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DWE Home > Home > Water Management > Water access and trade > Subdividing your water access licence

Water licensing and trading

Subdividing your water access licence

You may want to split a water access licence to:

• sell part of the licence while keeping the other part;
• divide the licence for inheritance purposes or as part of divorce arrangements.

A typical subdivision of a water access licence

John has a water access licence with a share component of 120 units. He wants to split this into two licences with share component volumes of 100 units and 20 units so that he can later sell the smaller one to invest in an improved irrigation system.

Do I need to contact DNR?

We suggest you contact your local DNR office before you fill in the application.

Do I need consent from other people?

As part of the application to subdivide the licence, you need to obtain the written consent of all holders of the licence.

When registering the notification of the subdivision at LPI, the consent of the holders of any registered security interests in the licence (mortgages and company charges held by a bank or other lending institution) will also be required.

Aspects to consider

In subdividing the water access licence into separate licences you will need to consider:

• how the share component will be divided; and
• how the water allocation and carryover water in the existing water account will be distributed.

How do I apply?

If you want to subdivide your licence or subdivide and move one or all of the resulting licences to another location, you will need to fill in the Application to subdivide and change a water access licence (under section 71O, 71 P(1b), 71 R, 71 S and 71 W of the Water Management Act 2000).

Advice on how to complete the application is included with the form. There is no fee charged for the processing of the application for a straight subdivision of a licence, however, if you wish to also move a subdivided licence to a new location, a fee of $250 is required to assess the impacts.

How is the application processed?

If the application is complete it will be registered on DNR's database and the fee processed. The application will be delayed if further information is required. If this information is not received within the specified time after it is requested, DNR will reject the application and return it with an explanation. Rejection may also occur if the licence is currently suspended.

Your application will be assessed against the water sharing plan rules, dealing principles and provisions of the Water Management Act 2000. For a change in location, the dealing will also be subject to detailed environmental assessment, particularly for applications affecting unregulated rivers and groundwater aquifers. DNR will advise you by letter of the result of your application. This notice of determination will include the conditions that apply to the new licences.

Registering the subdivision with LPI

After the notice of determination has been received, the notification form for subdivision must be registered at Land and Property Information NSW (LPI). The subdivision is complete and becomes legally effective only when it is registered with LPI.

After registration, LPI will prepare the new access licence certificates. LPI requires a fee of $73.25 to register the notification and another $73.25 for each additional water access licence created.

Note: This information does not constitute formal legal advice.