LAND REGISTRATION ORDINANCE, 1844

LAND REGISTRATION ORDINANCE, 1844

1844.

No. 1 of. 1844.

An Ordinance to provide for the registration of deeds,
conveyances, wills, and judgments affecting real or
immovable property.
[28th February, 1844.]
WHFREAS it is expedient to prevent secret and fraudulent
conveyances, and to provide means whereby the title to
real and immovable property may be easily traced and
ascertained :-

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Land Registration
Ordinance, 1844.

Registration of instruments affecting land.

2. The Land Office shall be a public office for the regis-
tration of deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in
writing, and wills and judgments; and all deeds, conveyances,
and other instruments in writing, and wills, and all judgments,
by which deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in writing,
and wills and judgments, any parcels of ground, tenements,
or premises in this Colony, may be affected, may be entered
and registered in the said office in the manner hereinafter
directed.

All such deeds, conveyances, and other instruments
in writing, and wills and judgments, made, executed, or
obtained and registered in pursuance hereof, shall have priority
one over the other according to the priority of their respective
dates of registration.

(2) All such deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in
writing, and wills and judgments, as last aforesaid which are
not registered shall (as against any subsequent bond fide pur-
chaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration of the same
parcels of ground, tenements, or premises) be absolutely null

For registration in Land Office of memoranda of modifications and exemp-
tions under the Buildings Ordinance, 1935, see No. 18 of 1935, s. 165.





and void to all intents and purposes: Provided that nothing
herein contained shall extend to bond fide leases at rack rent for
any term not exceeding three years.

4. No notice whatsoever, either actual or constructive, of
any prior unregistered deed, conveyance, or other instrument
in writing, or will or judgment, shall affect the priority of any
such instrument as aforesaid as is duly registered.

5. All deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in
writing, and wills and judgments, which are duly registered
within the respective times next mentioned, that is to say, all
deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in writing (except
wills) which, if executed in this Colony, are registered within
one month, or which, if executed in any other place, are
registered within twelve months, after the time of execution
thereof respectively, and all wills which, if the devisor dies in
this Colony are registered within one month, or which, if the
devisor dies in any, other place, are registered within twelve
months, after the decease of every devisor respectively, and all
judgments are registered within one month after the
entering up or recording thereof, shall severally be in like
manner entitled to priority, and shall take effect respectively by
relation to the date thereof only in the same manner as if this
Ordinance had not been passed.

3Iode of regisfration.

6. The registration intended by this Ordinance shall be
made in manner following, that is to say, a memorial containing
the particulars hereinafter specified shall be delisered into the
Land Office, signed, in the case of a deed, conveyance, or other
instrument in writing, except a will, by some or one of the
parties to the original instrument, or, if such parties are dead
or absent from the Colony, then by one or more of the witnesses
to such instrument, and in the case of a will by some or one
of the devisees or his guardian or trustees, and in the case of
a judgment by a party to the action in which such judgment
is delivered or by his agent or by a person claiming under or
through such party.

7. Every such memorial shall be verified by the oath of
some competent person that the same contains a just and true
account of the several particulars therein set forth, which oath
shall be taken before any justice of the peace.







8.-(1) The memorial of any deed, conveyance, or other
instrument in writing, and of any will, shall contain the date
of such deed, conveyance, or other instrument, or of such will,
and the particular nature and object thereof, the names and
additions of all the parties to such deed, conveyance, or other
instrument, and of the devisor and devisee or, devisees of such
will, and the names and additions of all the witnesses thereto and
shall especially particularise and express the parcels of ground,
tenements and premises affected or intended to be affected by
such deed, conveyance, or other instrument, or by such will,
and the proper and ordinary or accustomed names of the places
where the same are situated, and (except in the case of a will)
the pecuniary or other consideration for the same, in the form
or to the effect of the form in the First Schedule.

(2) The memorial of any judgment shall contain the names
and additions of the plaintiffs and defendants respectively, the
surn thereby recovered or secured, if any, the time of entering
up or recording the sarne, and the sum of money bond fide due
thereon, if any.

(3) Provided always that when there are more writings than
one for perfecting the same conveyance, devise, or security
affecting the same parcels of ground, tenements, and premises,
all such writings shall be stated in one and the same memorial,
in which it shall be sufficient to particularise such parcels,
tenements and premises only once.

9.-(1) On the deliverv of any such memorial as aforesaid,
the Land Officer shall number th e memorial according to the
order of time in which it has been so delivered, and shall give
a receipt for it, in which receipt shall be specified the certain
day and time of day when the memorial was so delivered,
and the proper number thereof in the register of the Land
Office.

(2) The Land Officer shall also in like manner immediately
indorse on the bank of the memorial a certificate, containing
the day and the time of day when the memorial was so delivered,
and the name and place of abode of the person verifying, and
shall sign the certificate when so indorsed.

(3) Such certificate shall be taken and allowed as evidence
of tile registration, and of the time of registration, of the deed,

*As amended by Law Rev. Ord. 1937.





conveyance, or other instrument, or of the will or judgment,
of which the memorial has been so made.

10. Every such memorial shall, as soon after the receipt
thereof, as practicable, be carefully registered by the Land
Officer, in regular succession as received, according to its proper
number, in a particular book to be kept by him for that purpose,
and shall afterwards be deposited by him in some secure
place in his office, and there kept for future reference when
required.

11. The Land Officer shall also keep an index of the parcels
of ground, tenements, and premises mentioned in every such
memorial and also a like index or indices of the names of the
several parties to deeds, conveyances, and other instruments in
writing, and of the devisors and devisees in the case of wills,
and of the plaintiffs and defendants in the case of judgments,
with accurate references in all such indices respectively to the
number and page of registry of the memorial to which any
entry in such indices relates.

12. In the case of any mortgage or judgment registered,
if at any, time afterwards such verified certificate as is herein-
after next mentioned is brought to the Land Officer, signed by
the respective mortgagors and mortgagees or plaintiffs and
defendants or their agents respectively, and attested by two
credible witnesses, whereby it appears that the whole of the
moneys due on such mortgage or judgment have been fully
paid, or that such mortgage or judgment is otherwise satisfied,
then the Land Officer shall make a short entry or memorandum
thereof on the memorial and on the margin of the registry of
such mortgage or judgment, and shall afterwards carefully
register the certificate in one of the registry books of his
offide, and the Land Officer shall make an entry thereof in
his indices referring accurately to the page of registry of the
certificate.

13.-(1) Every such certificate shall contain the following
particulars, that is to say, in the case of a mortgage the names
and additions of the original parties, the date of the instrument,
the sum thereby secured, and the time of payment or other
satisfaction thereof; and in the case of a judgment the names
and additions of the plaintiffs and defendants, the time of
entering up or recording the same, the sum thereby recovered,





if any, and the, date of payment or other satisfaction of the
amount bond fide due thereon, if any.

(2) Every such certificate shall be verified by the oath of
some competent person that the same contains a just and true
account of the several particulars therein set forth, which oath
shall be made and taken before any justice of the peace.

(3) On the back of such verified certificate the Land Officer
shall immediately indorse the date when the same was received
by him, and the name and place of abode of the person verifying
the same, and the certificate shall, after being so indorsed and
entered as aforesaid, be safely kept in his office for future
reference when required.

Registration of lis pendens.

14. The provisions of this Ordinance relating to judgments
(subject to the provisions hereinafter contained) shall extend
to lites pendentes within the intent and meaning of the Acts
of Parliament 2 & 3 Victoria, chapter 11, and 13 & 14 Victoria,
chapter 35.

15. The memorial of any such lis pendens shall he sufficient
if it is signed by the plaintiffs or persons claiming to be
plaintiffs to the said lis pendens, and contains the names and
additions of the said persons and of the defendants or persons
whose estate is intended to be affected thereby, and the day
when the bill, information, or special case was filed, and the
sum of money thereby claimed or in controversy; but the said
memorial shall be verified inall other respects as is provided
in the case of judgments.

16. Notwithstanding the said. Acts of Parliament, no lis
pendens shall be registered in the Registry of the Supreme
Court, or elsewhere than in the Land Office; and a lis pendens
not registered in the said office shall not bind any purchaser or
mortgagee of the estate intended to be thereby affected.

17. So much of the said Acts of Parliament and of the
Acts of. Parliament 3 & 4 Victoria, chapter 82, and 18 & 19
Victoria, chapter 15, as requires the re-registering of judgments

13 and 14 Vict. c. 35 rep. 46 and 47 Vict. c. 49 s. 3.
As amended by Law Rev. Ord--- 1957.





and lites Pendentes after every successive period of five years,
beginning from the entry thereof respectively, shall extend to
all judgments, lites pendentes and orders, registered in the Land
Office, and by which it is intended to affect any estate.

18. Subject to the provisions of section ii of the Act is
& 19 Victoria, chapter 15, for the relief of purchasers and
mortgagees for valuable consideration against the judgments,
Crown debts, and liabilities of paid-off mortgagees (which
provisions are hereby extended to this Colony), every lis pendens
registered or re-registered, and also every judgment or order
re-registered in manner aforesaid, shall have the same force and
effect as a judgment registered and not further or otherwise.

Vacation. of registration of lis pendens.

19. The court or judge before whom any property sought
to be bound is in litigation, may on the determination of the
lis pendens, or during the pendency thereof, where the said
court or judge is satisfied that the litigation is not prosecuted
bond fide, or for other good cause shown, make an order for
the vacating of the registration in the Land Office of such lis
pendens without the consent of the party who refyistered it, and
may direct the party on whose behalf the, registration was made
to pay all the costs and expenses occasioned by the registration
or the vacating thereof, including the costs of the application
to vacate, or may make such other order as to such costs or
any of them as to the said court or udge may seem just.

20. The application to vacate a lis pendens under section
19 may be in a summary way by petition or motion in court
or by summons in chambers, and may be made by any person
interested in the property against which the lis pendens has
been registered, whether such person is a parts, to the lis pendens
or not.

21. If an order is made for vacating any such registration,
the Land Officer shall, on the filing with him of a memorial
and an office copy. of such order, enter a discharge of such lis
pendens on the register, and may issue. certificates of such
entry.





Miscellaneous.

22. It shall be lawful for any person- to deposit in the
Land Office for safe custody any deed, conveyance, power of
attorney, or other instrument in writing or his
last will and testament, of which deeds, conveyances, powers of
attorney, or other instruments, wills, and testaments the Land
Officer shall (first giving a receipt for the same) immediately
make an entry in a book. to be kept for that purpose, to which
book fie shall keep an accurate alphabetical index having
reference as well to the name of the testator or parties to each
such deed or instrument as to the person depositing the same;
and the I and Officer shall carefully and securtly keep all such
deeds, convevances, powers of attorney, or other instruments,
wills, and testaments in his office until required by the party
depositing the same to deliver them back again: Provided that
every such will or testament shall be enclosed within a cover or
envelope, scaled with the seal of the testator, whose name shall
he indorsed by the Land Officer thereon, and every such will
or testament shall remain in the said office until the decease of
the testator, unless he previously requires the same to he
delivered back, and on the death of the testator the Land Officer
shall (after examining such will or testament) deliver the same,
to the executor first named therein, or to such other person as
may be duly authorized to receive the same.

23. If the Land Officer or any other person employed in
the Land Office wilfully neglects or omits to number, register,
or enter in manner hereinbefore directed any memorial or
certificate delivered into the said office, he shall he liable in
damages to the party injured to the extent of the loss or injury
sustained.

24. If the Land Officer or anv clerk or person whosoever
wilfully destroys, embezzles, or secretes, forges, counterfeits,
razes, defaces, or alters any memorial or any part thereof, or
any indorsement thereon, or any entry or registry thereof in
any book in the said office, with intent to defraud or injure any
person, such Land Officer, clerk, or person so offending shall
he guilty of felony, and shall be liable to imprisonment for any
term not exceeding fourteen years.





25. Any correction by erasure, interlineation, or otherwise
in any memorial of the registry of any document shall be noted
and set forth at length in red ink in the margin of the memorial
wherein it is made, together with the reasons for making the
same, and shall be attested and verified by the signature of the
Land Officer.

26-(1) The fees mentioned in the Second Schedule shall
be paid for and in respect of the several matters and things
therein stated.

Such fees shall be paid by means of stamps which shall be
duly cancelled by the Land Officer.

(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (3), the true
consideration shall be stated in all documents registered in the
Land Office.

(3) Where the amount or value of the consideration money
is not stated in any deed, assignment, mortgage or other
instrument tendered for registration in the Land Office, or where
no consideration money or merely nominal consideration money
passes thereunder, the value of the property, to which such
deed, assignment or other instrument relates, shall be determined
by the Land Officer and the like fees shall be paid as if the
value so determined were the amount or value of the consideration
money.

FIRST SCHEDULE.

PARTICULARS OF MEMORIAL OF BEGISTRATION, [s. 8.]

1. Date of instrument or will.
2. Nature and object thereof.
3. Names and additions of the parties or of the devisors, or
devisees.
4. Names and additions of the witnesses thereto.
.5. Description of the land or premises conveyed in or affected
by the instrument or will.
6. Name and description of the place where situate.
7. Consideration and to whom and how paid.
8. Any other particulars which the case may require.

As amended by No. 28 of 1931 [16.10.31].





SECOND SCHEDULE.

TAi3L.E OF FEES PAYABLE TO THE LAND OFFICER. [s. 26.]

1. For reuistering every deed, assignment, mortgage or other
instrument in writing (except as hereinafter provided) where such
deed, assignment, mortgage or other instrument relates only to one
lot or one section or portion of a lot as registered or Intended to be
registered in the Land Office.

Where the amount or value of the consideration money

Does not. exceed $500 ..........$ 1
Exceeds $500 but does not exceed $1,000 $ 3

$3 for
every
Exceeds $1,000 but does........not exceed $5,000 $1,000
or part
thereof

Exceeds.........................$5,000 $ 15

2. For registering every other deed, assignment, mortgage or other
instrument in writing, except as hereinafter provided,

Where the amount or value of the coil sideration money

Does not exceed $500 ..........$ 1

Exceeds.........................$500 but does not exceed $1,000 $ 3

$3 for
every
Exceeds $1,000 but.....does not exceed $5,0OU $1,000
or part
thereof

Exceeds.........................$5,000 $ 30

Provided that where the amount or value of the consideration
money exceeds $20,000 and the deed, assignment, mortgage or other
instrument relates to three or more lots, or sections or portions of
lots, a further fee of $3 shall be paid in respect of the third and of
each subsequent lot, section or portion.

3. For registering every will, probate, letters of adminis-
tration, judgment, decree, prohibitory order, or other order of
court, or receiving any verified certificate for each lot, section
or portion of a lot to which such document relates $ 3

As amended by No. 28 of 1931 [16.10.31].





4. For registering a lis pendens ....... $ 3

5. For entering, a discharge of a lis pendens $ 6
6. For a certificate of such entry of discharge $ 3

7. For receiving for safe custody any deed, will, or other
instrument ............................................................... $ 15

8. For every bearch ...................$ 1
9. For certificate of receipt of any document, or certifying
a copy. thereof, and for every other certificate $ 15

10. For every uncertified copy of any will, deed, memorial,'
or other instrument, per folio of 72 words 75 cts

11. For registering memorial of a writ of foreign attachment $ 3

12. For filing a certificate that a writ of foreign attachment
is dissolved, or that the judgment in the action is satisfied $ 3

13; For the signature of the Governor to any Crown lease
or other document issued from the Land Office, including
affixing the public seal to such lease or other document, where.
such seal is necessary ...............$ 10

14. For plans attached to a Crown lezise and counterpart,
or other document ............................................ $ 20

15. *For legal Charges for and incidental to the preparation
and issuing of a Crown lease and counterpart $ 30

16. For the Survey when a Crown lease is issued for the
whole or any portion of a lot formerly held under demise by
Crown lease ............................................... $ 20

* For exemption where more than one Crown lease is required, see G.N.
119 of 1932 [Order by G. in C. under Ord. No. 5 of 1870 (Crown Fees)].
[Originally No. 3 of 1844. No. 28 of 1931. Law Rev. Ord. 1937.] Short title. Establishment of Land Office for registration of instruments affecting land. Priority of registered instruments; effect of non-registration. Notice of unregistered instrument not to affect registered instrument. Period within which instruments to be registered after execution. Delivery into Land office of memorial of instrument to be registered. Verification of memorial. Particulars to be contained in memorial. First Schedule. Numbering, receipt for, and indorsement of certificate on memorial. Registration and custody of memorial. Indices of lands registered and of parties to instruments. Entry of satisfaction of mortgage or judgment and registration of certificate of satisfaction. Contents, verification, and custody of certificate of satisfaction of mortgage or judgment. Registration of lis pendens as judgement. Particulars to be contained in memorial. Case of lis pendens not registered. Extension of Acts of Parliament. Effect of registry and re-registry and extension of 18 & 19 Vict. C. 15, s. 11. Power to the court to order vacation of lis pendens. 30 & 31 Vict. C. 47, s. 2. Mode of making application to the court. 30 & 31 Vict. C. 47, s. 2. Entry of discharge by Land Officer/ 30 & 31 Vict. c. 47, s. 2. Deposit of deeds, etc., in Land Office for safe custody. Penalty on officers for wilful neglect. Penalty for destroying memorial etc., with intent to defraud. Verification of correction in memorial of registry. Fees. Second Schedule.

[Originally No. 3 of 1844. No. 28 of 1931. Law Rev. Ord. 1937.] Short title. Establishment of Land Office for registration of instruments affecting land. Priority of registered instruments; effect of non-registration. Notice of unregistered instrument not to affect registered instrument. Period within which instruments to be registered after execution. Delivery into Land office of memorial of instrument to be registered. Verification of memorial. Particulars to be contained in memorial. First Schedule. Numbering, receipt for, and indorsement of certificate on memorial. Registration and custody of memorial. Indices of lands registered and of parties to instruments. Entry of satisfaction of mortgage or judgment and registration of certificate of satisfaction. Contents, verification, and custody of certificate of satisfaction of mortgage or judgment. Registration of lis pendens as judgement. Particulars to be contained in memorial. Case of lis pendens not registered. Extension of Acts of Parliament. Effect of registry and re-registry and extension of 18 & 19 Vict. C. 15, s. 11. Power to the court to order vacation of lis pendens. 30 & 31 Vict. C. 47, s. 2. Mode of making application to the court. 30 & 31 Vict. C. 47, s. 2. Entry of discharge by Land Officer/ 30 & 31 Vict. c. 47, s. 2. Deposit of deeds, etc., in Land Office for safe custody. Penalty on officers for wilful neglect. Penalty for destroying memorial etc., with intent to defraud. Verification of correction in memorial of registry. Fees. Second Schedule.

https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/items/show/1377

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