When a new parcel of land is created or an existing parcel of land is used for a specific purpose (such as the granting of a lease or easement), a plan is prepared, lodged and registered with NSW Land Registry Services (NSW LRS). The registered plan defines land boundaries on the day of registration and creates the legal identity of the land or affecting interest.
How a plan is registered
The process for plan lodgment and registration is as follows:
- Plan preparation: The majority of plans lodged with NSW LRS, including strata plans, must be prepared by a registered surveyor.
- Lodgment: The plan is lodged with NSW LRS via the online portal or the retail office.
- Examination: A NSW LRS plan examiner reviews the plan to ensure that existing interests are preserved and that the plan has been prepared in line with relevant legislation, regulations and lodgment rules. This includes ensuring that the legal parcel boundaries in the plan are re-established and correspond to the boundaries marked on the ground and existing interests are preserved from one generation of title to the next.
- Requisition: If the plan contains an error or is missing information, the plan is requisitioned, which involves correspondence being sent to the Lodging Party and/or Surveyor until the plan or associated document is corrected. Find out more about plan requisitions here.
- Electronic Relodgment: If the Lodging Party and/or Surveyor have made changes to the plan and/or associated documents a new version is electronically relodged through the ePlan Portal. The new version is then reviewed by the Examiner to determine if it all errors or missing information have been resolved and the plan can be registered.
Registration: If all requirements are met, the plan is registered and an information notice is issued to the lodging agent and the surveyor (where applicable). Newly registered plans and associated folios are charted on the official digital cadastral map, showing all legal and other approved boundaries applying to land in NSW. The NSW land register is updated to reflect any new information generating a new edition of the folio(s).
What is the status of my lodged plan?
You can use the ‘Document Inquiry’ search on the NSW LRS online portal to check the status of lodged documents and plans, free of charge.
You can also check the status of NSW LRS timeframes to see which lodged plans we are currently examining. This is updated daily.
More information
NSW LRS has a range of guides, checklists and samples to assist surveyors with the plan preparation, lodgment and registration process. Click here to access these resources.
The Registrar General's Guidelines set out information needed by surveyors, solicitors and others in the preparation of deposited plans and associated instruments. It also has guidelines relevant to strata scheme and community scheme plans, which have their own specific requirements.