(1) Any beneficiary or
other person claiming any estate or interest in land under the operation of
this Act or in any lease mortgage or charge under any unregistered instrument
document or writing or under any equitable mortgage or charge by deposit
without writing or by devolution in law or otherwise may lodge a caveat with
the Registrar in an approved form forbidding the registration of any person as
transferee or proprietor of and of any instrument affecting such estate or
interest either absolutely or until after notice of the intended registration
or dealing be given to the caveator or unless such instrument be expressed to
be subject to the claim of the caveator as may be required in such caveat.
(1A) Every such caveat
shall state the name and address of the person by whom or on whose behalf the
same is lodged and (except in case of a caveat lodged by order of the Supreme
Court or by the Registrar pursuant to the direction of the Commissioner as
hereinafter provided) shall be signed by the caveator or by his agent.
(1B) The person
lodging such caveat shall if required by the Registrar support the same by
statutory declaration stating the nature of the estate or interest claimed and
the title thereto and may withdraw any such caveat.
(1C) If such
declaration when required by the Registrar be not lodged with him within 7
days from the date of such requisition the caveat shall be absolutely null and
void.
(1D) A caveat under
this section cannot be lodged unless one of the following is specified in it
for the purposes of the service of notices in relation to the caveat —
(a) an
address in Australia;
[(b) deleted]
(c) a
way of receiving notices electronically (for example, an email address) that
is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this paragraph.
(1E) A number for a
facsimile machine in Australia may be used for the purposes referred to in
subsection (1D) if —
(a) a
caveat under this section is lodged before the day on which the Transfer of
Land Amendment Act 2022 section 31 comes into operation; and
(b) that
number is specified in the caveat.
(2) A person claiming
an interest in a proposed carbon right, carbon covenant or plantation interest
may, before the relevant carbon right form, carbon covenant form or tree
plantation agreement is registered, lodge a caveat under subsection (1) as if
the person were claiming an interest in land.
[Section 137 amended: 60 Vict. No. 22 s. 4; No. 17
of 1950 s. 38; No. 81 of 1996 s. 83 and 146(1); No. 56 of 2003 s. 17; No. 19
of 2010 s. 51; No. 2 of 2014 s. 76; No. 21 of 2022 s. 31.]