The Gazette 1967/71

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 39