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

. 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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