NZIS Letter to Minister Robertson - Housing Crisis and ASaTS

[Brent George]

As a dual NZIS/ICS member, it read with interest the NZIS "news item" on their website 2-May-2018 NZIS Letter to the Minister.

As introduced, the letter sets out "the urgent need to prioritise funding of the Advanced Survey and Title Systems (to replace Landonline) that is critical to the delivery of land titles and new houses".  I can't agree more.

In addition, many of the supporting statements therein are also sound, valid and deserve to be amplified to the Minister.....

BUT....

One sentence about the funding of ASaTS was rather alarming:  "(NZIS) members accepted that Landonline user fees should be retained at higher levels beyond the 15-year payback period to fund and accelerate the development of a replacement system".

• Is it really fair that we/our clients fund AsaTS rebuild for this long?
• Should funding for this vital piece of the system that underpins property ownership come also from outside of "user pays"?

• When did members signal their acceptance of this 'maintenance of higher levels of fees" for 15+ years to the NZIS executive?

What do you think??

[Pat Sole]

I applaud NZIS in seeking Crown funding for ASaTS - however, past and current funding also appears to be an issue surveyors are unaware of. It would seem that the Survey and Title Memorandum Account (ie 3rd party fees paid by our clients - lodgement fees) has been used to pay for most/all ASaTS development costs to date. Also as a member of NZIS, I have never been asked or advised of retention of (elevated) current fees (or otherwise), and know nothing of any 15 year payback period. Seeing it is referred to in this document, perhaps such documentation could be published as well.

Whilst it would appear reasonable for some development costs to be paid by users, current users derive no benefit from ASaTS in the future. Upgrading to a 3D cadastre and for example, inclusion of Crown or Maori Land has no direct benefit to any/many of my clients, so the Crown needs to heavily input into development costs this time round. Perhaps also, more effort needs to go into ensuring Landonline is running more efficiently in the short term.