Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970

88 Provisions as to registration and priority. N.I.

(1) F1 Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any statutory provision in force on the 1st April 1951, a statutory charge shall be void as against a purchaser of any estate in the land to which the charge relates unless—

(a) where the land is registered land, the statutory charge is registered pursuant to this Part before the purchaser is registered pursuant to any provision of this Act other than this Part as owner of the estate purchased; or

(b) where the land is unregistered land, the statutory charge is registered pursuant to this Part before the registration in the registry of deeds of the document whereby the estate purchased is assured to the purchaser; or

(c) a notice (in this Act referred to as a “priority notice” ) in respect of the statutory charge is registered under section 89 either before the purchaser is registered pursuant to any provision of this Act other than this Part as owner of the estate purchased or (as the case may be) before the registration in the registry of deeds of the document whereby the estate purchased is assured to the purchaser; or

(d) the statutory charge is created or arises after the purchaser has entered into an enforceable contract for the purchase and the purchaser has received actual notice of the statutory charge either before he is registered pursuant to any provision of this Act other than this Part as owner of the estate purchased or (as the case may be) before the registration in the registry of deeds of the document whereby the estate purchased is assured to him.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), “purchaser” means any person who has entered into an enforceable contract to acquire for money or money's worth any estate in the land to which the statutory charge relates or who, after the creation of the statutory charge, has acquired for money or money's worth any such estate.

(3) Save as is provided by subsection (1), a statutory charge shall, on registration pursuant to this Part as affecting any land, bind that land to the same extent as such land would have been bound had this Part not been enacted.

(4) Subject to subsections (3) and (5), where a statutory charge is at any time registered pursuant to this Part in the Statutory Charges Register as affecting any registered land, such statutory charge shall be deemed to have been registered at that time as a Schedule 6 burden in the folio or folios in which the title to the land is registered.

(5) Where, by virtue of subsection (4), any statutory charge is deemed to have been registered as a Schedule 6 burden in the folio at the same time as any other estate is registered in that folio, such statutory charge and such estate shall, subject to subsection (3), be deemed to be so registered in the order in which they were created.

(6) Subject to subsections (3) and (7), where a statutory charge is at any time registered pursuant to this Part as affecting any unregistered land, such statutory charge shall be deemed to have been created by a document bearing the date of the creation of the charge and registered in the registry of deeds, pursuant to the Registration of Deeds Acts, at the time of the registration of the statutory charge, as a document affecting the land.

(7) Where, by virtue of subsection (6), any document is deemed to have been registered in the registry of deeds at the same time as any other document affecting the land is registered there, such documents shall, subject to subsection (3), be deemed to be so registered in order of date.

(8) Registration in the Statutory Charges Register shall not render a statutory charge valid if it is not otherwise so nor render any land subject to any statutory charge to which, if this Part had not been enacted, the land would not be subject.

(9) Where—

(a) any matter required by section 87, or by any subsequent statutory provision, to be registered in the Statutory Charges Register is, by virtue of subsection (1), void as against any purchaser; and

(b) any such matter involves the prohibition of any act or omission which would terminate or restrict or otherwise prejudice any right exercisable by that purchaser in relation to the land of which he is the purchaser;

a prosecution arising out of such prohibition shall not lie against that purchaser in respect of any such act or omission.

F1 1978 NI 15