Queensland Consolidated Acts

PROPERTY LAW ACT 1974 - SECT 76

76 Deposit of title deed and conveyance

(1) A purchaser who is not in default under an instalment contract may at any time after the contract has been entered into direct the vendor at the cost of the purchaser to deposit with a prescribed authority—

(a) the title deed or deeds relating to the land the subject of the contract; and

(b) a duly executed conveyance or instrument of transfer of the land in favour of the purchaser, which shall be deemed to be delivered by the vendor in escrow pending discharge of the contract by performance or otherwise.

(2) A vendor who fails to comply with a direction given under subsection (1) shall be deemed to have broken a condition of the contract, and the purchaser shall be entitled to all civil remedies accordingly.

(3) The title deed or deeds and the conveyance or instrument of transfer referred to in subsection (1) shall be held in trust by the prescribed authority who shall not, except for the purpose of safekeeping, deliver the same to any person (other than another prescribed authority, to be held by the person under this section) until—

(a) the time for performance of the contract arrives; or

(b) the contract is discharged by performance or otherwise; or

(c) the court otherwise orders on the application of the prescribed authority or of the vendor or the purchaser or some interested person.

(4) In this section—

"prescribed authority" means any of the following—

(a) any person, firm or corporation who at the commencement of this Act is a prescribed authority for the purposes of the Contracts of Sale of Land Act 1933 , section 5 (i) ;

(b) any financial institution carrying on business in the State;

(c) a trustee corporation;

(d) a solicitor or conveyancer or firm of solicitors or conveyancers, other than a solicitor, conveyancer or firm whom the Council of the Queensland Law Society Incorporated has resolved should not be a prescribed authority;

but does not include a person to whom paragraph (a) applies where the Minister’s approval of that person to be a prescribed authority has been withdrawn, which the Minister is authorised to do.

(5) Nothing in this section applies to an instalment contract where at the time such contract is made the land is subject to an existing mortgage.