Selling or transferring a rural property

A property ownership transfer specifies which water shares come with the property when it’s sold or changes ownership. This gives the new owner legal access to the water.

Changing the ownership of a rural property will be required as a result of various situations, such as:

Transfer from seller to buyer
Family succession planning
Deceased estates
Adding/removing a spouse/partner
Family law cases
College Lease

Transferring ownership for a Rural property may include various water-related assets, such as

water use licence / water use registration
water shares
allocations
delivery shares
works licenses.

It is essential to update these assets in the Victorian Water Register to reflect the new ownership accurately, ensuring the rights to use water resources associated with the property are legally transferred to the new owner

Process to transfer ownership

Request a ‘Property information statement’
Download and complete the ‘Request for applications to transfer ownership of rural property’ form
Return the completed form, along with the Property information statement and Statement of Water Entitlements on Land

If you do not have a Statement of Water Entitlements on Land, you can request one from the Rural Services team. We will require the following information to be able to issue this for you:

Registered name(s) of landholder(s)
Legal land description (including Vol/Fol)

If you can provide additional information including Water Use Licence/Registration (WUL/WUR) and the Annual Use Limit (AUL), this will help us to identify the property accurately.

A case manager will assess your request within 10 working days and prepare the relevant Water Register application(s).

How to apply

Download the request for application to transfer (change) ownership of a rural property and

complete it electronically (handwritten documents cannot be accepted)
attach a statement of water entitlements on land to identify the property – this document is included in your information statement (section 32)

All information in the request form is mandatory. Incomplete forms will not be processed.

Request for applications to transfer (change) ownership of rural property • PDF – 0.37mb

Download

How to submit your request

Save the completed form on your computer and use the “submit” button on page 2 and attach statement of water entitlements on land, or
e-mail completed form including the statement of water entitlements on land to applications@lmw.vic.gov.au

No signatures or fees are required.

What happens next

A case manager will assess your request within 10 working days and prepare the relevant Water Register application(s).
A request to transfer water services with sale of land application form (Form 55), and possibly others, will be returned to the lodging party including a checklist to successfully complete the application(s)
The created application(s) need to be validly signed, supporting documents may be required and application fees apply