Introduction to EmpowerUs and the Guardian Right

EmpowerUs established the Guardian Right Registry on 22/11/2025 after 35 years of dedicated research into housing systems, land use, and financial fairness. The principal aim is to make housing more affordable by separating land ownership from occupancy rights, ensuring all agreements are bound by clear and predictable terms. The Registry serves to bring this goal into practical reality.

Origins and Development

Glenn Phelan, the creator of the system, discovered that while contracts could be used to relinquish rights, they could not be used to remove rights entirely. His use of Vendor terms agreements created beneficial outcomes for both parties, as restrictions that would otherwise hinder progress on projects or deals could be legally eliminated.

The Guardian Right and its Registry represent the culmination of this expertise, designed primarily to build a housing system that reduces the cost of living. The Guardian Right has become a symbol and a streamlined tool for owning and trading equitable interests, and the Registry was developed to legitimise these trades for landholders, occupants, lenders, and the broader society.

Legal Development and Structure

The Torrens system was originally created for land interests only, permitting the registration of leases and easements on title. However, capital improvements or appurtenances—also known as fixtures—are specified separately on rates notices and now sold under a Guardian Right as an equitable interest have no legal definition as yet. Since these interests are separated from the land despite remaining attached, they cannot be registered under Torrens, which is the gap the Guardian Right Registry was designed to fill.

This approach makes the Guardian Right moveable, allowing guardians to buy and sell portions of a holding after the landholder has secured their equity with the Call Option and fixed market depreciation. The Guardian Right is specific to CIV, enabling the titleholder to retain 100% ownership of the landholding. This contrasts with traditional co-ownership structures, which allocate numerical shares and result in complex fee structures across property models such as strata, retirement villages, eco-villages, van parks, and CLTs.

The Guardian Right is a physical holding that simplifies the Torrens process and ensures the title remains unimpeded. The only crossover occurs with existing mortgages, where the Guardian Right remains unrecognised. When a Guardian Right (an equitable interest) is created, trust law applies, making the landholder a trustee for the guardian beneficiary according to a trust deed. All property owners retain the legal right to create equitable interests and trust deeds.

Guardian Right Terms Agreement

The Guardian Right Terms Agreement serves as the registry trust deed, making the Guardian Right tradeable. Guardian fixtures are fixed within the trustee-beneficiary relationship, while also being transferable under the ownership framework set by the terms agreement (trust deed). The layered legal structure gives the Torrens titleholder primary status as property beneficiary, with the Guardian Right holding secondary status. However, with respect to personal property—where the Guardian Right applies—the holder is afforded equal priority.

Contract law permits parties to relinquish rights but not to take them away. Vendors can remove restrictions and maintain fairness in contracts, which are tied to the trust deed designed to be standard across all transactions in the APG environment. In Phase 1, the property owner enters a contractual Set-Up arrangement that separates property into land and CIV, governed by the Guardian Right Terms (trust deed) Agreement.

Phase 2 covers the tradeable aspect of APG, allowing land under right to be sold, the guardian right under call option to be sold, and development rights under deed to facilitate projects that create or redevelop habitable fixtures—all governed by consistent terms in every Guardian Right exchange. These terms cannot be altered, ensuring transparency and fairness for all parties involved in each transaction.

Disclaimer

EmpowerUs Australia is not a financial or legal institution. The information provided is intended to inform current and future clients about the APG system’s mechanics and applications to the best of EmpowerUs’ ability.