How do I find out who owns a bit of land?

[Son of a Beach]

After identifying a bit of land on the 1:25000 series maps, by it's boundary line and property number, how do I find out who owns it? I presume there's some government department with an office I can contact to find out, but who is it and how do I contact them?

I guess I could start with Service Tasmania, but if anyone here knows a more precise method of finding out, I'd be grateful.

[tasadam]

I believe a trip to the local council offices that look after that area would be a reasonable start.

[tasadam]

Maybe the police would know who to ask - if there was a crime being committed on a vacant block of land somewhere, they would have the power to find out who owns that land.
So if you ask them how they find out, and follow that path perhaps.

[Son of a Beach]

I've just now gone to the Service Tasmania web site and clicked the "Ask Service Tasmania" link and filled in a form there. I asked two questions: Firstly, what is the correct procedure for finding out such information, and secondly, I asked who owns the bit of land I want to walk through (referencing it as best I could using the block number and local government information on the map).

I'll post back as to how successful (or otherwise) this line of enquiry is.

[johnw]

Just a thought. If the land in question adjoins identifiable public land such as national park, state forest etc it may also be worth contacting the relevant authority. They are probably aware of who their neighbours are, due to access issues etc. Whether they can or are willing to share the info is another thing, but no harm in asking.

I don't know if Tasmania is different, but in NSW it's currently impossible to easily identify the owner of property unless you apply to the local court and give valid reasons for wanting to know. Local council used to provide this information over the phone but this has changed over recent years, I think due to privacy law changes.

Kind regards,
John W

[PeterJ]

After identifying a bit of land on the 1:25000 series maps, by it's boundary line and property number, how do I find out who owns it? I presume there's some government department with an office I can contact to find out, but who is it and how do I contact them?

I guess I could start with Service Tasmania, but if anyone here knows a more precise method of finding out, I'd be grateful.

One option is http://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/ and click on ListMap the Property put in grid or location and when the map comes up select the Information button and click on the property and press the spot

Anyway as an unregistered user you will not see the owners name but if it local Govt or crown etc you will usually get enough information to work out who it might be. Registered users get full details, but you would need to have good reason to be allowed that.

For some reason this site works more reliably with Internet Explorer than with FireFox

[Son of a Beach]

One option is http://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/ and click on ListMap the Property put in grid or location and when the map comes up select the Information button and click on the property and press the spot

Anyway as an unregistered user you will not see the owners name but if it local Govt or crown etc you will usually get enough information to work out who it might be. Registered users get full details, but you would need to have good reason to be allowed that.

Thanks Peter. I've tried the LIST but haven't gotten anything useful from it (it is a private property). They charge for a full title search, and the free information I've been able to get from them so far, has not been very useful. I've been able to get the property ID number, and it's official address, but that's about all. (The free title search options are not at all helpful in this case).

It's not a terribly user-friendly site, however, and I may be missing something. Is it possible to get more information from there without paying for it?

For some reason this site works more reliably with Internet Explorer than with FireFox

Yeah, it really bugs me that they've specifically made the LIST for MSIE, ignoring web standards. At least it works better with other browsers now than it used, to. Still not great through.

[Joe]

the list site is pretty hackable...umm...someone told me you could write a pretty simple bit of code to rip all the maps off into digital format...it took me *cough* someone about 3 weeks to download them all though. I think if you do a bit of probing in the page source you might come up with more than meets the eye.

[Speculator]

After identifying a bit of land on the 1:25000 series maps, by it's boundary line and property number, how do I find out who owns it? I presume there's some government department with an office I can contact to find out, but who is it and how do I contact them?

I guess I could start with Service Tasmania, but if anyone here knows a more precise method of finding out, I'd be grateful.

Heya Nik,

You can do a land title search at Service Tas. for $8. They'll tell you who owns a piece of land providing you have enough details for them to properly identify the allotment.
If you need more details on what the land search is all about, just let me know. My other half works for Service Tas.

L8r.

[tastrax]

I would start with the neighbours, especially if its a rural block. Be up front and tell them why you want the information. Works most of the time for me.

Cheers - Phil

[Son of a Beach]

I would start with the neighbours, especially if its a rural block. Be up front and tell them why you want the information. Works most of the time for me.

Cheers - Phil

That is a sensible suggestion, but unfortunately there are no neighbours. It's a bush block surrounded by bush blocks on three sides, and crown land on the fourth side.

I dropped into Service Tas on the way home. The only way they can do it is for an $8 fee to do a "Property Search" (which is apparently like a lesser version of a Title Search). I was all set to do this, but their system wasn't working.

I then went back to theLIST (which is all they use at Service Tas anyway, but a special version just for them), and found that there is an $8 "Property Report" on the public section there. So I enter the property ID number (as reported by theLIST "Property" section), and it brings up the correct address, then I select the "Property Report" for $8, then I click the "View Purchases" button and I get an error message.

Not having much luck with this! It really shouldn't be this hard. Seems like they don't even want my money!

[Son of a Beach]

Aha! It worked! I tried it all through theLIST online again (with great trepidation as I entered by VISA card number), and this time it worked. Did I mention that I hate the way theLIST works? So much good information, but so clumsy to use!

Anyhow, I've found the details of the owner at last. Hoo-flippin-ray!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - especially those that made up parts of my solution.

EDIT:

For future reference in case anyone else wants to do this, here's how using the only online means I've been able to find (which is the equivalent of going in to Service Tas - same cost - which appears to be the only other method):

1. Go to theList web site
2. Click "LIST map", then click "Property", then fill in the form and do the usual LIST stuff to find the property
3. Click the "i" button on the toolbar on the left (when you're viewing the map of the property), then click on the property
4. Copy (or note down) the "Property ID" number that appears in the bottom when you click on the property while in "i" mode
5. Go back to the front page of the theList web site
6. Click "Land Information - Puplic Services"
7. (Click "Continue" if you get a message of the day - doh!)
8. Click "Property Details and Title Search" (in the menu at left - NOT in the list of buttons)
9. Paste (or type in) the Property ID number you copied/noted earlier and then click "Submit Enquiry"
10. Select the property from the list (hopefully it will only list one), then click "Find Associated Documents"
11. Click the "Select" link
12. Select the "Property Report" item ("$8" will appear in the "Total:" field)
13. Click "Purchase Documents"
14. Click "View Purchases"

THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO MORE STEPS after this but they're easy to follow (assuming you don't get errors), but I can't get it working again just now. One of the steps involves entering your credit card details, and another step involves clicking another link to view the document your interested in.

Simple, eh?

[norts]

First, I work for Local Government.

I wont go into bat for Local Government on the whole, I am sick of being verbally bashed. People like to have a shot because we are an easy target.

As to finding out an owner of a property Council is not allowed to give out those details as per the Privacy Act. Cant even do it for a neighbour who wants to build a fence between them.

Roger

[Son of a Beach]

Thanks Roger, that's good to know, in any case.

Sorry for the council comments - I really should abide by my own rules. I've now deleted my own (and some others) political comments that were against the forum rules.

[tasadam]

Also guilty Sorry, no offence to you personally.

Cheers!

[slick41st]

Hi Guys,

One more sugegstion for finding who owns a block of land - a friend of mine interstate joined the SES so he could access all land owner info to ask the right people to walk on their properties. The SES/CFA type guys need the info to contact land owners of any disasters, so if you know anyone............

[Joe]

one of our new members is SES if its the same Hingrock I met on another board

[Son of a Beach]

Hi all. In the interests of abiding by the rules, I'm going to remove some of the text from some posts, as well as some entire posts regarding some people's opinions of local governments. I was the first offender, so I'll be editing my post first then a couple of others.

Sorry to the three people who's posts I've edited and/or deleted from this topic.

[Joe]

NP cull away, never expected it to last...neither time or place.

[tasadam]

NP cull away, never expected it to last...neither time or place.

Ditto. I learnt I wasn't alont in my thoughts though.

There have been a lot of good ideas on how to find out who owns land when you want to find out...

[Son of a Beach]

I've just now gone to the Service Tasmania web site and clicked the "Ask Service Tasmania" link and filled in a form there. I asked two questions: Firstly, what is the correct procedure for finding out such information, and secondly, I asked who owns the bit of land I want to walk through (referencing it as best I could using the block number and local government information on the map).

I'll post back as to how successful (or otherwise) this line of enquiry is.

Well, I finally got a reply from this query today. It simply suggested I use theLIST (which of course I've did several days ago now). I found it interesting that the reply I got does not tell me where to find the list, even though the URL would have been more useful than the name of system. They did tell me that fees apply for getting this sort of information, but did not give any indication of the fees, not did they tell me where to look on the list, nor the name of the type of search I need to do. Thankfully I got this from Service Tas in person (although they were a bit vague too). Using theLIST alone, I never would have been able to guess which of the documents was the one I needed.

[Jean @ Arm R]

I'm sitting up late at night having a lot of fun reading these posts. Call me a ludite, but remember that this is Tassie (for heaven's sake) and if you just ask around you're likely to find someone who knows someone's mum who can tell you everything. Even across the other side of the state. I am frequently amazed at people in Hobart who know complete family histories in Tullah and Penguin. Lets use our incredible social capital and keep the oral traditions going. (steps down, stops preaching)

[Son of a Beach]

That is a good strategy in most cases, Jean. In fact, I did already know somebody who contributed money towards purchasing this block (but is not officially an owner themselves) and they could have easily found out for me, but for some reason they have not acted on my requests seriously (despite my asking several times over a few years), so I gave up and went through the official channels.

One element of the official mechanism that I find odd, is that government agencies will not readily give out this information, saying that it's an invasion of privacy... unless you pay them money, in which case you can get all the information you want. It's unclear to me how paying money makes it not an invasion of privacy. One way they could deal with the privacy issue would be to have a system set up whereby interested persons could contact land owners through a government controlled intermediary (eg, a group within the Lands Department), and the land owner could then decide if they wanted to be known to the enquirer or not (or could even provide answers anonymously).

However, I'm mostly happy with the official legal means, now that I (mostly) understand it. I'm not sure if I've invaded the owners privacy or not, but if I did it was all legal and government sponsored, I guess.

[dtasker]

Hi Nik,

Rather a bit late but you could have asked me - One of my clients is a solicitor and they have a subscription service to "The List". On occasion they have looked up information for me and I have just paid them the equivalent of the fee that they are charged. I can't divulge that amount except to say its less than $8 because as you imagine with a subscription service some volume discounts apply.

The "special version" of the list that you mention that Service Tasmania uses is not a "special version" as such. Basically they have diferent access rights - much like a Solicitor or Conveyencing Clerk might have. "The List" is a "fee for service" site.
It is a bit silly for organisations e.g Local Councils to say that for privacy reasons they are not allowed to give out owners information.
For sure it's not they ( Local Gov) who make the rules but the fact is it's not a privacy issue although the Local Gov people may well have been advised of that. As you have discovered anyone who is prepared to pay their $8 bucks can find out.

Now at the risk of these comemnts being removed - but in defence you have to learm to smile at yourself.
Some years ago the manager of Island State Credit Union ( A Bank) introduced me to Oxymorons and he said his
favourite was "Bank Services" and second Fav' Government Organisation. Interestingly enough if you visit
http://www.oxymoronlist.com/ you see Government Organisation only ranks 20 so they cant be to bad LOL.

Let's not go through life taking ourselves to seriously.
David T