The Gazette 1949-1952

and to the practice of seeking to make a purchaser- pay a fee for the certificate under Section 6 of the Finance Act, 1928. In the opinion of the Council there is no justification for the contract fee. The Income Tax certificate should be furnished in a reply to a requisition on title without charge against the vendor or the purchaser. I am directed by the Council to ask your Associ­ ation to inform its members that the recommend­ ations of the Council on the above-mentioned matters should be observed in the interests of the profession as a whole. Yours faithfully, E ric A. P lunkett , Secretary. REGISTRY OF DEEDS Preparation o f M emorials The following memorandum, which in the opinion of the Council should be o f great advantage to solicitors, has been received from the Assistant Registrar of Deeds. Members o f the Society are requested to retain it for reference. I f the directions given are carried out, the satisfactory operation of the Registry of Deeds will be greatly facilitated : 1. The memorial, which may be printed or litho­ graphed, must be put into writing, upon parchment and addressed to the Registrar. Obs.—It is essential that the writing shall be legible. Many memorials submitted for registration are deficient in this regard. Obs.—In practice we do not accept typescript or writing with a biro pen—both for the same reason : that they can when applied to parchment be rubbed out with an ordinary pencil eraser. Obs.—Only the best quality black ink should be used. We have a considerable number o f memorials and requisitions for negative searches already quite illegible because of the fading o f inferior ink. Green ink will hardly last a month on parchment. Obs.—The memorial must bear a duty stamp of 2S. 6d., except where the duty on the Deed is less than this amount, when the duty on Deed and Memorial should be the same. 2. The memorial then begins : “ Memorial of a ............... dated ....... day o f...................., 19 ....... , made between ..............and here should follow an exact copy o f the Deed (mutatis mutandis) down to the end o f the parties. 3. The memorializing of recitals is optional except where the subsequent grant takes the form : “ All the property set out in recited Deed o f ............ In such case the deed referred to should be recited in extenso. 4. The memorializing o f the operative part o f the

Deed brings us to the fact that the Memorial should be made in the past tense. To follow the Deed and write “ Now this Indenture witnesseth ” as is frequently done is obviously incorrect, since the Memorial is not an Indenture nor can it “ witness ” anything. Obs.—The insertion of. the consideration is optional. It is sufficient to write “ for the con­ sideration therein,” but where the Deed deals with settled property and settled Land Act Trustees are parties it is desirable to add the words “ paid to the Trustees” after the words “ for the consideration therein.” This makes it clear that the Trustees, though parties to the Deed, are not actually grantors. It is the practice of the Registry to put on as grantors all unexplained parties to the Memorial. Obs.—It should be taken as a general principle that the property is to be “ expressed and mentioned in the same manner as in the deed itself,” and it might be advisable to copy the deed at this point strictly, for though in practice measurements and boundaries, etc., are not compared, it has been found that the making of a judicious selection from the deed for the purpose o f the memorial nearly always leads to confusion and frequently to down­ right error. Obs.—Where alteration of boundaries has made an old situation incorrect, and where a new deed has copied this situation from the old, e.g., where premises once in the County of Dublin are now in the City, it is permissible .to add in the memorial only , and after the old situation, “ which said premises are now in fact in the City of Dublin.” N.B.—-There is a great deal to be said in favour of memorializing the whole deed. In such case should the Deed get lost or mislaid a permanent record of the contents is immediately available. 5. This brings us to the habendum, and many solicitors content themselves with the simple state­ ment, “ To Hold as therein.” ) This is an easy way out and, if it is taken, the nature of the deed should appear at the beginning of the Memorial, i.e., instead of “ Memorial of an Indenture dated' ........... ,” it • should read, “ Memorial of Indenture of Lease, Mortgage Settlement, etc., dated........... ,” as the case may be. This is necessary as the Registry is required, in abstracting all Memorials, to state “ the general nature of the instrument.” Obs.—In the case of Leases, it is desirable that the term and rent should be stated in the habendum, as the statutory form of abstract provides a special column for these particulars. The substitution of “ subject to ” for “ yielding and paying ” in the case of a new rent is inaccurate and should be care­ fully avoided. 5i