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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A Queensland sale now ends on a screen, and the screen comes with its own language. A buyer is told that the workspace is open, that the lodgement case has verified, that the firm's signer is away until Thursday. A seller reads that her lawyer is the responsible subscriber. None of this is slang. Almost every one of these words is a defined term in a rule book, with a meaning that has been settled by the land registrars of every state and territory.
This glossary gathers those meanings in one place. Each entry is drawn from material published by the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council (ARNECC), chiefly its definitions page, version 7.2 of its Model Operating Requirements and version 7 of its Model Participation Rules, or from Titles Queensland's own pages on eConveyancing. The definitions are put in plain words here, so the official text remains the authority. Where the rule books simply point to the national law for a meaning, the entry says so.
Sources: ARNECC definitions page; Titles Queensland eConveyancing page; Model Operating Requirements version 7.2, definition of core hours.
Two spellings, and why the capital letters matter
The first thing a reader notices is that the same word is spelt two ways. ARNECC's documents write "lodgment", "Lodgment Case" and "Electronic Lodgment Network". Titles Queensland writes "lodgement", "eLodgement" and "eConveyancing" on its website. Both refer to the same act: presenting a document to the land registry so that it can be registered. This guide uses the national spelling when it describes a national defined term and the Queensland spelling when it describes a Queensland service.
The second thing is the capital letters. In the national rule books a capitalised word is a defined term, and its meaning is fixed by the definitions clause near the front of each document: clause 2.1 of the Model Operating Requirements and rule 2.1 of the Model Participation Rules. A good number of those definitions do not spell the meaning out. They say only that the term has the meaning given to it in the Electronic Conveyancing National Law. Subscriber, Electronic Lodgment Network, Registry Instrument, Digital Signature, Conveyancing Transaction and Client Authorisation are all handled that way. For several of those, ARNECC's definitions page gives a plain description, and that description is what the entries below rely on.
Related readQueensland without paper title deeds: what proves ownership nowThe system and the people who run it
National Electronic Conveyancing. ARNECC describes this as the legislative and business environment for a national system with three functions: preparing registry instruments and other documents in electronic form, settling property transactions electronically, and lodging the documents with land registries electronically. Titles Queensland's shorter version is that property documents can be digitally prepared, signed, settled and lodged.
Electronic Conveyancing National Law (ECNL). The national application law that makes the system possible. ARNECC's page explains that it was agreed under an intergovernmental agreement between the states and territories. Titles Queensland names the Queensland version, the Electronic Conveyancing National Law (Queensland), as the legislation under which the Registrar of Titles determines the rules for networks and their users.
Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). The agreement between the states and territories that provides the governance for developing and managing the regulatory framework.
ARNECC. The Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council, the body set up by that agreement to manage the regulatory framework. It writes the model rule books and the guidance that goes with them.
Registrar. The state and territory officials responsible for each jurisdiction's land registry function. In Queensland that is the Registrar of Titles.
Land Registry. Under the Model Operating Requirements, the state or territory agency responsible for maintaining the titles register, including a delegate where the task has been delegated. Titles Queensland is the name the public sees; the footer of its website gives the operating company as Queensland Titles Registry Pty Ltd.
Australian Registrars' Business Practices. The operational policies and procedures each registry follows when it registers interests on title, as far as they affect electronic conveyancing. In Queensland the day-to-day practice is set out in the Land Title Practice Manual, which Titles Queensland publishes.
Related readRequisitions at Titles Queensland: when a lodged dealing is sent backThe rule books and how they reach Queensland
The framework has two rule books, and each exists in two layers: a national model and the version a registrar actually determines for a state.
Model Operating Requirements (MOR). A uniform set of requirements developed by ARNECC for the operators of settlement networks. The current published model is version 7.2, dated May 2026 on its cover.
Operating Requirements. The requirements a jurisdiction's registrar determines for operators in that jurisdiction, based on the model.
Model Participation Rules (MPR). A uniform set of rules developed by ARNECC for the users of a network: the law practices, lenders and others that the rules call subscribers. The current published model is version 7, dated January 2024.
Participation Rules. The rules the registrar of a jurisdiction determines for subscribers there. ARNECC's Queensland page lists the Queensland Participation Rules version 7 as effective from 2 April 2024, and explains that the highest version number is the current one from its effective date until it is superseded.
| Document | Written by | Who must comply |
|---|---|---|
| Model Operating Requirements | ARNECC, as a national model | Nobody directly: it is the template |
| Operating Requirements | Each registrar, from the model | Network operators in that state |
| Model Participation Rules | ARNECC, as a national model | Nobody directly: it is the template |
| Participation Rules | Each registrar, from the model | Subscribers in that state |
| Guidance Notes | ARNECC, for all registrars | Advice, not rules |
Source: ARNECC definitions page.
Guidance Notes. Advice published by ARNECC on behalf of all registrars to help operators and subscribers comply. There are two families: the Model Operating Requirements Guidance Notes for operators, and the Model Participation Rules Guidance Notes for subscribers. ARNECC's website lists nine of the latter for version 7, on subjects from client authorisation to system security.
Notice. A notification to subscribers, issued by ARNECC on behalf of all registrars and delivered through the subscriber's own network operator, giving advice on a specific aspect of the framework.
Waiver. An instrument published by a registrar that relieves an operator or a subscriber, or a class of them, from some or all provisions of the rules in that jurisdiction. ARNECC's page ties it to section 27 of the ECNL.
Related readVerification of identity: the check before a Queensland e-settlementCompliance Examination. A procedure carried out under section 33 of the ECNL to find out whether the Operating Requirements or Participation Rules have been complied with and, where relevant, to investigate suspected or alleged misconduct in the use of a network.
Prescribed Requirement. In the Model Participation Rules, any published requirement of the registrar that subscribers have to comply with.
Networks, operators and subscribers
Electronic Lodgment Network (ELN). A network established to create registry instruments and other electronic documents and lodge them electronically with a jurisdiction's land registry. In everyday speech this is "the platform".
Electronic Lodgment Network Operator (ELNO). The legal entity a jurisdiction has authorised to operate such a network there. Titles Queensland's eConveyancing page lists two approved operators offering services in Queensland, PEXA and Sympli.
Subscriber. ARNECC's page describes a subscriber as a legal entity registered to use a network to complete conveyancing transactions electronically, either as a transacting party itself or on behalf of one. A law practice acting for a buyer is a subscriber. So is a lender that acts for itself.
Transacting Party. A person or corporation engaged in a land transaction over land in a Torrens title register, where the transaction will lead to documents being lodged with the land registry. Buyers, sellers and borrowers are transacting parties.
Party. In the Model Participation Rules, each person who is a party to an electronic registry instrument or other electronic document in the workspace for a transaction. The definition expressly leaves out a representative.
Client. A person who has appointed a subscriber as their representative under a client authorisation.
Related readThe client authorisation: the form that lets a lawyer sign for youRepresentative. A subscriber who acts on behalf of a client. The buyer's lawyer and the seller's lawyer are each a representative in the same transaction.
Client Agent. A person authorised to act as the client's agent. The rules add that the term does not cover the subscriber acting only as the client's representative.
Participating Subscriber. For a given transaction, every subscriber involved in it, whether directly because it is itself a party or indirectly because it represents one.
Responsible Subscriber. The subscriber that, once the documents have been lodged, is liable for the lodgment fees and is responsible for resolving any requisitions the registrar issues for the lodgment case. A requisition is the registry's request for something to be corrected or supplied before it will register a document.
Participation Agreement. The agreement between an operator and a subscriber. The rule books leave its meaning to the ECNL, and ARNECC's guidance refers to it as one of the places where an operator's own requirements, such as training, may sit.
The people inside a firm
A subscriber is an organisation. The rules then name the individuals inside it, and the distinctions matter because each role can do different things on the network.
| Role | Who it is | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriber | The registered legal entity | Carries the obligations under the rules |
| User | An individual authorised by the subscriber | May access and use the network for it |
| Signer | A user with signing authority | May digitally sign documents for it |
| Subscriber Administrator | A user with administrative authority | May change who has which rights |
User. An individual who is a principal, officer, employee, agent or contractor of the subscriber and is authorised by it to access and use a network on its behalf. The definition also covers a person appointed as manager of the subscriber's business.
Signer. A user the subscriber has authorised to digitally sign electronic registry instruments and other electronic documents on its behalf. When a file is "waiting on a signer", this is the person meant.
Related readCyber security duties of firms and lenders on a settlement networkSubscriber Administrator. A user the subscriber has authorised to make the changes that rule 7.3.3 of the Model Participation Rules allows, which concern credentials and rights. The rules require at least one for each network a subscriber uses.
Key Holder. An individual who holds and uses keys and digital certificates on behalf of a subscriber, or in their own right where the key holder is also the subscriber.
The workspace and what goes into it
Electronic Workspace. A shared electronic workspace generated by a network. This is the "workspace" of ordinary conversation: the single online file in which the subscribers on every side of a transaction prepare and sign what has to be lodged.
Interoperable Electronic Workspace. An electronic workspace that contains at least one interoperable lodgment case. The Model Operating Requirements include it within the definition of an electronic workspace. Interoperability itself is one of the terms the rule book leaves to the ECNL.
Conveyancing Transaction. Another term defined by the ECNL. In the rule books it is the unit everything else attaches to: a workspace is created for a conveyancing transaction, and subscribers participate in one.
Settlement Transaction. A conveyancing transaction that involves a financial settlement. A transfer with money changing hands is one; a document lodged alone, with no payment between parties, is not.
Registry Instrument. Defined by the ECNL. In practice it is the formal document that changes the register. Titles Queensland's list of instruments that must go through eConveyancing shows the common ones: the transfer, the release of mortgage, the national mortgage form, the caveat and its withdrawal, the transmission by death, and the priority notice with its extension and withdrawal.
Related readSigning a transfer without a pen: how digital signatures bind a firmLodgment Case. One electronic registry instrument or other document, or a set of related ones, that are or will be presented for lodgment at the same time, together with the lodgment instructions. A typical sale produces one case holding a release of the seller's mortgage, the transfer and the buyer's new mortgage. Version 7.2 of the Model Operating Requirements adds that the term may include an interoperable lodgment case.
Lodgment Instructions. A statement in electronic form that sets out the information the registrar requires in order to accept a document for lodgment.
Lodgment Verification. A service that verifies an electronic document will be accepted for lodgment by the registrar or land registry, provided its data stays unchanged. The qualification is the important part: the check holds only for as long as nobody alters the document.
Electronic Workspace Document. A defined set of data, with associated text where needed, assembled from the information collected in a workspace. The Model Operating Requirements give lodgment instructions, electronic registry instruments and information reports as examples.
Outstanding Conveyancing Transaction. A transaction for which a workspace has been created but whose lodgment case has not yet been lodged.
The workspace also draws on the register itself, and three terms describe that flow.
Land Information. Information provided by the land registry, or information used to complete the electronic documents to be lodged there.
Registry Information Supply. A service that supplies data from the titles register or the land registry. It is how a workspace is filled with the current details of the title.
Title Activity Check. For a transaction, the notification of any change to the information in the titles register about the land concerned. It tells the subscribers in a workspace that something has happened on the title since they last looked.
Caveat. The Model Participation Rules define it as a document under the land titles legislation giving notice of a claim to an interest in land, which may have the effect of an injunction stopping the registration of an instrument.
Priority Notice. The rules do not write their own definition. They give a priority or settlement notice the meaning it has in the land titles legislation of the jurisdiction where the land is. In Queensland, Titles Queensland lists the priority notice, its extension and its withdrawal among the instruments that have to be lodged electronically.
Fees, duty and hours
Lodgment Fees. Fees due to a land registry for a document lodged with it by an operator on behalf of the participating subscribers.
Information Fees. Fees for data provided by the land registry through a network.
Duty. For an electronic document, any taxes, levies, imposts, charges and duties connected with it that are payable to the duty authority.
Duty Authority. The state revenue office of the jurisdiction where the land is situated.
Core Hours. In the Model Operating Requirements, the time from 6:00am to 10:00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, or Australian Eastern Daylight Time as applicable, on each business day. That is a span of 16 hours. Business Day is itself a term the rule book leaves to the ECNL.
Authority and identity
Client Authorisation. A prescribed form of authority, provided for in section 10 of the ECNL and set out in Schedule 4 of the Model Participation Rules, that a subscriber obtains when it represents a transacting party. It is the document by which a client lets the firm act and sign for them on the network.
Verification of Identity. The steps taken to verify the identity of a transacting party.
Verification of Identity Standard. The steps set out in Schedule 8 of the Model Participation Rules, which ARNECC's page describes as those deemed reasonable for verifying a transacting party's identity.
Identity Verifier. The person who conducts a verification of identity in accordance with the standard.
Identity Agent. A person appointed in writing by a subscriber, or by a mortgagee that a subscriber represents, to carry out verification of identity as its agent. The definition requires that the subscriber or mortgagee reasonably believes the agent to be reputable, competent and insured in line with the insurance rules.
Subscriber Identity Verification Standard. A different thing altogether: the procedure in Schedule 7 of the Model Operating Requirements that an operator uses to verify the identity of an organisation applying to become a subscriber.
Insurance Rules. The rules in Schedule 6 of the Model Participation Rules, covering the insurance a subscriber has to hold.
Signing and security words
Digital Signature and Digitally Sign. Both are left to the ECNL for their meaning. In the rule books they describe what a signer does to a document in a workspace.
Digital Certificate. An electronic certificate, itself digitally signed by a certification authority, that identifies a key holder, the business entity the key holder represents, or a device or application the business controls, and that ties the key holder to a key pair by stating the public key of that pair.
Certification Authority. A Gatekeeper accredited service provider that issues digital certificates signed with its own private key and provides verification and revocation services for the certificates it issues.
Key Pair. A pair of asymmetric cryptographic keys, one of which decrypts messages encrypted with the other. The Private Key is the one that has to be kept secret; the Public Key is the one that may be made public.
Access Credentials. A user identification and password, and any other details, required for a person to access a network.
Security Item. User access credentials, passphrases, private keys, digital certificates, electronic workspace identifiers and other items specified from time to time.
Compromised. Lost or stolen, or reproduced, modified, disclosed or used without proper authority. The word is applied to security items.
Jeopardised. Put at risk the integrity of the titles register, by fraud or other means. The word is applied to a conveyancing transaction.
Subscriber Systems. The information technology systems, hardware and software, that the subscriber uses.
Suspension Event and Termination Event. Any ground on which a subscriber may be suspended or terminated, as listed in Schedule 7 of the Model Participation Rules.
Words that belong to Queensland
Some of the vocabulary a Queensland reader meets comes from Titles Queensland and the state's own regulation.
The eConveyancing mandate. Titles Queensland's page records that the requirement began on 20 February 2023, was introduced through the Land Title Regulation 2022, and applies to industry professionals and corporate entities lodging the listed instruments over freehold land, unless an exemption applies.
Mandated instruments and available instruments. Titles Queensland separates the two. Available instruments are all those that are capable of being lodged through eConveyancing. Mandated instruments are only those that have to be, exemptions aside. Its questions-and-answers page uses "required instruments" for the same group and notes that priority notices over water allocations are left out.
Exemption Request Form (ERF). The form used when an exemption is claimed so that a mandated instrument can be lodged on paper. Titles Queensland accepts an original or a photocopy, signed by hand or electronically. The exemptions it lists include a party who is an unrepresented individual and not a subscriber, gaps in what the networks can do, and circumstances beyond a lodger's control.
eLodgement. Titles Queensland's own online lodgement service for professionals. Its questions-and-answers page makes a point that is easy to miss: eLodgement is not an electronic lodgment network under the regulation, so using it does not satisfy the mandate.
Titles Electronic Drop Box (TED). A further online channel, which Titles Queensland announced on 30 June 2026 and started on 20 July 2026. Its alert describes two functions: online lodgement of certain single-party dealings by people acting for themselves, and the electronic return of requisitions with the ability to answer them online.
Some everyday settlement words have no official definition
"Workspace" alone is not a defined term; the rule books define "Electronic Workspace". "Financial Settlement Schedule", "Source Account" and "Destination Account" appear in neither the definitions of the Model Operating Requirements version 7.2 nor those of the Model Participation Rules version 7. Their meaning comes from each operator's own documentation, which this guide does not reproduce.
Reading a settlement update with the glossary in hand
Put together, the terms turn an opaque status message into a plain account. A firm that says it has "opened the workspace and invited the other side" has created an electronic workspace for a conveyancing transaction and asked the other representative to join it as a participating subscriber. "The documents have verified" means the lodgment verification service has confirmed that the registry will accept them if their data does not change. "Signed by both sides" means a signer at each subscriber has applied a digital signature using a digital certificate. "We are the responsible subscriber" means that firm will pay the lodgment fees and answer any requisition after lodgment.
The same vocabulary explains who is accountable for what. The operator answers to the registrar under the Operating Requirements. The firm or lender answers to the registrar under the Participation Rules. The client stands behind the client authorisation they gave. The definitions are dry, but they are the reason each participant in a settlement can say exactly where its own task begins and ends.
A capital letter in the rule books is a signpost: the word has one settled meaning, and it is written down.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
