Landgate Deceased Estate: Transmission vs Survivorship Applications in WA

Most executors dealing with Western Australian property assume they know what comes next: get probate, then transfer the title. But that assumption is wrong for a significant portion of estates — and acting on it costs weeks of unnecessary waiting, a $408 Supreme Court filing fee, and sometimes the emotional toll of restarting from scratch.

Whether you need a Landgate survivorship application or a transmission application depends entirely on how the deceased held their property — not on the value of the estate, not on what the will says, and not on how long they owned it. Getting this distinction right at the start saves you the most time of anything in the administration process.

Start Here: Pull the Title

Before you do anything else with Western Australian real estate, order a copy of the Certificate of Title from Landgate. This costs $32.60 and can be done online. It tells you the single most important fact in this process: how the deceased held the property.

Look for one of these:

• Joint tenants — two or more people held the property together with a right of survivorship. When one dies, their share passes automatically to the surviving owner(s) by operation of law.
• Sole owner — the deceased held the property entirely in their own name.
• Tenants in common — two or more people each held a defined share (e.g., 50/50, or some other split). Each share is a separate asset that forms part of the deceased's estate.

The answer to that question determines everything: which Landgate application you need, whether you need a grant of probate at all, and how long the property transfer will take.

Joint Tenants: The Survivorship Application

If the title shows "joint tenants," you do not need probate to deal with this property. The deceased's interest passed to the surviving joint tenant at the moment of death — automatically, outside the estate, and entirely independently of the will (or the absence of one).

What you lodge with Landgate is an Application by Survivor (commonly called a survivorship application). This removes the deceased's name from the title and registers it in the survivor's name alone.

What you need:

• Certified copy of the death certificate
• Completed survivorship application form
• Statutory declaration
• Landgate registration fee: $216.60

This is a comparatively straightforward process. The will is irrelevant. Probate is irrelevant. The Supreme Court is irrelevant. You are simply notifying Landgate that a joint tenant has died and asking them to update the register.

If the surviving owner wants to then sell the property or transfer it to someone else, they do that in their own right — as the full owner — after the survivorship application is processed.

Sole Owner or Tenants in Common: The Transmission Application

If the title shows the deceased as sole owner, or shows them holding a share as tenants in common, their interest in the property is part of the estate. Landgate will not allow any transfer of that interest until you hold a valid grant from the Supreme Court of Western Australia — either a grant of probate (if there is a will) or letters of administration (if there is not).

This is where the two-stage process begins.

Stage 1: Application by Personal Representative (Transmission)

Once you have the original grant of probate in hand, you lodge a Transmission Application — formally called an Application by Personal Representative — with Landgate. This moves the title from the deceased's name into yours, recorded in your capacity as executor.

After this step is complete, you are not the owner of the property. You hold it as executor, with the legal power to deal with it on behalf of the estate. The title will reflect something like "John Smith as executor of the estate of Mary Smith deceased."

What you need to lodge:

• Original grant of probate (Landgate retains this)
• Completed Transmission Application form
• Verification of Identity (VOI) receipt (see below)
• Landgate registration fee: $216.60

Stage 2: Transfer of Land

Once the title is in the executor's name, you proceed to Stage 2: transferring the property to its final destination. This is either a transfer to the beneficiary named in the will, or a Transfer of Land to a third-party buyer if the property is being sold.

One step that catches executors off guard: before you can lodge a Transfer of Land with Landgate, the completed transfer form must first go to Revenue WA (the Department of Finance) for stamp duty assessment. This applies even if no duty is payable. Revenue WA assesses and endorses the document, then you lodge it with Landgate.

If you skip the Revenue WA step, Landgate will not accept the document.

Landgate VOI Requirements: What to Expect

Landgate requires Verification of Identity for all self-represented applicants lodging property transactions. This is an anti-fraud measure designed to prevent fraudulent property transfers, and it applies regardless of whether your application is a survivorship or a transmission.

For self-represented executors in Western Australia, the process works like this:

1. Download the Landgate VOI form.
2. Attend a participating Australia Post outlet in person, with your identity documents.
3. Australia Post verifies your identity and issues a receipt.
4. That receipt is lodged with your Landgate application.

Important limitation for overseas executors: If you are residing outside Australia, you cannot use the self-represented VOI pathway. Landgate's rules require that overseas executors engage a legal practitioner or licensed settlement agent to act on their behalf. There is no remote or online substitute for the in-person identity check if you are lodging as a self-represented applicant.

This catches interstate executors too. If you live in Sydney or Melbourne, you will either need to travel to Western Australia to attend an Australia Post branch, or appoint a WA-based settlement agent to handle the lodgment.

The Western Australia Probate Process Guide covers the VOI process in detail, including which identity documents Australia Post accepts and how to set up a settlement agent if you cannot attend in person.

The Most Common Mistake

The single most costly mistake in Landgate's deceased estate process is confusing survivorship and transmission — and it goes both ways.

Executors with joint tenancy property sometimes wait months for a grant of probate they will never need for that asset, delaying the surviving owner's ability to deal with the property while the estate drags on. Conversely, executors with sole-owner or tenants-in-common property sometimes attempt to lodge a survivorship-style application and are rejected — having lost weeks and incurring fees in the process.

The Landgate Policy and Procedure Guides that explain all of this are written for licensed conveyancers. They are dense, heavily cross-referenced, and not designed for a grieving family member navigating this for the first time. Official guidance on the difference between these two pathways is buried in technical manuals rather than presented as the critical first decision it actually is.

A Quick Reference: Which Application Do You Need?

In all cases, do a title search first ($32.60) to confirm what you are dealing with before preparing any application.

After the Transfer: What Comes Next

Once the transmission application is processed and the title sits in your name as executor, you have the legal authority to deal with the property. That means signing contracts for sale, engaging real estate agents, or executing a Transfer of Land directly to a beneficiary.

Remember that any Transfer of Land must go through Revenue WA before Landgate will accept it. Build this step into your timeline — it adds time and requires the completed transfer documents to be presented in person or lodged through a settlement agent.

Executors settling more complex estates — those involving multiple properties, shares held as tenants in common, or overseas executors — will find that engaging a licensed WA settlement agent for the Landgate lodgments is often the most practical option, particularly once the probate grant has been obtained.

The Western Australia Probate Process Guide walks through the complete property transfer sequence, from title search through final transfer to beneficiaries, with the exact forms and fees current for this financial year.

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