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16 1964

REGISTRATION OF TITLE ACT, 1964

PART II

Land Registry, Registers, Registering Authorities and Jurisdiction

Land Registry

The central and local offices.

7. —(1) There shall be a central office in the county borough of Dublin (in this Act referred to as “the central office”) and a local office in each county other than Dublin (in this Act referred to as a “local office”).

(2) The central office shall be the office for registration of all land in the State.

(3) The functions of the local offices shall be such as may be prescribed.

(4) The central office and the local offices shall collectively be known as the Land Registry.

Registers

Registers of ownership.

8. —There shall be maintained in the central office—

(a) registers of—

(i) ownership of freehold land, and

(ii) ownership of leasehold interests,

excluding incorporeal hereditaments held in gross;

(b) a register of ownership of—

(i) land comprising incorporeal hereditaments held in gross;

(ii) such other rights in land as may be prescribed.

Registering Authorities

The Registrar of Titles.

9. —(1) The central office shall be under the management and control of an officer who shall be called the Registrar of Titles.

(2) The Registrar of Titles shall be appointed by the Government and shall hold office at the pleasure of the Government.

(3) No person shall be appointed to be Registrar of Titles unless at the time of his appointment he is either a barrister-at-law or a solicitor who has practised his profession for not less than ten years.

(4) For the purpose of subsection (3), service by a barrister-at-law or a solicitor in a situation in the Civil Service shall be deemed to be practice of his profession.

(5) Subject to the person appointed thereto being in good health at the time of his appointment, the office of Registrar of Titles shall be a pensionable office within the Superannuation Acts for the time being in force, and there may be granted either to the Registrar of Titles on his retirement or to his personal representative on his death such superannuation and other allowances and gratuities as might under the said Acts have been granted to such Registrar of Titles if he had been appointed to an established position in the Civil Service with a certificate of qualification from the Civil Service Commissioners.

(6) Every Registrar of Titles shall hold his office on such terms and conditions and shall receive, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such remuneration as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct.

(7) The Registrar of Titles shall retire on attaining the age of sixty-five years, but that age of retirement may, in the case of any particular Registrar of Titles, be extended by the Minister for Justice, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, to any age not exceeding seventy years.

(8) The person appointed under this section to be Registrar of Titles may also be appointed by the Government to be Registrar of Deeds, and if so appointed, he shall be known as the Registrar of Deeds and Titles, but the foregoing provisions of this section shall continue to apply to him in the same manner as if he had continued to be only Registrar of Titles.

Local registrars.

10. —(1) Subject to the direction and control of the Registrar, every local office shall be under the management of the county registrar of the county in which the local office is situate, and the business of the local office shall be transacted in the Circuit Court Office in and for that county.

(2) Every county registrar (other than the county registrar for the county borough and county of Dublin) shall be a local registrar.

(3) Any county and county borough amalgamated for the purposes of the Circuit Court shall be deemed to be one county for the purposes of section 7 and this section.

Relations of Registrar and local registrars.

11. —Provision shall be made by general rules for determining the relations between the Registrar and the several local registrars and the control to be exercised by the Registrar over each local registrar.

Officers of central and local offices.

12. —(1) There shall be attached to the central office and to each local office such and so many officers and servants as the Minister for Justice shall, from time to time, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, consider to be necessary.

(2) Every officer and servant attached to the central office or to any local office shall hold his position on such terms and conditions and shall receive, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such remuneration as the Minister for Finance shall, from time to time, direct.

Exercise of powers of registering authorities.

13. —(1) All or any of the powers and duties conferred or imposed on the Registrar as such, or as Registrar of Deeds, may be exercised and performed by such other officer or officers as the Minister for Justice may authorise in that behalf.

(2) All or any of the powers and duties conferred or imposed on any local registrar by or under this Act may be exercised and performed by such other officer or officers attached to the relevant local office as the Minister for Justice may authorise in that behalf.

Fees.

14. —(1) The Minister for Justice, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may by order fix the fees to be taken in the Land Registry for the purposes of this Act and may revoke or amend any such order.

(2) The fees shall, so far as possible, be so fixed as to produce an annual amount sufficient to discharge the salaries, remuneration and other expenses payable under and incidental to the working of this Act.

(3) Any provision of this Act or of general rules requiring or authorising anything to be done or any certificate or other document to be issued by the Registrar or in or from the Land Registry shall be construed as requiring or authorising the same on payment of such fee as may be fixed by order under this Act.

(4) No fee shall be payable—

(a) by the Land Commission on any registration or application for registration under this Act,

(b) on any application for the registration of the ownership of any person to or in whom the Land Commission has transferred or vested registered land where the Land Commission is under a statutory duty to procure such registration.

(5) All fees payable under this Act shall be collected and taken in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct and shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of that Minister.

(6) The Public Offices Fees Act, 1879, shall not apply to fees payable under this Act.

Official seals.

15. —(1) The Registrar and each local registrar shall have a separate official seal.

(2) Judicial notice shall be taken of the said official seals, and any instrument purporting to be sealed with any such seal shall be admissible in evidence, and, if a copy, shall be admissible in like manner as the original.

Powers of Registrar.

16. —(1) Subject to general rules, the Registrar may, by summons under his seal, require the attendance of all such persons as he thinks fit in relation to the registration of any title.

(2) He may, by like summons, require any person having the custody of any map, survey or book made or kept in pursuance of any enactment to produce the map, survey or book for inspection.

(3) He may examine on oath any person appearing before him and administer an oath accordingly.

(4) He may allow to any person summoned by him the reasonable expenses of his attendance.

(5) Any expenses allowed in pursuance of this section shall be deemed to be charges incurred in or about proceedings for registration, and may be dealt with in such manner as may be prescribed.

(6) If any person, after the delivery to him of a summons under this section, or of a copy thereof, and after having had a tender made to him of the expenses, if any, to which he is entitled, wilfully neglects or refuses to attend in pursuance of the summons, or to produce such maps, surveys, books or other documents as he may be required to produce under this Act, or to answer on oath or otherwise such questions as may be lawfully put to him by the Registrar under the powers of this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

Proceedings by and against Registrar.

17. —The Registrar of Titles may sue and be sued by that name.

Jurisdiction of the Court

The court.

18. —(1) The High Court and, subject to the provisions of this Act, the Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Act and “the court” shall in this Act be construed accordingly.

(2) Unless the necessary parties to the proceedings sign, either before or at any time during the hearing, the form of consent prescribed by rules of court, the Circuit Court shall not have jurisdiction in relation to land the rateable valuation of which exceeds £60.

(3) The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court to hear and determine any matter under this Act in relation to land shall be exercised by the judge of the circuit where the land or any part of the land is situate.

Appeal and reference to the court.

19. —(1) Any person aggrieved by an order or decision of the Registrar may appeal to the court and the court may annul or confirm, with or without modification, the order or decision.

(2) Whenever the Registrar entertains a doubt as to any question of law or of fact arising in the course of registration under this Act, he may make an order referring the question to the court.

(3) In any proceeding under this section the court shall, if so requested by the Registrar, and may in any case, if necessary, appoint a guardian or other person to represent any infant, person of unsound mind, person absent from the State, unborn person or person as to whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead; and, if satisfied that the interests of any person so represented are sufficiently protected by the representation, may make an order declaring that he shall be conclusively bound by the decision of the court and thereupon he shall, subject to the right under this Act to appeal on special leave, be bound accordingly, as if he were a party.

Enforcement by High Court of order of Registrar.

20. —If any person disobeys an order of the Registrar made in pursuance of this Act, the Registrar may certify the disobedience to the High Court and thereupon the person guilty of the disobedience may, subject to his right of appeal to that Court from such order, be punished by the Court as if the order of the Registrar were the order of the Court.

Registering authority to obey order of court.

21. —(1) A registering authority shall obey the order of a court of competent jurisdiction in relation to registered land.

(2) The Registrar may, where he considers it necessary, apply to the court which has made such order either to vary the same or to give directions as to the mode in which it is to be obeyed; and thereupon the court, after such notice, if any, as it may direct, may vary such order in such manner, or make such new order, as it may think fit.

Power of court in action for specific performance.

22. —Where an action is instituted for the specific performance of a contract relating to registered land or a registered charge, the court before which the action is pending may cause all or any parties who have registered rights in the land or charge, or have entered cautions or inhibitions against the same, to appear in the action and show cause why the contract should not be specifically performed, and the order of the court in the action shall be binding on those parties or any of them.