What it does
The Land Titles (Unit Titles) Act 1970 (the Act) is the registration and title machinery that underpins the ACT’s strata title system. It does not regulate the day-to-day management of unit schemes (that is the function of the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011) nor the creation and content of units plans (largely dealt with by the Unit Titles Act 2001). Instead, this Act governs what happens at the land titles registry when a units plan is lodged, registered, amended, cancelled or reissued, and when interests such as mortgages, easements, charges and leases affect or are released from units and common property.
The core function is found in Part 2 (sections 6 to 10). A lessee of a parcel may apply to register a units plan (section 6(1)). The plan must be prepared according to registrar‑general approved requirements and endorsed by the territory planning authority under the Unit Titles Act 2001, section 27 (section 6(2)). The registrar‑general must register the plan within three months of that endorsement provided all required documents are lodged: the application, the endorsed plan, written consent of everyone with a registered estate or interest in the parcel lease, a certificate from the commissioner for revenue confirming no outstanding rates, land tax, duty or lease variation charges, and if the proposed owners corporation rules include alternative rules, a document compiling them (section 7(1)). On registration, the registrar‑general cancels the original parcel lease and creates separate leases for each unit (registering each lessee as proprietor) and registers the owners corporation as proprietor of the common property (section 10(1)). Memorials of existing mortgages and easements are carried over onto the new unit and common property folios, preserving their priority (section 10(1)(d)-(e), (2)).
The Act also handles the registration of interests declared by owners corporations after the scheme is up and running. Part 3 (sections 11 to 15) deals with two types of registrable interest: easements declared by the owners corporation under the Unit Titles Act 2001, section 36 (div 3.1), and charges declared under the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011, section 96 to secure unpaid amounts (div 3.2). For easements, the Act adapts the Land Titles Act 1925 provisions on registration and extinguishment, requiring a memorandum of easement, a certificate about the resolution, and evidence of consent of affected owners (sections 11, 12). For charges, the lodgment of a memorandum of charge and a certified copy of the declaration is required (section 13); discharge follows a similar pattern (section 14). Critically, the Act specifies which Land Titles Act provisions apply to these charges , notably sections 92(1) and (3), 92A, 93(1), 101 and 101A , but expressly excludes the power of sale that normally attaches to a mortgage (section 15 and note). This means a registered owners corporation charge secures the debt but does not give the corporation a right to sell the unit.