Encumbrances can be lodged and discharged electronically in South Australia through PEXA. A ‘lift and replace’ of an Encumbrance is also supported.

The roles of Incoming Encumbrancee or Encumbrancee on Title can be invited into a PEXA Workspace.

Using PEXA’s file upload functionality, supporting Encumbrance Covenants can be uploaded and attached to a PEXA Workspace as part of a lodgement case.

An Encumbrance is registered on a title as a restriction regarding the use of the land. It is a covenant that secures the payment of money (e.g. a rent charge or an annuity) with associated covenants creating obligations on the parties that often restrict or forbid certain acts in relation to the property.

Frequently an Encumbrance will include covenants that are personal to the parties and do not run with the land. On the transfer of the land, the covenants that run with the land bind the new proprietor but the covenants personal to the outgoing proprietor cannot. However, a mechanism (often referred to as a ‘lift and replace’) has evolved whereby the Encumbrance includes a (personal) covenant that the outgoing proprietor will be discharged if the incoming proprietor enters into a new Encumbrance in the similar terms as the existing Encumbrance. At settlement, the existing Encumbrance is discharged (i.e. lifted) and a new Encumbrance in the purchaser’s name is registered (i.e. replaced).

Learn more about Encumbrances, including how to lodge or discharge an Encumbrance in PEXA here.