The Gazette 1983

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1983

The Consequences The effect of these Sections of the 1964 Act was to require that where land, including rents, whether supported by a right of ejectment or not, and rent charges, has been sold under the 1869 Act by the Commissioners for Church Temporalities or the Land Commission, the title to that land is compul- sorily registerable in the Land Registry. The test to be applied to conveyances on or after the Operative Date is:— was the land at any time sold and conveyed to or vested in any person in pursuance of the Act and, if so, has any conveyance on sale taken place since the 1st January 1967? If the answer to both limbs of this test is in the affirmative, then the title to the property should be registered forthwith. The best way of seeing the consequences of this legislation is by looking at the various types of property which could be sold by the Church Temporalities Commissioners or, after 1881, by the Land Commission. Church Lands Reacquired Many of the assets which the Church of Ireland was empowered to reacquire continue to be used by that Church down to the present and, although the RCB as a statutory body is required under Section 23 (l)(b) and Section 25 of the 1964 Act to register any property which it has acquired 7 since the Operative Data within six months of acquisition, assets acquired before that date are not compulsorily registerable, since Section 51 of the 1927 Act appears never to have applied to such land. A property sold by the RCB since the Operative Date, which was vested in it on disestablishment and the title to which is unregistered, has a good title but no interest will vest in the purchaser unless the title is registered by him within six months of the closing of the sale. If the property was conveyed by the RCB before the Operative Date, the interest will have vested in the purchaser but, on being conveyed by that purchaser or a subsequent purchaser after the Operative Date, the property is registerable by any purchaser after 1st January 1967. Tenanted Land Where a tenant of ecclesiastical land purchased his freehold under the Irish Church Act 1869 from the Church Temporalities Commissioners or the Land Commission, the situation is complex and technical, but it is important as it may determine whether or not a vendor or a purchaser must be responsible for the registration and, thereby, for the costs and delays involved in registration. The analysis must be carried out by reference to the date of the conveyance and the method by which the sale under the Irish Church Act took place:- 1. Cash Sales by the Commissioners The registration of the title to such land was voluntary until 1927. From 1927 until 1st January 1967, registration was compulsory but no method of enforcing registration appears to have been available.

Since 1st January 1967, the title to such land became registerable within six months of the land being conveyed on a sale. 2. Sales by the Commissioners, with part of the purchase money secured on a mortgage. So long as money was secured, the title to the land was compulsorily registerable and the Land Commission could enforce registration under the 1891 Act. If the land was sold subject to the charge at any time before 1st January 1967, the title was registerable forthwith. Since 1st January 1967, it is registerable within six months of a conveyance sale. Once the charge had been paid off, then, provided that there had been no conveyance of the property during the period of the charge, the title to the land was not registerable until 1927. From 1927 until 31st December 1966, the title to the land would be registerable but no enforcement procedures appear to have been available. Since 1st January 1967, the title to the land is registerable within six months of a conveyance on sale. Rent Charges and Fee Farm Rents To turn to rent charges, the purchase under the Irish Church Act of an ecclesiastical tithe rent charge created under the Tithe Rent Charge Act of 1838, wh e t h e r f r om t he Ch u r ch T emp o r a l i t i es Commissioners, in the past, or from their successors the Land Commission, at any time, will, following the decision in In re Reeves Estate , give rise to a requirement that the title to the entire freehold interest in the land should be registered and not just the title to the rent charge. The tithe rent charge is an incorporeal hereditament but, as such, it is "land" as defined by the 1964 Act. Likewise, the purchase under the Irish Church Act 1869 of a Fee Farm rent created under the Church Temporalities Act 1833 will give rise to compulsory registration. Such rents, being supported by rights of ejectment or distress, are corporeal in character and therefore "land" within the definitions in both the 1891 and 1964 Acts. The foregoing analysis of the occasions on which registration is required in respect of tenanted land is applicable to the situation created by the purchase of a rent charge or fee farm rent under the Irish Church Act. Redemption of the rent charge or fee farm rent may have taken place very recently. Some convey- ancers do not call for a conveyance or release from the Land Commission, but it is not clear whether or not payment of the purchase money will trigger the registration requirement. The better opinion would appear to be that it will not. Care must be taken to draw a distinction between an Ecclesiastical Commissioners' fee farm grant, which is not registerable in the Land Registry per se and a Church Temporalities Commissioners' conveyance or a conveyance from the Land Commission, which is; e.g. a release of the rent under an Ecclesiastical Commissioners' fee farm grant. An Ecclesiastical Commissioners' fee farm grant was entered into in pursuance of a policy designed to release land and conveyancing from the burden of a succession of short leases, while the Church Tempor- 7