493 / 736
Rule 19(3) of the Land Registration Rules
1966
provides
that
where
registration
is
compulsory and the purchase money does not
exceed £2,000 the Registrar may register a title
as absolute on production of a certificate by a
solicitor that he has investigated the title and
made
the necessary searches and
that he
is
satisfied that the conveyance validly vested the
property in the applicant. It has been suggested
to the Registrar that 'the value £2,000 mentioned
in the rules should be raised to £10,000 to accord
with modern conditions but no decision has yet
been made on this point.
The situation calls for co-operation between
-~' : citors
to overcome these difficulties. Unless
the profession as a whole are willing to do this,
there
will
be
endless
complications
and
difficulties for practitioners and their clients. The
Council have passed the following resolution as
a matter of urgency and it has been circulated to
all Bar Associations.
In the view of this Council no member
of
the profession
charged with
the
preparation of
a
contract
for
sale,
whether by public auction or private
treaty of property to which Section 23
of the Registration of Title Act 1964
applies should include therein provisions
compelling
the purchaser to accept a
title less than sufficient to support an
application by the purchaser for first
registration with an absolute title unless
it is made clear on the face of the docu
ment
that
the vendor
is
unable
to
furnish the necessary title.
LAND REGISTRY NOTICE
References to be shown in Land Registry
Correspondence
The following direction was given in an Office
Notice dated 30 January, 1970: —
"In future all letters, notices, acknowledgements,
receipts etc. issued by this office should show, in
addition to the present references, the relevant
registered owners
and
solicitors'
file reference
numbers (if any). Provision will be made for
these references
in all forms as they are re
printed. In the meantime, however, the references
should be entered on the existing forms."
ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS IN
NORTHERN IRELAND
There has already been
a good deal of adverse
comment on the provision of the English Administration
of Justice Bill for
the replacement of committal for
civil debts by a system of attachment of earnings.
However, the Northern Ireland Government has felt
able to adopt
in toto
the recommendations of its own
committee, appointed in 1963, for a totally new system
of
enforcement. The Northern
Ireland
Judgments
(
Enforcement) Act recently passed its final stages, and
the first appointments under it have already been made.
The scheme is based on a central enforcement office
which will be
in
sole control over
the process of
collection through any of the various methods of en
forcement. The office will have power to make instal
ment—orders
to
levy execution against the debtor's
goods, to issue attachment orders against his employer,
to appoint a receiver, and in the last resort, to apply
for a committal order from the court in cases of wilful
refusal to pav. All creditors will have to applv to the
office for enforcement of any judgment and to pav the
relevant scale fee
in advance
(with a maximum of
£50 on amounts of £5.000''. All Judgments against the
same debtor will thus be dealt with through the same
enforcement system.
The proceeds will he allocated among the creditors
according
to
the priority of
their annllrMiom
for
enforcement. But where "it appears to the office that a
money judgment cannot be enforced either whollv or
partly within a reasonable time by any enforcement
order " it may, after giving both sides an opportunity
to be heard on the matter, issue a certificate of un-
enforceability which remains in force for six months
and bars
any
further proceedings
for
enforcement
against
the debtor;
this
is deemed
to be an act of
bankruptcy on his part, so that the debtor may then be
faced with
formal
bankruptcy
proceedings.
This,
together
with
the
unenforceability
procedure,
should
help
to
reduce
time wasted
on
fruit
less attempts to enforce orders made by courts on the
basis of inadequate
information. The office will also
maintain a
register of debtors
for
the use of
the
trading community.
The new system is not perfect. No explicit provision is
made for dealing with the multiple debtor who on all
accounts is
the real villain of the piece, both in the
moral, social and administrative senses.
But the Northern Ireland system does have very real
advantages over any existing system in the U.K. and all
this for an estimated annual cost of, at 1965 prices of
£35,000.
It is only by bringing together all the various claims,
both current outgoings
and past debts, which
the
debtor faces, and all the information which is available
about his circumstances and prospects that real justice
can be done both to the debtor and to his creditors.
The
scheme would have an
added advantage of
making it quite obvious to the enforcement office as, it
is not always obvious to judges and registrars under the
existing system, that the claims of some creditors are
completely without merit,
in
that credit has been
granted or even pressed on
the debtor without any
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