New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CONVEYANCING ACT 1919 - SECT 164

164 Restriction on constructive notice

(1) A purchaser shall not be prejudicially affected by notice of any instrument, fact, or thing, unless--

(a) it is within the purchaser's own knowledge, or would have come to the purchaser's knowledge, if such searches as to instruments registered or deposited under any Act of Parliament, inquiries, and inspections had been made as ought reasonably to have been made by the purchaser, or

(b) in the same transaction with respect to which a question of notice to the purchaser arises, it has come to the knowledge of the purchaser's counsel as such, or of the purchaser's solicitor or other agent as such, or would have to come to the knowledge of the purchaser's solicitor or other agent as such, if such searches, inquiries, and inspections had been made as ought reasonably to have been made by the solicitor or other agent.

(1A) Omission to search in any register or list kept by, or filed with, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, whether within New South Wales or elsewhere, shall not of itself affect a purchaser of land with notice of any mortgage or charge.

(2) This section shall not exempt a purchaser from any liability under or any obligation to perform or observe any covenant, condition, provision, or restriction contained in any instrument under which the purchaser's title is derived, mediately or immediately, and such liability or obligation may be enforced in the same manner and to the same extent as if this section had not been enacted.

(3) A purchaser shall not by reason of anything in this section be affected by notice in any case where the purchaser would not have been so affected if this section had not been enacted.

(4) This section applies to purchases made either before or after the commencement of this Act, save that where an action is pending at the commencement of this Act the rights of the parties shall not be affected by this section.