Priority notices: how a Queensland buyer's place on the title is held

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Kooky

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Somewhere in the bill a Queensland buyer receives from their solicitor or conveyancer there is a small registry fee for a priority notice. Few buyers ask what it is. It is the least discussed document in a sale and one of the more useful, because it protects the buyer during the only period in which they have paid, or are about to pay, for a property that the register still records as someone else's.

This guide explains that period and the notice that covers it. It sets out what a priority notice is under Queensland law, who can lodge one, what it prevents the registry from registering and what it does not, how long it runs, when in a sale it is lodged, how it can end early, and how it differs from a caveat. The details come from the Land Title Practice Manual, the working rulebook Titles Queensland publishes for people who prepare and lodge documents, in the version updated on 4 September 2026. It is a description of the mechanism, not advice on a particular transaction.

Titles Queensland, Land Title Practice Manual, Part 23, under Part 7A of the Land Title Act 1994.

The gap a buyer is exposed to

Queensland's land register records interests in the order in which the documents creating them reach the registry. A buyer becomes the legal owner when the transfer is registered, as the Queensland Law Handbook puts it, and not at the moment the money is paid.

That leaves a stretch of time in which things can go wrong on paper. The buyer's solicitor searches the title before settlement to confirm that it shows what the contract promised: the seller as owner, the seller's mortgage and nothing unexpected. Settlement follows, and the transfer is lodged. Registration follows that, usually within days.

Between the search and the registration, another document affecting the same property could arrive at the registry first. It might be a further mortgage the seller has granted, or a lease, or some other dealing. If it were lodged ahead of the buyer's transfer it would be dealt with ahead of it. The buyer, having paid the full price, could find the property carrying an interest nobody mentioned.

In an honest sale this does not happen, and electronic settlement has shortened the gap, since the transfer is now lodged in the same sequence that moves the money. The risk that remains lies mostly before settlement day, between the last search and the booked time. The priority notice exists to close it.

What a priority notice is

The practice manual defines the notice by its function. Under Part 7A of the Land Title Act 1994, a priority notice reserves the priority of instruments that are to be lodged and that affect a lot or an interest in a lot.

It is an announcement to the registry. It says that certain named documents are coming, and asks that their place be kept. While the notice is current, the registrar will not register most other instruments affecting the same interest. When the named documents arrive, they are registered as though nothing else had been waiting.

Three features follow from that definition. A priority notice creates no interest in the land; it protects the order of registration, nothing more. It is temporary by design. And it is tied to particular instruments, which must be listed in the notice.

The Queensland Law Handbook describes the effect in practical terms: once deposited, the notice prevents the registration of most instruments, a mortgage or a lease for example, that affect the land until the notice lapses or is withdrawn.

Who can lodge one, and what it must say

Not everyone with a concern about a property can use a priority notice. The practice manual restricts it to an applicant, defined as a person who is or will be a party to an instrument that is to be lodged. A buyer under a contract qualifies, because the buyer will be a party to the transfer. So does an incoming lender, as a party to the mortgage.

The notice is made on the approved form. According to the manual it must identify the applicant by name, be signed by or for the applicant, describe the lots affected, list each instrument the notice is to protect, and state the order in which those instruments will be lodged.

The order matters because a sale usually involves more than one. The manual says the most common use of a priority notice is to reserve priority for a transfer and a mortgage together. One notice, lodged by the buyer's solicitor, names the transfer to the buyer followed by the mortgage to the buyer's lender. It protects both, and the lender takes the benefit of it without lodging its own.

What it stops, and what gets through

A priority notice is a filter, not a wall. The manual lists the instruments the registrar may still register while one is current.

Two of these deserve a second look.

The third row is the reason a priority notice does not replace the final title search. A notice cannot displace something that reached the registry before it did. The Queensland Law Handbook makes the point that searches before settlement remain essential because priority notices do not restrict the registration of instruments already lodged. The notice protects against what comes after it, and the search reveals what came before.

The fifth row marks the boundary between two different tools. A caveat can be registered despite a priority notice. The notice keeps competing dealings from jumping the queue, but it does not silence someone who says they have a claim on the property.

The law firm JHK Legal, in an explanation of priority notices published on 28 February 2025, adds that court orders affecting ownership and statutory charges, of which land tax is its example, also sit outside a notice's protection.

How long it lasts

The manual gives the periods precisely. A priority notice is current for 60 days from the day it is deposited. It may be extended once, by 30 days, on a separate extension form signed by or for the applicant. That makes 90 days the most a single notice can cover. The Queensland Law Handbook states the same limits from the other direction: effective for a maximum of 90 days, or 60 if no extension is requested within that period.

In calendar terms, a notice deposited at the start of October would run to about the end of November, and with its one extension to about the end of December. How the first and last days are counted is a detail for the practitioner lodging it, which is one reason notices are not left to run close to their limit.

It can end sooner in the ordinary course. The manual says a notice lapses when all the instruments it names have been registered in the stated order. In a sale that settles on time, this is how nearly every priority notice ends: it does its job for a week or two and then disappears from the title along with the seller's name.

The fixed period shapes when the notice is lodged. A notice deposited the day a contract is signed, on a sale with a 90-day settlement, would run out before settlement even with its extension. The Queensland Law Handbook's guidance is that buyers should deposit the notice close to settlement to get the most protection from it. Close to settlement means after the conditions of the contract are satisfied and the date is reasonably certain, and before the final search and the release of funds.

Lodged electronically, like the rest of the sale

Priority notices are part of the electronic system. Titles Queensland's guidance on the eConveyancing mandate lists three related instruments among those that industry professionals have had to lodge through an electronic lodgment network since 20 February 2023: the priority notice itself, the request to extend one and the request to withdraw one. The registry's short codes for them are PNN, PNE and PNW.

The national rules treat the notice a little differently from the transfer it protects. Guidance from the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council on client authorisations says the formal authorisation a client signs for an electronic transaction is optional for caveats and priority notices, though the practitioner must still take reasonable steps to verify the client's identity. In a purchase the point is academic, since the buyer signs an authorisation for the transfer in any case.

The mandate is addressed to professionals. A person handling their own purchase without a solicitor or conveyancer is outside it, and a Titles Queensland alert of 7 September 2026 says that lodgements which are not made electronically must now be sent by post, public access to the Brisbane office having ended that day.

A lodgement fee applies. The practice manual says fees are reviewed annually and refers lodgers to the registry's fee calculator for the current amount. Registry fees change on 1 July each year. The fee appears in the buyer's account as a disbursement, alongside the fees for registering the transfer and the mortgage.

Ending a notice early

Three routes exist besides lapse.

The applicant can withdraw the notice, on a withdrawal form signed by or for the applicant. This is what happens when a sale falls through after a notice has been lodged. A seller whose contract has ended will want the title clear before signing with anyone else, and the buyer's solicitor withdraws the notice as part of closing the file.

The Supreme Court can order a notice removed. The manual cites section 144 of the Land Title Act for this power. It is the remedy for an owner faced with a notice that should not be there and an applicant who will not withdraw it.

The registrar can cancel a notice. Under section 145, as the manual summarises it, the registrar may do so if it appears unlikely that the instruments will be lodged before the notice lapses, after giving seven days' notice.

That last point is why the details in a notice are checked with care. The instruments must be named correctly and in the order they will be lodged. A notice listing the mortgage before the transfer, or describing the wrong lot, does not protect the transaction it was meant for.

How it differs from a caveat

The two are often mentioned together and do different work.

A caveat is a claim. The Queensland Law Handbook says a caveat may be lodged by a person who has a caveatable interest in a lot, that it prevents dealings inconsistent with the claimed interest, and that it gives notice of the claim to anyone who searches the title. It generally lapses unless court proceedings are started within the time the legislation sets. The person lodging it is asserting a right in the land and must be prepared to prove it.

A priority notice asserts nothing. It says only that documents are on their way. It requires no dispute and implies none. It ends by itself when the documents are registered, where a caveat has to be withdrawn, removed or allowed to lapse.

The handbook observes that caveats are now less common in ordinary purchases. A buyer under a straightforward contract with a settlement a few weeks away is adequately served by a priority notice lodged near the end. A caveat remains the tool where the period to be covered is long, where there is a real concern about the seller's dealings, or where the person seeking protection is not about to lodge an instrument at all. JHK Legal draws the same contrast, describing priority notices as temporary and specific to intended dealings.

What a priority notice does not do

It is worth being exact about the limits, because the name suggests more than the notice delivers.

It does not make the buyer the owner or give the buyer any right to the property. Those come from the contract and, finally, from registration.

It does not fix a problem that already exists on the title. A mortgage, easement or caveat registered or lodged before the notice stays where it is.

It does not hold off a caveat, a court order or a statutory charge.

It does not last beyond 90 days. For a purchase with a long settlement, such as an off-the-plan unit, it offers nothing during the months of waiting and is useful only at the end.

And it does not guarantee that the instruments it names will be registered. If the transfer is defective for some other reason, the notice reserves a place for a document that cannot take it.

Where it appears for a buyer and a seller

For the buyer, the notice is almost invisible. The solicitor lodges it, the fee appears on the account, and it lapses on registration. A title search taken between its lodgement and registration will show it noted against the lot.

For the seller, the notice is something that appears on their title shortly before settlement, lodged by the other side. It is expected and harmless in a sale that proceeds. It becomes relevant only if the sale does not: a current notice in a former buyer's name is an obstacle to a new contract until it is withdrawn, lapses or is removed.

For both, it is part of why the days around settlement are less fragile than they once were. The exchange of money and documents is simultaneous, and the buyer's position in the registry's queue is reserved before the exchange begins.

A priority notice claims nothing and proves nothing. It keeps the buyer's place in the registry's queue for the few weeks in which that place matters.

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.

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