What a record of title contains
This is section 12 of the Land Transfer Act 2017, as it reads today.
(2) A record of title must comprise—
(a) a unique identifier for the record of title:
(b) a description of the land to which the record of title relates:
(c) a description of the type of estate or interest in the land:
(d) a reference to any instrument or other matter creating the estate or interest or subdividing the land:
(e) a reference to any record of title or any former document of title from which the record of title derives:
(f) the name of the registered owner of the estate or interest:
(g) for each registered or noted instrument affecting the estate or interest,—
(i) a unique identifier; and
(ii) a description of the type of instrument; and
(iii) the date and time of its registration or notation and any other information necessary to determine its priority:
(h) any status affecting the legal capacity of the registered owner of the estate or interest notified to the Registrar under this Act or any other enactment:
(i) any other information—
(i) that must be included under any other enactment; or
(ii) that the Registrar considers necessary to give effect to this Act or any other enactment.
The detail is in the instruments
A title lists each instrument registered against it, such as an easement, a covenant, a mortgage or a caveat, with its number and type. What an instrument allows or requires is in the instrument itself, not on the title page. That is where a right of way’s terms are, for example. Your lawyer reads these.
Getting a copy
Anyone can order a title, and the instruments on it, from LINZ:
(1) The Registrar must, on request and on payment of the prescribed fee or charge,—
(a) provide a person with a copy of an instrument registered or noted in the register or that forms part of the register:
(b) provide a person with a copy of a record of title.
What Lotline reads, and what it doesn’t
Lotline reads LINZ’s open title data for each block: the title number, the type of estate, the estate description (including shares in other lots), the number of owners (a count, not names), and whether LINZ’s register records it as Māori land. It adds the easement and covenant areas drawn on survey plans.
Across New Zealand, 24,038 blocks have a surveyed land covenant area on them, 5,788 reach a road only through a lot shared with other titles, and 15,396 are recorded as Māori land.
Lotline doesn’t show owners’ names, and it doesn’t read the instruments. For those, order the title and its instruments, and ask a lawyer to review them.