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Land Titles Act 1925
86Surrender of lease
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86 Surrender of lease
(1) Where any registered lease is intended to be surrendered and the
surrender is effected otherwise than through the operation of a
surrender in law or than under any law for the time being in force
relating to insolvent or bankrupt estates, there may be endorsed upon
the lease or on the counterpart thereof the word ‘Surrendered’ with
the date of the surrender or a memorandum of surrender may be
executed.
(2) The endorsement or memorandum of surrender shall be signed by the
lessee and by the lessor as evidence of the acceptance of the
surrender, and shall be attested by a witness.
(3) Where the Commonwealth is the lessor, the endorsement or
memorandum of surrender may be signed—
(a) in the case of national land—by the Commonwealth Minister for
the time being administering the National Land Ordinance
1989; and
(b) in the case of Territory land—by the Minister for the time being
administering the Acts relating to the leasing of Crown land in
the ACT;
and that signature shall constitute and be evidence of the acceptance
by the Commonwealth of the surrender.
(4) If an owners corporation surrenders the lease on behalf of a lessee
under the Unit Titles Act 2001, section 167A, the endorsement or
memorandum of surrender must be—
(a) signed by the owners corporation; and
(b) accompanied by evidence of the resolution of the owners
corporation mentioned in the Unit Titles Act 2001,
section 167A (2) (c).
(5) Subject to this section, the registrar-general shall, upon production to
him or her of—
(a) the lease or counterpart endorsed in accordance with this
section; or
(b) a memorandum of surrender executed in accordance with this
section;
enter in the register a memorial recording the date of the surrender.
(6) Upon the making of the entry required by subsection (5) the interest
of the lessee in the land shall revest in the lessor or in the person in
whom, having regard to intervening circumstances (if any), the land
would have vested if the lease had not been executed.
(7) No lease subject to a registered mortgage or encumbrance shall be
surrendered without the consent of the mortgagee or encumbrancee.
(8) Where a lease subject to a registered mortgage is intended to be
surrendered with a view to the acceptance of a new lease in its place,
the registrar-general shall not enter in the register a memorial of the
surrender unless he or she is satisfied, on reasonable grounds—
(a) that the mortgage has been discharged; or
(b) that—
(i) the mortgagee consents to the continuation of the mortgage
under section 91B; and
(ii) the priority of the mortgage relative to each other mortgage
(if any) continuing in force under section 91B, can be
clearly defined; and
(iii) the land comprised in the new lease includes all or part of
the land comprised in the lease to be surrendered.
(9) Where a lease out of which any registered sublease is derived is
intended to be surrendered with a view to the acceptance of a new
lease in place thereof, the endorsement to be made upon the lease or
the counterpart thereof shall be the words ‘Surrendered with a view
to the acceptance of a new lease’, with the date of the surrender or, if
a memorandum of surrender is executed, the memorandum shall
include the words ‘This surrender is with a view to the acceptance of
a new lease’.
(10) Upon production to him or her of the endorsement or memorandum
of surrender, the registrar-general shall not make any entry in the
register until there is presented for registration a new lease from the
same lessor to the same lessee of the whole or part of the land
comprised in the surrendered lease which new lease is, subject to
registration of the surrender of the surrendered lease, in every respect
entitled to registration.
(11) Immediately after making an entry in the register of the surrender of
a lease pursuant to an endorsement or memorandum of surrender
made in accordance with subsection (9), the registrar-general shall
register the new lease and shall endorse thereon a memorial of every
sublease which is continued in force by section 91A, and shall include
in the memorial the words ‘Continued in force by the Land Titles
Act 1925, section 91A’, or words to the like effect.
(12) For subsection (11), a reference in a memorial to section 90A is taken
to be a reference to section 91A.