reference marks and occupations. The Registrar-General’s limited discretion to accept a lesser certificate is rarely granted and must be negotiated in advance.
Schedule 1 item 12 charges 1.2618 fee units “for each easement, restriction on the use of land, positive covenant or profit à prendre to be created, irrespective of the number of lots burdened or benefited”. A single s 88B instrument creating three easements and two restrictions therefore attracts five separate fees. The same multiplier applies to releases under item 13.
Clause 20’s “proposed” notation is not an indication of intention under s 88B; many solicitors inadvertently include a statement of intention on the administration sheet and thereby convert the interest into a s 88B easement with different enforceability characteristics.
The inflation-adjustment formula in Schedule 1 Part 2 contains a floor: if CPI falls, the fee unit stays at the previous year’s amount. This ratchet effect is easily overlooked when budgeting long-term projects.
Finally, cl 36’s list of “identified documents” that may be lodged electronically is exhaustive. A building management statement is included, but only if lodged with a plan (item 14 of Schedule 1) or separately (item 28); the fee differs.
How to comply
Compliance begins with a checklist. For any deposited plan:
Confirm it is a plan of survey or obtain Registrar-General’s permission (cl 10).
Number parcels consecutively with ≤4 numerals; do not use “section” or “block” (cl 11).
Show full dimensions, areas, road names, widths, connections and boundary-establishment information (cll 11–12).
Complete every information-panel field required by the Registrar-General (cl 11(6)).
Prepare an administration sheet repeating the plan heading, containing the survey certificate (or dispensation request), subdivision certificate if required, and source-of-information statement for compiled plans (cl 22).
If creating or releasing interests under s 88B, print only the bare statement of intention on the administration sheet and lodge a separate approved-form instrument (cll 18–19).
Calculate and pay the exact fee, remembering per-lot multipliers, s 88B per-interest fees, and any pre-examination fees (Schedule 1).
If the survey is more than two years old, attach a certificate of currency addressing all four matters in cl 31(2) or explain why it was impracticable to do so.
For electronic lodgments, ensure the file meets the standard technical requirements published on the Registrar-General’s website (cl 13).
Retain a copy of every lodged document for at least seven years (cl 34).
Practitioners should maintain a current copy of the Registrar-General’s Guidelines (published on the internet under cl 13(3)) and the approved forms. When acting for a prescribed authority listed in cl 27 or Schedule 3, confirm that the restriction or easement in gross falls within the statutory power before lodging. For deeds, select a witness from the Schedule 4 list appropriate to the place of execution.
A prudent compliance protocol includes an internal peer review of every administration sheet and s 88B instrument against the exact wording of cll 18, 19 and 22, followed by a fee calculation cross-checked against the latest CPI-adjusted unit published on the NSW legislation website. Only then should the plan be lodged. Following this disciplined approach minimises requisitions, avoids unnecessary expenditure on re-surveys or fresh certificates, and ensures the dealing is registered on first presentation.