Selling a vineyard? Read this to better understand the process

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When selling a property or portion of a property that has vines in the ground, the transaction is required by law to be recorded on the Vinehealth Australia Vineyard Register. The following is a summary of requirements for a property transfer:

  1. The standard practice relating to the sale of a property involves an agent or vendor representative requesting a Property Interest Report (PIR) from SAILIS through Vinehealth Australia. SAILIS is the South Australian Integrated Land Information System which provides up to date information about land and property in South Australia. Vinehealth Australia then extracts information from the Vineyard Register relating to area of vines on each of the land parcels involved in the property transfer. The PIR report cannot be generated if the planting allocation has not been completed by the current owner. For a timely turnaround, it’s therefore important that all plantings listed for a vineyard owner in the Vineyard Register are allocated to the correct land parcels.
  2. When a settlement date has been set, Vinehealth Australia is notified of this date by the conveyancers. Vinehealth Australia then issues a settlement report, noting outstanding levies owed by the current owner, plus the pro-rata amount from 1 May (previous) to the settlement date. The purchaser is required to pay the pro-rata levy balance from settlement date until 30 April.
  3. The full payment owing (from the purchaser and seller) is sent to Vinehealth Australia along with the change of ownership form. The Vineyard Register requires the new owner’s full details including the name/entity shown on the land title (the legal land owner), the full name of the owner/director, postal address, mobile number and email address.
  4. The purchaser will then be added to the Vineyard Register.
  5. As a means of welcoming new growers, Vinehealth Australia also mails out a New Grower Pack, which contains a collection of introductory wine industry biosecurity materials. Vinehealth Australia asks all new owners to crosscheck planting information for their vineyard and contact details to ensure it is correct.

For further information about this process, contact Vinehealth Australia Office Manager Jo Bainbridge on (08) 8273 0550.