Continued tenures and other restricted or conditional purchases and grants

Authored by Tony Cahill, Legal Author and Commentator; John Boag, Director, Everingham Solomons; Katelin Whitley, Principal, Bestic Law (NSW); Luckbir Singh, Director, MacDonnells Law (Qld); Gary Thomas, Special Counsel and Anthony Davis, Director, McWilliams Lawyers (WA); Philip Page, Retired Partner, Mellor Olsson (SA); Tim Tierney, Principal, and Sebastian Thomas-Wilson, Principal, Tierney Law (Tas); Tony Morgan, Partner, Andrew Giles, Partner, and Cooper Hood, Associate, HWL Ebsworth (NT) and Stephanie Lynch, Partner and Christine Murray, Managing Partner, Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers (ACT); Lisa Gaddie, Partner, Lander & Rogers, Richard Skopal, Partner, Holding Redlich, Matthew Jones, Director, Jones & Mitchell (VIC). Updated by the LexisNexis Legal Writer team.

New South Wales

Clause 2 of Sch 1 of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 (NSW) (Act) defines a “continued tenure” as meaning:

• a continued incomplete tenure purchase;
• a continued permissive occupancy;
• a continued perpetual lease;
• a continued special lease; and
• a continued term lease.

This Guidance Note focuses on a “continued tenure” known as an “incomplete purchase”.

An “incomplete purchase” is a tenure describing a former lease from the Crown (eg a perpetual lease) that is in the process of being purchased by the lessee. See Purchasing a perpetual lease in the Guidance Note: Perpetual leases (under NSW).

If an incomplete purchase was granted before the commencement of the Act (that is, before 1 July 2018), the instalments, interest and any other amounts payable continue to be payable in the same way and over the same agreed timeframe.

If an incomplete purchase was granted on or after 1 July 2018, then there is an option to pay the purchase price in annual instalments (including interest) over a period of up to 20 years, subject to a minimum annual amount payable of $2500 per year.

Extra payments may also be made at any time during the term of the purchase and there are no penalties for paying out the incomplete purchase price early.