The Gazette 1977

JULY

GAZETTE

one by a solicitor and of every Instrument must be attested: if by a blind or illiterate person it should be verified by affidavit. Where the transfer is executed by Attorney the power of Attorney or office copy thereof filed in the High Court must be produced. In cases outside the provisions of Sections 8 and 9 of the Conveyancing Act 1882 evidence must be produced that the grantor was alive at the date of execution of the transfer and the power has not been revoked. Rule 56 prescribes the plan which is required when there is a transfer of part. Unless the part is already clearly defined on the Registry Map i.e. if it has a separate Land Registry plan number it must be shown on the current largest scale map published by the Ordnance Survey (Land Registry Copy Maps are acceptable if on the largest scale). This Rule repeats Rules going back to 1937 which prescribed the map required. To facilitate applicants and solicitors and to expedite registration maps have over the years been accepted when their effect could be entered on the office sheets even where they did not strictly come within the Rules. Increasing difficulties in mapping with the proliferation of photocopiers, boundary conflicts and other troubles forced the stricter application of the Rule. The covering statement which is to accompany every application or Instrument lodged in the Registry is prescribed by Rule 58. It may be in Form 17. It is important that this form should be fully filled up. Very often the names of all the parties are not given, or the Land Certificate is not referred to. It should be stated for whom the solicitor acts, whether for transferor or transferee or chargeant, or for all the parties. In the case of the Land Certificate it should be clearly stated to whom it is to be returned and who has had custody of it. Frequently, where the Land Certificate is in the custody of a third party the consent to its use for a second application or dealing is not lodged.

farm jointly with him. Where the application is for the registration of the applicant as full owner of the whole or part of a commonage it is usually difficult or impossible where the persons entitled are too numerous for the applicant to ascertain all their names and addresses or those of their personal representatives or successors. If they are not supplied, we would direct notice to be published in a local paper circulating in the locality in substitution for the service of notices. We accept titles and register an applicant as full owner notwithstanding the existence of an unproved Will of the registered owner purporting to have devised the land to the applicant or a predecessor in title of the applicant, provided that the said Will does not purport to charge legacies or rights on the land, or if any such legacies arise they have been discharged or become spent or statute- barred. APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTRATION WHEN DEEDS HAVE BEEN LOST OR DESTROYED Registration may be effected where there is an affidavit that exhibits and identifies a copy deed which clearly shows that the original deed was duly executed, that the parties subsequently acted on it according to its tenor and that it has been lost or destroyed. Unless it shows clearly that it was stamped the copy deed tendered must be stamped as an original. Formerly where a person entered into possession of land in the capacity of a bailiff the old doctrine was "once a bailiff always a bailiff'—but this is now abolished by Section 124 of the Succession Act 1965 as regards a person entering into possession of the estate of a deceased person who died after the 1st January 1967. Formerly a personal representative was regarded as an express trustee of the registered freehold property of his deceased and could not claim the benefit of the Statute. This was continuously modified by the Courts until now the personal representative is apparently in the same position as any other person claiming title by possession. From and after 1st January 1967 under Sections 126 and 127 of the Succession Act 1965 a person in possession may acquire title by six years adverse possession or, in the case of a disability, nine years. Again this only applies in the case of the estates of persons dying after 1st January 1967. Generally speaking a person cannot normally be in adverse possession to his or her spouse. There are circumstances where the possession of a spouse may become adverse as for instance where a husband deserts his wife who remains in possession. Successive squatters can between them make up the statutory period. When it is claimed in an application that the title to part of a Folio subject to a Land Commission prohibition against sub-division had been acquired by possession it is not necessary to obtain the consent of the Land Commission if the title to the part was acquired prior to the coming into operation of the Land Act 1975. After the 9th March 1965, Section 12 of the Land Act 1965 applies and the consent of the Land Commission is necessary. Where an applicant is a devisee under the will of a registered owner and is also his personal representative there is no adverse possession and an application under Section 49 cannot be entertained. Part 3 of the Rules — Dealings with Registered Property Transfers, charge etc., should follow the forms prescribed by the Rules. The execution of every application except

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