The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1981

Conveyancing Notes Houses held under Transfer Orders — Consent to Extensions Difficulties have arisen in cases where extensions were carried out to houses held under a Local Authority Transfer Order where Planning Permission and Building Bye-Law Approval were not obtained for the extension. While permission could be obtained for retention of the structure under the Planning Act it is not possible for the Local Authority to grant Building Bye-Law Approval retrospectively. The form of Transfer Order prohibits the person holding the property from the Local Authority from carrying out any extension or alteration to the structure without consent and the Local Authorities were reluctant to give a letter of consent in case it could be argued that this was a waiver of the breach of the Building Bye-Laws. Following a meeting between Law Society Representatives and Officials of Dublin Corporation and Dublin County Council it has been agreed that the following will be included in any letter of consent issued in such circumstances:— "This letter of consent is given by the Corporation in its capacity as the Housing Authority under Transfer Order dated the day of 19 . The extension the subject of this consent was erected in breach of the requirement to obtain Building Bye-Laws Approval under the Public Health Acts. It is not possible for the Corporation to give Building Bye-Laws Approval retrospectively under the Health Acts. This consent must not therefore be construed as a waiver of the breach of Building Bye-Laws." Requisitions on Title — 1981 Edition Requisitions 20 and 21 of the 1979 Edition of the Requisitions became obsolete on the expiry of the 6-year period commencing on 1st April 1975. Having taken expert advice, the Conveyancing Committee has prepared a new requisition No. 20 which replaces the previous requisitions 20 and 21. A consequent renumbering of all the succeeding requisitions has been made but, apart from some minor changes in wording, they otherwise remain unaltered. The new requisition is as follows:— Please state whether on the death of any person on the title prior to the 1/4/1975 any reversionary interest passed. If so, was payment of Estate Duty arising on such passing deferred. If, so a certificate of the subsequent discharge of such duty must be furnished, in any case where the reversionary interest fell into possession within six years of the date of this sale. A number of Solicitors have written to the Committee requesting the inclusion of the special requisition relating to Licensed premises, Hotels or Restaurants which were omitted from the 1979 Edition. The omission of the

Licensing Requisitions was a result of a deliberate policy decision that the requisition that only appeared in a very small minority of cases should not be included in the standard forms of requisitions. In view of the interest in the matter however, the Committee has commissioned an expert to prepare an updated version of the Licensing Requisitions which will be published shortly and circulated to the profession for insertion in the Hand- book. • Computerisation of the Land Registry A feature of the Society's recent Seminar on Computers and Office Technology, which is of interest to all practitioners, was a paper read by Mr. James Doyle of the Land Registry on the progress of the Registry's computerisation programme. Mr. Doyle informed his audience that the Land Registry intended to commence early in 1981 on the computerisation of its Folio record (plus related indices) and its method of recording details of dealings lodged. The soft-ware programme the Registry will use is called PROMIS, which was developed by Inslaw Inc., of Washington U.S.A. It has an unique tailoring facility, which allows the adaptation of the system to a particular application and the Land Registry has accordingly adapted PROMIS to its own requirements. At present the Registry has approximately one million folios and each year an average of 40,000 new Folios are opened. The task of entering the existing folio record will take an estimated eight years. Since, however, the records are to be entered on a regional basis, the effect and expected benefits should become apparent almost immediately in some regions. After an initial trial period, it is hoped to enter all new folios into the system. The present intention is that the computer system will supplement the existing filing and retrieval methods. It is intended also to enter into the computer details of dealings lodged and this, it is hoped, will assist in the tracking of dealings and facilitate the production of management information for the Registry. The Registry's approach to the computerisation of the records is intended to cause the minimum disruption to its operation, while at the same time reaping the expected benefit as soon as possible. Ease of storage, retrieval and analysis are the principal benefits the Registry expects to derive from computerisation. For the public at large and the legal profession in particular, computerisation should lead to improvement in the services provided by the Registry, especially in the copy folio and inspection areas. This major step forward brings us substantially nearer the day when it will be theoretically possible for each Solicitor's office to have its own computer terminal linked to the Registry's computer to enable searches to be made, folios inspected (and printed) within a matter of minutes. Although there is already precedent for such a service elsewhere, it remains to be seen whether such easy access to public data will be permitted in this country.•

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