Australian property law, or property law in Australia, are laws that regulate and prioritise the rights, interests and responsibilities of individuals in relation to "things" (property). These things are forms of "property" or "rights" to possession or ownership of an object. Property law orders or prioritises rights and classifies property as either real and tangible, such as land, or intangible, such as the right of an author to their literary works or personal but tangible, such as a book or a pencil. The scope of what constitutes a thing capable of being classified as property and when an individual or body corporate gains priority of interest over a thing has in legal scholarship been heavily debated on a philosophical level.
Land is the predominant focus of Western property law, including Australian property law. Legal developments in this field outweigh the development of other forms of property law, this is primarily due to the high value of land in comparison to other forms of property, such as chattels.
Each state in Australia has a different regime for the regulation and bureaucratisation of land. Property law is a largely statute-based but continues in important aspects to be influenced by the common law and principles that originate from Australia's history as a British colony, where land and estate law developed through the ambit of feudalism.
Property law is enabling in that it creates a system for evidencing, recognising and transferring title to land, facilitating its use as an economic instrument. Other legal instruments in property law that facilitate the private and commercial dealing of land include the mortgage, lease, covenant and easement.
Most land in Australia is now held under the Torrens system, although remnants of the old system of land title still remain, called “general law land”. All land in the Australian Capital Territory is leasehold (effectively Torrens freehold), and much of the Northern Territory is held under Crown lease. Native title is now recognised as a form of land ownership. Some land remains as Crown land (i.e. in Australia, public land).[4]
In accordance with the principles of the Torrens system, each jurisdiction maintains a register of land titles of land in the jurisdiction that has been registered under the system. The register also shows the proprietor (owner) of the land. This system was devised to reduce the amount of fraud relating to land due to falsification of title deeds. It does so with "ownership" of the land being confirmed only upon registration of the property. That is, "it is not a system of registration of title but a system of title by registration".[5] This gives a purchaser "greater assurance, indeed certainty, of title".[6] The principle of "indefeasibility" of title - where a right has been entered on the register, it cannot be defeated by later rights except in certain circumstances - further protects the Torrens title holder.[7]
The Torrens system also provides for registration of other entitlements to land such as a mortgage, by which land is used to secure a loan.
Main property codes
The main legislation in each Australian jurisdiction regulating interests in land law in relation to property (negotiable instruments) and the scheme of registration (title) are:
