Requisitions at Titles Queensland: when a lodged dealing is sent back

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Kooky

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Lodging a document with the land registry is a request, and the registry may answer it with a question. Between the moment a transfer, a mortgage or a caveat is lodged and the moment it appears on the title, an examiner at Titles Queensland reads it. If something in it prevents registration, the registry does not quietly fix it and does not immediately throw it out. It issues a requisition: a written notice that names the problem, sets a date and charges a fee.

Most owners and buyers never hear the word, because the notice goes to whoever lodged the document, usually a law practice or a lender. They feel its effects all the same. A requisition is the usual reason a registration confirmation takes weeks longer than expected, and an unanswered one can end with the dealing rejected, its place in the queue lost and its lodgement fees gone.

This guide follows a dealing from lodgement to one of its three possible endings. It is built on three publications of Titles Queensland: its page "Receiving a requisition notice", last modified on 17 July 2026; Part 60 of the Land Title Practice Manual, "Fees, Lodgement and General Titling Practice", in the version updated on 4 September 2026; and the registry's fee schedule for the 2026-27 financial year. Part 62 of the same manual, on eConveyancing, updated on 20 July 2026, supplies the rules that are particular to documents lodged electronically. Section numbers are given as the manual cites them.

What the registry means by a requisition

The manual's definition is short. At paragraph 60-0010 it says a requisition occurs where deficiencies in a lodged dealing which prevent its registration are identified. The consumer page puts it more simply still: a requisition is issued when there is a deficiency with a lodged document.

Two things follow from that wording. The first is that a requisition is tied to registration. It is not a penalty for untidy paperwork, and it is not raised over a flaw that leaves the document registrable. The second is that it is raised on a dealing that has already been lodged. The document is in the registry, it has a dealing number, and it holds its place while the question is open.

The legal power behind the notice sits in section 156(1) of the Land Title Act 1994 for freehold land, and in section 305(1) of the Land Act 1994 for dealings under that Act. As Part 60 summarises those provisions, the Registrar of Titles may require an instrument or document to be re-executed, completed or corrected, or may require specific information to be supplied. Those four verbs are the whole range of what a requisition can ask.

What the notice contains, and who is sent it

Paragraph 60-0015 of the manual lists what a requisition notice sets out: the dealing number, the type of dealing, how to respond, the deficiencies that were identified, the due date and the total amount payable. The deficiencies appear under the heading "Issues Requiring Attention". The amount payable is not only the requisition fee. It also takes in any short fees, meaning lodgement fees that were underpaid when the dealing came in.

The notice goes to the lodger. According to the Titles Queensland page, the lodger of the dealing receives it by email, unless the dealing was lodged by post. The manual adds the detail behind that exception: notices are delivered by email except where the original dealing was physically lodged and the original paper documents have to be amended to answer the requisition.

The manual also says that the details of a requisition are only disclosed by the Registrar to a person to whom the requisition was issued. That one sentence explains much of what a buyer or seller experiences. The registry does not write to the parties named in the document. It writes to the firm, the lender or the individual who lodged it, and anyone else learns of the requisition from that lodger.

What a requisition can ask for

Titles Queensland publishes no official list of the most common requisition reasons. The consumer page gives no categories of deficiency. Part 60 has a paragraph headed "Requisition Requirements", at 60-0020, but it does not catalogue typical faults, and the registry publishes no league table of errors in the manual.

What the manual does give is the shape of the problem, through the four things section 156(1) lets the Registrar demand. A requisition to re-execute concerns the way a document was signed. A requisition to complete concerns something left blank or left out. A requisition to correct concerns something stated wrongly. A requisition for information concerns evidence the examiner needs before the dealing can be registered, which the document itself does not supply.

Part 60 is the manual's part on general practice: fees, lodgement and the handling of dealings whatever their type. It treats the requisition as a procedure, the same for every document, and does not attempt to say in one place what makes each kind of document registrable. A lodger who wants to know why a particular dealing was stopped reads the answer on the notice, under the issues requiring attention, not in a general list.

Errors the examiner may let through

Not every mistake produces a notice. Paragraph 60-0060 of the manual states the practice: the examiner may register an instrument or document that contains an error, provided the error is obvious and there is no ambiguity. When that happens, an internal dealing note is entered against the document to record that the error did not impede registration. If the intent is not clear, the lodger is requisitioned to resolve the matter.

The manual connects this practice to a statutory power. Under section 155 of the Land Title Act, and section 304 of the Land Act, the Registrar may correct an obvious error in a lodged document. For a survey plan the correction is made on the plan itself, ruled through, dated and initialled. For other documents the registry treats the document as if the error were not there and makes an electronic notation. The manual states the conditions: the register must remain unambiguous and nobody's rights may be prejudiced.

A separate power deals with mistakes found after registration. Section 15 of the Land Title Act, as the manual describes it, allows the Registrar to correct the register where it is incorrect and the correction does not prejudice the rights of a holder of an interest, with a record kept of the time, date and circumstances of the correction. The manual notes one exception to the no-prejudice condition, for easements that were omitted or misdescribed.

The dividing line, then, is ambiguity. A slip whose meaning is plain can be absorbed by the registry. A document that could be read two ways comes back with a question.

How long the lodger has to answer

The two Titles Queensland publications describe the time limit in slightly different words. The consumer page says that in most cases the proposed rejection date is two months from the date of issue of the requisition. Paragraph 60-0027 of the manual says that the time to comply in the first instance will usually be eight weeks, and usually four weeks where the dealing is a caveat or a priority notice. Both add that the date which governs is the due date printed on the notice itself.

The manual gives no reason for the shorter period allowed on caveats and priority notices; it simply states it. For caveats, and for writs or warrants of execution, paragraph 60-0040 describes an extra stage before rejection: where the requisition is not complied with, the Registrar generally gives a notice of intention to reject, allowing seven days for the lodger to respond.

More time can be requested. The consumer page says the lodger may ask for an extension of the due date by explaining the relevant circumstances in writing to the Registrar of Titles, and that each request is assessed on its merits. Paragraph 60-0027-1 of the manual asks for substantive reasons: the request should set out what has been done to comply and what is standing in the way. Whether the time is extended is at the Registrar's discretion, under section 156(4) of the Land Title Act or section 305(4) of the Land Act.

The requisition fee: $46.56 from 1 July 2026

A requisition costs money as well as time. Paragraph 60-0024 of the manual says every requisition that is issued attracts the prescribed fee, unless a statutory exemption applies to the lodger or to the transaction. The manual does not print the amount. It is found in the registry's fee schedule.

The Titles Queensland schedule for the 2026-27 financial year, which applies from 1 July 2026, lists "Requisition of an instrument or other document lodged or deposited under section 156(1)" at $46.56. The matching item for a document lodged under section 305(1) of the Land Act is also $46.56. The schedule lists no separate figure for withdrawing a dealing.

For scale, the same schedule sets the lodgement fee for a general instrument at $248.04. A worked example, using only those two figures: a document lodged for $248.04 that draws one requisition has cost its lodger $248.04 plus $46.56, which is $294.60, before any professional time is counted. Because the fee attaches to every requisition issued, a second notice on the same dealing would add another $46.56 and bring the registry charges to $341.16. These are illustrative sums on the published fees, not a statement of what any particular dealing costs: a transfer of ownership attracts further fees that rise with the price.

The words "every requisition that is issued" matter for a second reason. Paragraph 60-0010 says that after the lodger responds the dealing is examined again, and that a further requisition may issue if further deficiencies are identified. A reply that fixes one problem and exposes another does not close the matter.

How a requisition is answered

Part 60 describes three channels for a response, at paragraphs 60-0030 to 60-0033. The first is the Titles Electronic Drop Box, the registry's online lodgement channel, with files prepared to the upload requirements set out elsewhere in Part 60. The second is the physical route: returning the paper dealing to Titles Queensland through its drop box or by post. The third is eLodgement, a web application for registered industry users.

Which channel applies depends on how the dealing arrived. The consumer page says a response can be submitted through the electronic drop box, and that paper methods apply to documents originally lodged by post. The notice itself states the response method for the dealing concerned, so the lodger does not have to work it out.

The page also sets a limit on who may alter a lodged document: only the lodger or their legal representative can make changes. An owner who lodged through a law practice cannot amend the document directly with the registry, and a party on the other side of the transaction cannot either. The correction is made by the lodger, on instructions, and where the fault lies in how a document was signed, the people who signed it may be asked to sign again.

When the registry says no: rejection

A requisition that goes unanswered leads to rejection. Paragraph 60-0027-2 of the manual says that where the lodger fails to comply within the time allowed, and has not asked for an extension in time, the dealing may be rejected. The statutory basis the manual gives is section 157(1) and (2) of the Land Title Act, or section 306(1) and (2) of the Land Act.

The manual and the consumer page name the same two consequences. The dealing loses its lodgement priority, and the fees already paid for lodging it are forfeited. The manual adds a third: where a dealing is rejected, any instrument or document that depends on its registration is rejected with it. To take the plainest case, a mortgage given by a buyer rests on the transfer that makes the buyer the owner, so a rejected transfer takes the mortgage with it.

Rejection is not always the end of the document. Paragraph 60-0045-1 says a rejected instrument, other than an electronic conveyancing document, may be relodged after the requisition has been complied with, under section 157(6) of the Land Title Act or section 306(6) of the Land Act. A relodgement fee applies, and the manual points to section 157A of the Land Title Act, section 306A of the Land Act and section 1013CC of the Water Act 2000 for it.

What relodging does not restore is the original place in the queue. The manual's phrase for rejection is "a consequent loss of priority". Priority is the reason lodgement dates matter at all: a dealing that leaves the registry and returns later stands behind whatever was lodged over the same title in between.

Withdrawal: taking a document back

The third ending is withdrawal, where the document leaves the process before it is registered without having been rejected. Part 60 deals with it at paragraphs 60-0100-1 to 60-0120-1, under section 159(1) of the Land Title Act and section 308(1) of the Land Act.

The manual gives two grounds on which the Registrar may withdraw an instrument, or permit its withdrawal, before registration: the instrument will not give effect to the intention it expresses, or it should not have been lodged. A withdrawn instrument generally remains in the registry, unless it is of a kind that should not have been lodged in the first place.

The consequences resemble those of rejection. A withdrawn instrument loses its priority, with an exception the manual notes for plans of subdivision, and if it is lodged again it is treated as lodged on the new date. A request to withdraw is made in writing, not by lodging a further document. The lodgement fees paid on an unregistered instrument that is withdrawn are forfeited, although the manual records that additional fees charged under the Queensland Future Fund (Titles Registry) Act 2021 may be recoverable.

What changes when the document was lodged electronically

Part 62 of the manual records that eConveyancing has been mandatory in Queensland since 20 February 2023 for a set of common instruments, the transfer, the mortgage and the release of mortgage among them, when they are lodged by industry professionals. An electronic document is still examined by the registry, and it can still be requisitioned. Paragraph 62-4000 says so directly: the requisition process for these documents is the one set out in paragraphs 60-0010 to 60-0030 of Part 60.

The difference comes at the end. Under paragraph 62-4010, an electronic conveyancing document that has been withdrawn or rejected cannot be relodged. A new electronic document, or a paper dealing, has to be lodged instead. The manual's list of exemptions from the mandate anticipates exactly this situation: one of the general exemptions covers a transaction that replaces a rejected or withdrawn eConveyancing instrument where the financial side of the transaction has already been completed. In that case the replacement may be lodged on paper, accompanied by the registry's exemption request form.

The national operating requirements for electronic conveyancing define a lodgment verification: a service that verifies an electronic document will be accepted for lodgment by the registry, provided its data stays unchanged. That check does not replace the examination. Electronic lodgement changes how a dealing arrives and what happens if it fails, and leaves the examination and the requisition power as they are.

What an owner or buyer sees of all this

For the person whose name is going onto the title, a requisition is mostly invisible. The notice is emailed to the lodger. Its details, the manual says, are disclosed only to the person to whom it was issued. The fee appears on the notice as part of a total amount payable, addressed to the lodger. Whether it is then passed on to the client is a matter between the firm and the client, and the registry's publications say nothing about it.

What a client can reasonably expect to be told follows from the mechanics set out above. There is a dealing number, issued at lodgement. There is a due date, printed on the notice. There is a list of issues requiring attention, which may call for the client's help: a document signed again, a missing detail supplied, a piece of evidence found. And there is a second examination after the response, which may end in registration or in another notice.

The magazine's guide to the weeks after settlement describes how registration is confirmed and what arrives afterwards, so that ground is not covered again here. The point to carry from this guide is narrower. A registration that is taking longer than expected has a small number of possible explanations, and a requisition is the one with a deadline attached.

A requisition keeps a dealing alive and in its place. It is the missed due date, not the notice, that costs the priority and the fees.

A requisition is a routine instrument of a registry that guarantees what it registers. The examiner's question protects the next person who relies on the title as much as it delays the current one. The published rules are also fairly forgiving: obvious slips may be registered without a notice, the usual period runs to eight weeks, an extension can be asked for in writing, and a reasoned request is assessed on its merits.

The same rules are strict at one point only. Once the due date passes without a response or an extension, the Registrar may reject the dealing, anything that depended on it falls with it, the lodgement fees are forfeited and the place in the queue is gone. For a paper instrument the way back is relodgement, for a further fee. For an electronic one it is a fresh document. In each case the manual and the fee schedule, both of which Titles Queensland revises during the year, are the texts that govern, and the notice on the particular dealing is the document that sets the date.

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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