70317 Real Property

How 70317 is assessed

The three weights come from the subject's assessment overview on Canvas and match the welcome slides, which add that each quiz is worth 10%. The subject also sets a compulsory Avoiding Plagiarism Quiz: the welcome slides say you need at least 80% for the property quizzes to appear and that you cannot pass the subject unless it is completed before the end of the examination period, while the orientation page says your marks will be withheld if it is still not done by Week 12. The exam date was to be confirmed within the University exam period. If details differ, the subject overview names the Subject Outline as the definitive source.

Current 70317 dates

Dates are as published in the Spring 2026 subject schedule, quiz pages and Canvas announcements. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.

What 70317 covers

70317 runs eleven lecture weeks in Spring 2026. Week 1 sets out tenure, estates and native title; Weeks 2 to 4 cover the Torrens system, from indefeasibility and its exceptions to caveats, the Assurance Fund and priority disputes under s 43A. Week 5 turns to co-ownership and Week 6 to strata, Weeks 7 and 8 to leases, Week 9 to mortgages, and Weeks 10 and 11 to easements and freehold covenants.

The mark comes from two quizzes worth 20%, tutorial preparation exercises worth 30% and a final exam worth 50%, and the weekly tutorial problems mirror the exam questions.

The welcome page calls it both very practical and quite conceptual, because many of its rules were inherited from England in 1788 and still carry the marks of that history, while the subject itself is about modern land holding in New South Wales.

How the weeks build

Week 1 sets out three foundational doctrines: tenure, estates and native title.

Weeks 2 to 4 cover the Torrens system, where title comes from registration: indefeasibility, the fraud, statutory and in personam exceptions, caveats and priority notices, the Torrens Assurance Fund, and how priority disputes between registered and unregistered interests are resolved, including s 43A of the Real Property Act.

The second half applies that foundation to particular interests: co-ownership, strata schemes, leases and their termination, mortgages and the power of sale, easements and freehold covenants.

How you are assessed

There are three tasks. Two online multiple-choice quizzes are worth 20% together.

Tutorial preparation exercises are worth 30%: seven problem questions are set, the best five count, answers are capped at 600 words and must be submitted before the tutorial you attend. The final exam is worth 50% and runs for two hours within a four-hour window in the Final Assessment Period.

The weekly tutorial problems mirror the type of question the exam asks, so practising problem answers all session is the core preparation.

Worked example · free

Applying s 43A to a purchaser who settled without inspecting

Key terms

Doctrine Of Tenure

The rule that land is held of the Crown, so a person owns an estate in land rather than the land itself.

Fee Simple

The largest estate in land, of indefinite duration, which passes by will or on intestacy.

Life Estate

A freehold estate that lasts for the life of the holder or, as an estate pur autre vie, of another person.

Native Title

Rights in land recognised by the common law that arise from the traditional laws and customs of Indigenous people.

Indefeasibility

The protection the Real Property Act gives a registered proprietor's title against unregistered claims, subject to the listed exceptions.

In Personam Exception

A claim against a registered proprietor founded on the proprietor's own conduct, such as an undertaking, which registration does not defeat.

Caveat

A notice lodged on the register that stops inconsistent dealings being registered while the caveator's claimed interest is tested.

Priority Notice

A notice lodged by a party to an intended dealing that holds the register for a limited time until the dealing is lodged.

Section 43A

The provision that treats a settled but unregistered purchaser as holding the legal estate for a priority dispute, if it had no notice.

Joint Tenancy

Co-ownership of the whole with no separate shares, in which the survivors take a deceased owner's interest.

Tenancy In Common

Co-ownership in distinct undivided shares, each of which passes under its owner's will or on intestacy.

Exclusive Possession

The right to control the premises and exclude others, including the owner, which marks a lease rather than a licence.

Forfeiture And Re-entry

A landlord's remedy of retaking possession for a tenant's breach, implied by s 85(1)(d) where the lease is silent.

Restrictive Covenant

A promise in an instrument not to use land in a particular way, whose burden can bind later owners in equity.

70317 FAQ

Questions students ask in each 70317 chapter

Can people own land in Australia?

Strictly, people own estates in land rather than the land itself. Under the doctrine of tenure, land is held of the Crown, which holds the underlying title, while a person's interest is measured as an estate such as the fee simple. In everyday terms the fee simple is ownership, but the legal framing matters in problem answers. Chapter 01 · Tenure, Estates and the Meaning of Land

What did Mabo (No 2) decide?

The High Court recognised that the common law could acknowledge native title, the rights of Indigenous people arising from their traditional laws and customs. Brennan J rejected terra nullius and held that the Crown acquired radical title on sovereignty, so pre-existing rights could survive wherever no inconsistent grant had been made. Chapter 02 · Native Title and Its Extinguishment

What does title by registration mean?

It means the register, not the history of earlier deeds, decides who holds an interest in Torrens land. A dealing passes a legal interest only when it is registered under s 41 of the Real Property Act, and from that moment the registered interest is protected by s 42(1), subject to the recognised exceptions. Chapter 03 · Torrens Title and Indefeasibility

Is knowing about an unregistered interest enough to prove fraud?

No. Section 43 of the Real Property Act says knowledge of an unregistered interest is not of itself fraud. What is needed is actual dishonesty brought home to the registered proprietor, for example registering in order to defeat an interest the proprietor knows about, the pattern in Loke Yew and Waimiha Sawmilling. Chapter 04 · Fraud, Statutory and In Personam Exceptions

What is the difference between a caveat and a priority notice?

A caveat is lodged by someone claiming an existing interest in the land and stays until it is withdrawn, lapses or is removed. A priority notice is lodged by a party to a dealing that has not yet happened, such as a purchaser before settlement, and protects that dealing for a limited period. Chapter 05 · Caveats, Priority Notices and the Assurance Fund

What are the four steps for a priority dispute?

First identify the interests, such as a tenant, mortgagee or purchaser. Second classify each as legal or equitable. Third find which interests actually compete, for possession, repayment or use of the land. Fourth apply the matching rule, testing s 43A whenever a purchaser has settled but is not yet registered. Chapter 06 · Unregistered Interests and Priority Disputes

What happens to a joint tenant's share when they die?

It does not pass under their will. The right of survivorship means the deceased's interest simply ends and the surviving joint tenants continue to hold the whole. The Exercise 3 feedback warns not to describe this as a transfer, and to give each survivor's fraction once only one of the joint group remains. Chapter 07 · Co-ownership: Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common

What is common property in a strata scheme?

Common property is everything in the scheme that is not part of a lot: typically the building structure, external walls, roof, lifts, car park slab, gardens and shared services. It is owned through the owners corporation, which manages it and must keep it in good and serviceable repair. Chapter 08 · Strata Title, Owners Corporations and By-laws

Why does it matter whether an arrangement is a lease or a licence?

A lease is an interest in land that can bind someone who later buys the property, and it carries implied covenants such as quiet enjoyment. A licence is ordinarily a personal permission that does not bind a purchaser. Both tutorial practice problems for leases turn on this distinction. Chapter 09 · Leases, Licences and Leasehold Covenants

Does an assignee have to keep every promise in the lease?

No. An assignee is bound through privity of estate only by covenants that touch and concern the land, such as rent, repair and use clauses. A promise that gives the landlord a purely personal benefit, like the free lunch in the Week 8 tutorial problem, is unlikely to pass to the assignee. Chapter 10 · Lease Assignment, Termination and Forfeiture

What duties does a mortgagee have when selling?

It must act in good faith and, under s 111A of the Conveyancing Act, take reasonable care to sell for market value or the best price reasonably obtainable. It may choose when to sell. Cuckmere Brick deals with care in advertising and describing the property, and sales to connected buyers attract close scrutiny. Chapter 11 · Mortgages and the Power of Sale

What are the requirements for a valid easement?

Re Ellenborough Park sets four: there must be a dominant and a servient tenement; the right must accommodate the dominant tenement; the two parcels must have different owners or occupiers; and the right must be capable of forming the subject of a grant, which excludes rights amounting to possession of the servient land. Chapter 12 · Easements: Validity and Scope

Does a restrictive covenant bind a person who buys the land later?

It can. Equity allows the burden of a restrictive covenant to bind a successor who takes with notice, following Tulk v Moxhay, and for Torrens land an instrument meeting s 88 of the Conveyancing Act and recorded on the folio gives that effect. The covenant must also benefit land held by the person enforcing it. Chapter 13 · Freehold Covenants and Schemes of Development

How to study for the exam

Watch each pre-recorded lecture in its own week, take notes in your own words, and read the set chapter of Butt's Land Law together with the asterisked cases, because those cases can be examined and a summary of the lecture will not be enough. Build one page per topic that states the rule with its section or case, then the order in which you apply it.

For every tutorial problem, write an answer plan even in weeks when you do not submit: classify each party's interest as registered or unregistered and legal or equitable, identify which interests actually compete, then apply the matching rule. Keep a list of the precise points the markers flagged in the feedback documents, such as which paragraph of s 42(1) holds the fraud exception, and check each new answer against it.

In the final weeks, practise writing full answers under time to the 600-word discipline of the exercises. If a step is unclear, ask Sia to walk through one problem with you, one party at a time.

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