The Gazette 1990

JULY/AUGUST 1990

GAZETTE

LAND REGISTRY: Memorandum of meeting which took place at the Law Society on Thursday, 31st May 1990 Attendance: Ms. Catherine Treacy,

application form would be the one issued. The Conveyancing Commi t t ee were in total agreement with this. As a result of this and other changes wh i ch she had brought into effect, she hoped that within a six to eight week period a folio and file plan would be available within one week of being bespoken. This time span applied to 80% of the File Plan applications. In the remaining 20% of cases where the reconstruction of a map was necessary before the issue of a file plan could take place, obviously it was harder to give a definite time turnover. The Committee totally wel- comed this. ( 2 ) She had considered the suggestion of the Society that a float or direct debit system be in place so as to enable 25% of dealings which were rejected because of incorrect fees to be dealt with within the Registry without having the total dealing rejected. This aspect would form part of the overall review by the consult- ants mentioned above. ( 3 ) She was aware of the existing requests for priority service for commercial transactions or for building estates. She saw problems wi th creating a priority service but indicated that this was a matter which could be looked at at a later stage. In the meantime she accepted the commercial reality that the building estate which was going to provide 500 houses should be registered as soon as possible. ( 4) She was quite prepared to look at an increase of the amount for which title could be certi- fied. Mr. Shaw pointed out that 80% of the profession were insured at this stage and anybody insured wi th the Solicitor's Mutual Defence Fund had cover of £250,000 for each and every act of negli- gence. This could be taken into account on the same basis as the Building Societies and Banks who readily accepted Solicitor's Certificates pro- vided that they were so insured. The Registrar pointed out of course that this covered Solicitor's errors only and that

representatives Mr. David Walley and Ms. Christine Scott to review the existing situa- tions. What she was setting about doing was having a strategic plan for the future of the Land Registry drawn up. In this she would take into account the existing capacity of the computer system in the Land Registry, the progress which had been made in relation to the Law Link which had been envisaged, and the future as she saw it for registration of title in the country. She confirmed that outside con- sultants were to be involved in the drawing up of this plan. She was of the opinion that she would be in a position to talk to the Law Society representatives in the Autumn and she indicated that she welcomed any in-put that they had to make from their expertise. Mr. Shaw indicated that he would request Mr. Frank Lanigan, who had done very considerable research into the Land Registry, to contact her and to make available any information that he had at his hand and she said that she would welcome this. The meeting then considered the position in relation to the existing problems which were arising in the Land Registry and the Registrar's proposals for the alleviation of these problems. Amongst the areas Delays in the issuing of File Plans were discussed. The Registrar indicated that she had carried out a review of this area. An enormous number of applications had to be rejected or queried because of incorrect information disclosed on the application, most notably name of registered owner stated not compatible with County and Folio Number stat- ed. The Registrar's proposal was to introduce a new type application form. The name of the registered owner would not appear on this form. The folio number and County on the discussed were as follows: (1) Folios and File Plans:

Registrar of Deeds and Titles. Ms. Maeve Hayes, Chairman of the Conveyancing Committee.

Mr. Rory O'Donnell. Mr. William Fallon. Mr. Thomas D. Shaw.

The meeting was convened at the request of the new Registrar of Titles to consider the position in the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds, and to establish a good working relationship between the Law Society and both Registries. Mr. Shaw gave a resume of the position at the Law Society end including the preparation of the paper on the proposed reconstitu- tion of the Land Registry as a Public Corporation which had been pre- pared in November 1988 and the meetings and negotiations which had taken place with the Depart- ment of Justice since that date. The Registrar indicated that she was familiar with and had read the paper. Mr. Shaw reiterated that the Law Society saw their interest with that of the Registrar as being identical namely of providing a cost effective and efficient registration of title service for the public of Ireland. The Registrar agreed that this was her intent as well. The Registrar then carried out a review of what had been happening during her first month in office: (1) She was in the process of carrying out a review of all the different sections of the Land Registry. ( 2 ) She had seen the arrears in each of the Departments and was setting targets as to how the arrears might be reduced. ( 3 ) She was carrying out a review of the existing computer and the services which it could provide in the Land Registry. ( 4 ) She had given the go ahead to a meeting, which had since taken place, between senior personnel in the Dublin Region with the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association through their

217