Checking property records easier with new tool

In June and July more than 10,000 documents have been viewed online. Photo / Warren Buckland

The process of checking a property's history is a lot less painful today than it once was.

In the past, this has meant taking time off work, heading to the council offices, requesting the property file, purchasing photocopies and taking copious notes.

Now you can get all the publicly available records on a property from your laptop.

Hastings District Council staff are rapt at the way their new online record service is working.

Not only is the public taking to using it in droves, but it has also won a top award in the Association of Local Government Information Management awards.

It was praised for its innovation, "huge uptake of public users" and "modest budget".

By typing in an address, users can find out almost everything, from all the legal descriptions, land area, valuations, and what day the rubbish is picked up, to the annual rate cost and all the publicly available documents.

In June and July more than 10,000 documents had been viewed online.

"I am not sure that I need to provide any further feedback other than a wonderful tool - implement it immediately. We have used it extensively already," one early trialist said.

When the online project was first investigated, it seemed the cost could be well over $80,000, however, by using in-house systems and staff, the project had a far more modest final cost of less than $6000.

The online document search followed on from the introduction of other online services, including dog registration, which had dealt with almost half of all transactions this year.