His Majesty's Land Registry.
126His Majesty's Land Registry.
(1)There shall continue to be an office in London to be called His Majesty's Land Registry, the business of which shall be conducted by a registrar to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor and known as the Chief Land Registrar, with such officers (namely, registrars, assistant registrars, clerks, messengers, and servants), as the Lord Chancellor, with the concurrence of the Treasury as to number, may appoint.
(2)A person shall not be qualified to be appointed Chief Land Registrar unless he is a barrister of not less than ten years' standing, and a person shall not be qualified to be appointed a registrar or an assistant registrar unless he is either a barrister or solicitor of not less than five years' standing.
(3)The Chief Land Registrar, registrars, assistant registrars, clerks, messengers, and servants shall receive such salaries or remuneration as the Treasury may from time to time direct.
(4)The salaries of the Chief Land Registrar, registrars, assistant registrars, clerks, messengers, and servants, and such incidental expenses of carrying this Act into effect as may be sanctioned by the Treasury, shall continue to be paid out of money provided by Parliament.
(5)The Lord Chancellor may make regulations for the land registry, and for assigning the duties to the respective officers, and determining the acts of the registrar which may be done by a registrar or assistant registrar, and for altering or adding to the official styles of the Chief Land Registrar and other officers of the land registry. Subject to such regulations, anything authorised or required by this Act to be done to or by the registrar shall be done to or by the Chief Land Registrar. All such regulations for the time being in force shall have effect as if they were enacted in this Act.
(6)The Lord Chancellor may also make regulations as to the conduct of business at the land registry during any vacancy in the office of Chief Land Registrar, and for distributing the duties amongst the respective officers, and for assigning to a registrar or assistant registrar all or any of the functions and authorities by this Act or any other Act assigned to or conferred on the registrar, and all acts done by a registrar or assistant registrar under any such regulations shall have the same effect in all respects as if they had been done by the Chief Land Registrar.
(7)There shall continue to be a seal of the land registry and any document purporting to be sealed with that seal shall be admissible in evidence.
127Conduct of business by registrar.
Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Chief Land Registrar shall conduct the whole business of registration under this Act, and shall frame and cause to be printed and circulated or otherwise promulgated such forms and directions as he may deem requisite or expedient for facilitating proceedings under this Act.
128Power for registrar to summon witnesses.
(1)The Chief Land Registrar, or any officer of the land registry authorised by him in writing, may administer an oath or take a statutory declaration in pursuance of this Act in that behalf for any of the purposes of this Act, and the Chief Land Registrar may, by summons under the seal of the land registry, require the attendance of all such persons as he may think fit in relation to the registration of any title; he may also, by a like summons, require any person having the custody of any map, survey, or book made or kept in pursuance of any Act of Parliament to produce such map, survey, or book for his inspection; he may examine upon oath any person appearing before him and administer an oath accordingly; and he may allow to every person summoned by him the reasonable charges of his attendance:
Provided that no person shall be required to attend in obedience to any summons or to produce such documents as aforesaid unless the reasonable charges of his attendance and of the production of such documents be paid or tendered to him.
(2)Any charges allowed by the registrar in pursuance of this section shall be deemed to be charges incurred in or about proceedings for registration and may be dealt with accordingly.
(3)If any person, after the delivery to him of such summons as aforesaid, or of a copy thereof, and payment or tender of his reasonable charges for attendance, wilfully neglects or refuses to attend in pursuance of such summons, or to produce such maps, surveys, books, or other documents as he may be required to produce under the provisions of this Act, or to answer upon oath or otherwise such questions as may be lawfully put to him by the registrar under the powers of this Act, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.
129Interchange of information between land registry and other departments.
The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and other Government Departments, and local authorities, may furnish to the registrar on his request such particulars and information in regard to land and charges, and the registrar may in like manner furnish to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, other Government Departments, and local authorities on their request such particulars and information as they are respectively by law entitled to require owners of property to furnish to them direct.
130Statutory acknowledgments on return of documents.
When any document is delivered or returned by the registrar to any person he may, at the cost of the registry, require such person to give a statutory acknowledgment of the right of the registrar and his successors in office to production of such document and to delivery of copies thereof, and may endorse notice of such right on the document, and the acknowledgment shall not be liable to stamp duty.
131Indemnity to officers of registry.
The Chief Land Registrar shall not, nor shall a registrar or assistant registrar nor any person acting under the authority of the Chief Land Registrar or a registrar or assistant registrar, or under any order or general rule made in pursuance of this Act, be liable to any action or proceeding for or in respect of any act or matter done or omitted to be done in good faith in the exercise or supposed exercise of the powers of this Act, or any order or general rule made in pursuance of this Act.