Spring is a popular season for property sales and an internet search shows there are many vineyards currently on the market.
If you’re thinking about selling your vineyard, you need to be aware that Vinehealth Australia maintains a Register of all vineyards of 0.5 hectares or more in South Australia and the organisation is tightly linked to the property transfer process. This connection enables Vinehealth to maintain the currency of the Register.
Ensuring the Register holds accurate and complete information about your vineyard at all times, even if you’re not thinking of selling now, will help to ensure a sale can progress smoothly.
Importantly, you should ensure that:
- The account name ownership details listed in Vinehealth’s Register match that listed on the Land Title of your property.
- You have entered each of your planting records (variety, rootstock, year planted, area).
- You have allocated each of your planting records to the right land parcel.
Your vineyard details held in the Register can be checked by contacting Vinehealth by email at admin@vinehealth.com.au, or by phone on 08 8273 0550, or can be checked online via the Grape Industry Kiosk.
According to the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Act 1995, the Register must hold details on all South Australian vine plantings of 0.5 hectares or more, whether the vines are living or dead – and hence all such details are required to be included in a property transfer.
“Before a vineyard sale, it’s important to ensure that your Vineyard Records are up to date. We encourage you to find time now to undertake this check, make any necessary changes and submit the changes,” said Jo Bainbridge, Systems Manager at Vinehealth Australia.
“Incorrect or insufficient information may delay Vinehealth’s ability to deliver important documentation required by the selling agent.
“It’s particularly important to ensure your planting details are accurate, as the sale process involves calculations to apportion levies owing to Vinehealth from the seller and purchaser, based on planted vine area.”
The following points describe Vinehealth’s involvement in a property transfer:
- A real estate agent, conveyancer or vendor representative requests a Property Interest Report (PIR) from the South Australian Integrated Land Information System (SAILIS). SALIS then automatically emails the PIR to Vinehealth, because Vinehealth is a listed ‘Interested Party’ in land sales that include vineyards.
- Vinehealth extracts information from the Register relating to the area of vines on each of the land parcels involved in the property transfer in order to generate a Section 7 Notice. The Section 7 Notice cannot be generated if the vine plantings have not been allocated to a land parcel by the current owner (and Vinehealth is unable to complete this step where the vineyard comprises more than one land parcel). For a timely turnaround, it is therefore important that all plantings listed for a vineyard owner in the Register are allocated to the correct land parcels.
- When a settlement date for the sale has been set, Vinehealth is notified of this date by the conveyancer. Vinehealth then issues:
- A Settlement Report which identifies any outstanding levies owed by the current owner, plus the pro-rata amount from 1 May of the year the transfer takes place, until the settlement date. The purchaser is required to pay the pro-rata levy balance from settlement date until 30 April of the following year.
- A Change of Ownership form to capture the purchaser’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 to be added to the Register, as the new owner.
- The full payment owing (from the purchaser and seller) is sent to Vinehealth along with the completed Change of Ownership form.
Despite the conveyancer’s role being to liaise with Vinehealth on behalf of the seller and the purchaser, the information held on the Register is ultimately the responsibility of the landowner.
Respecting the privacy of this information is of utmost importance to Vinehealth. Therefore, specific information relating to plantings and owner details cannot be automatically updated or communicated by a conveyancer to Vinehealth on behalf of the client, without the client first advising this in writing to Vinehealth. Likewise, Vinehealth cannot disclose identified information held on the Register to an unauthorised person.
Vineyard owners are welcome to contact Vinehealth to confirm that a property transfer has been recorded.
For further information around vineyard sales, contact Vinehealth Australia’s Systems Manager Jo Bainbridge on (08) 8273 0550 or email jo@vinehealth.com.au.