LayeredGeo for conveyancers and property lawyers

What the searches do not show on a map

The planning certificate or vendor statement in each state answers the questions the law asks of it, in the order the form sets. It rarely shows where on the lot a constraint falls, how much of the lot it covers, or what sits just over the boundary. A client reading "flood: yes" in a certificate wants to know whether that is the back fence or the house pad, and a sewer main running under the garage is easier to raise before exchange than after.

A LayeredGeo Property Report puts the mapped answer on one PDF for the address: each overlay drawn over the lot boundary, with the agency that published the data named in the report. Where we do not hold mapping for a layer at that location, the report says so rather than reporting a clear result.

What a conveyancer gets from each report

• Property Report ($9) - zoning and land use, flood, bushfire, heritage and character, environmental overlays, acid sulfate soils, airport height and noise controls, mapped easements, setbacks and reservations, water, sewer and stormwater pipes, and nearby development applications where the council publishes them.
• Flood Model Report ($9) - for a lot under a flood overlay, the published flood studies that reach it and the modelled depth, velocity and flood level for each event. This is the detail a client needs for an insurance conversation or a building question, and the overlay alone does not give it.
• Pre-Purchase Property Report ($25) - the Property Report, a Terrain Report (slope and fall across the lot) and, where a published model covers the address, the Flood Model Report, bound into one PDF to hand to a buyer client.

Beside the statutory documents, not instead of them

A Property Report is not a planning certificate, a vendor statement or a title search, and it cannot be attached to a contract in place of one. In Queensland it is a reference for the questions the Form 2 seller disclosure statement leaves open; in NSW it maps the zoning, flood and bushfire controls a section 10.7 certificate refers to. Our guides explain both: Form 2 seller disclosure (QLD) and section 10.7 planning certificate (NSW).

Agency plans for firms

A single Property Report is $9 with no account needed. Firms running a check on every matter can take Agency 10 at $49 a month for 10 reports, or Agency 50 at $149 a month for 50 reports, which brings each report to $4.90 or $2.98. The Property Report, Flood Model Report and Terrain Report each use one report from the allowance; the Pre-Purchase Property Report uses two.

Set your firm's name and logo once on your account page and they are printed on the cover of every Property Report and Pre-Purchase Property Report you order, above the LayeredGeo authorship line. Reports ordered on a plan stay in your account for 12 months, so the report for a matter that settles late or falls over is still there when you need it. Cancel any time from the account page.

Coverage

Property Reports cover supported addresses in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. See the sample report for exactly what a client receives, or the methodology page for where every overlay comes from.

Important limitation

LayeredGeo is a desktop review based on government-published spatial data. It is not legal advice and does not replace planning certificates, vendor statements, title and council searches, building and pest inspections, or flood engineering advice. Mapping can lag a council's current scheme, so verify any control that matters to the matter with the issuing authority.