Part 16Caveats

Part 16—Caveats 191—Caveats (1) Any settlor of land or beneficiary claiming under a will or settlement, or any person claiming to be interested at law or in equity, whether under an agreement, or under an unregistered instrument, or otherwise howsoever in any land, may lodge a caveat in the Lands Titles Registration Office: (a) Purpose of caveat a caveat may— (i) prohibit absolutely the registration or recording of any instrument dealing with the land; or (ii) provide that the registration or recording of an instrument dealing with the land may only occur subject to the claim of the caveator, and provided that, if any conditions are expressed in the caveat, the instrument complies with those conditions; (ab) Instrument subject to claim of caveator if a caveator lodges a caveat providing that the registration or recording of an instrument dealing with land will be subject to the claim of the caveator, any instrument dealing with that land registered or recorded after the lodgement of the caveat will be taken to be registered or recorded subject to that claim; (ac) Form of caveat a caveat must— (i) be in the appropriate form; and (ii) be executed by the caveator or his or her agent; and (iii) contain an address within South Australia to which notices may be sent or at which proceedings may be served; and (iv) contain information (if any) prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this paragraph; (b) Registrar-General to make memorandum of receipt upon the receipt of a caveat the Registrar-General shall make a memorandum thereon of the date and hour of the receipt thereof, and shall enter a memorandum thereof in the Register Book, and shall forthwith send a notice of such caveat through the post office to the person against whose title such caveat shall have been lodged, directed to his or her address appearing in the Register Book; (c) Not to register or record instruments contrary to caveat so long as a caveat remains in force, the Registrar‑General must not, contrary to the requirements of the caveat, register or record an instrument affecting the land in respect of which the caveat has been lodged; except that despite the receipt of a caveat, the Registrar‑General must, subject to the other provisions of this Act, proceed with and complete the registration or recording of any instrument affecting the land produced for registration or recording before the lodgement of the caveat in the Lands Titles Registration Office; (d) Persons interested may summon caveator the registered proprietor or any other person claiming estate or interest in the land may, by summons, call on any caveator, including the Registrar-General, to attend before the Court to show cause why the caveat should not be removed; and the Court may, after allowing the parties a reasonable opportunity to be heard, make such order as appears just in the circumstances; (if the caveator does not appear in response to the summons, the Court may, if satisfied that the summons was duly served, proceed to hear and determine the application in the caveator's absence); (e) Caveatee may apply to have caveat removed the caveatee may, except when the caveat is lodged by a settlor, or by a beneficiary under a will or settlement, or by the Registrar-General under Part 19 of this Act, make application in writing to the Registrar-General to remove the caveat, and shall in such application give an address in South Australia to which notices or proceedings relating to the caveat may be sent, and the Registrar-General shall thereupon give twenty-one days' notice in writing to the caveator, requiring that the caveat be withdrawn; (f) Mode of removing or discharging caveat the Registrar-General shall, after the lapse of twenty-one days from the posting of such notice to the address mentioned in the caveat, or of such extended time as may be ordered by the Court, remove the caveat from the Register Book by entering therein a memorandum that the same is discharged; (fa) Action to establish validity of claim a caveator may bring an action in the Court to establish the validity of the claim on which the caveat is based; (g) Caveator may apply to Court for order to extend time the Court may, on the caveator's application, extend the period of 21 days until an action under paragraph (fa) is determined or for any other period; (h) May withdraw caveat: But Court may order payment of costs any caveator may, by notice in writing to the Registrar-General, withdraw his or her caveat at any time; but the Court may, notwithstanding such withdrawal, order payment by the caveator to the caveatee or other person interested of any costs incurred by the caveatee prior to the receipt by him or her of notice in writing of the withdrawal of the caveat; (i) Entry to be made an entry shall be made by the Registrar-General in the Register Book of any order made by the Court relating to any caveat, or of the withdrawal, lapse, or removal of any caveat; (j) Caveator, except Registrar-General, liable to make compensation any caveator other than the Registrar-General who shall have lodged or refused or neglected to withdraw any caveat wrongfully and without reasonable cause, shall be liable to make compensation to any person who may have sustained damage thereby, and such compensation may be recovered by action: Provided that, if proceedings shall have been taken in the Court by the caveatee or other person interested, the amount of such compensation may be assessed by the Court acting in the same proceedings; or the Court may direct an action to be brought to ascertain and recover such amount; (k) Not to lodge further caveat without permission it shall not be lawful for any caveator other than the Registrar-General, or for anyone acting on behalf of such caveator, to lodge a further caveat relating to the same matter without the permission of the Court; (l) Court may order costs if caveat by Registrar-General is removed by Court where any caveat lodged by the Registrar-General shall be removed by the Court, such Court may order the costs sustained by the person at whose instance such caveat was removed to be paid out of the estate on behalf of which such caveat was entered. (2) Despite subsection (1), the Registrar‑General may, after a caveat has been lodged in accordance with this section, register or record in respect of the land to which the caveat applies— (a) another caveat or instrument that has the effect of a caveat; or (b) another instrument of a kind prescribed by the regulations, unless the registration or recording of that instrument is specifically prohibited by the lodged caveat. (3) To avoid doubt, a registered proprietor of land may lodge a caveat under this section in respect of land for which he or she is the registered proprietor. (4) In this section— record means make a record in the Register Book.