Australian Property Legislation

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Australian Property Legislation varies between each jurisdiction in every State of Australia there is a different scheme of regulating property rights that combines legislation but is also receptive of the common law. Despite differing statutes, the substantive effect in each jurisdiction is quite similar. The reason there is no unified national system for regulating property is the reservation of this power to the states in the constitution. There have been discussions about a co-operative system of regulation to be implemented between the states, conferring jurisdiction on the federal commonwealth in a similar manner done in The Corporations Act 2001.

Property Legislation in all states is grounded upon the Torrens principle of registration of title. This posits that each state have a central register of all land in the state and that the register also show the 'owner' of the land. This system was devised to reduce the amount of fraud relating to land due to falsification of title deeds. The system also provides for registration of other entitlements to land such as a mortgage, by which land is used to secure a loan. Another major principle of this system is 'indefeasibility' of title - where a right has been entered on the register, it cannot be defeated by later rights except in certain circumstances.