Local Land Charges Act 1975

Miscellaneous and supplementary E+W

12 Office copies as evidence. E+W

An office copy of an entry in any local land charges register shall be admissible in evidence in all proceedings and between all parties to the same extent as the original would be admissible.

13 Protection of solicitors, trustees etc. E+W

A solicitor or a trustee, personal representative, agent or other person in a fiduciary position, shall not be answerable in respect of any loss occasioned by reliance on an erroneous official search certificate or an erroneous office copy of an entry in a local land charges register.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 13 extended by Administration of Justice Act 1985 (c. 61, SIF 98:1), s. 34(2)(d)

C2 S. 13 extended (01. 01. 1992) by Administration of Justice Act 1985 (c. 61, SIF 76:1), s. 9, Sch. 2 para. 37(d); S.I. 1991/2683, art. 2.

C3 S. 13 extended (prosp.) by Building Societies Act 1986 (c. 53, SIF 16), ss. 54(3)(a)(5), 119(5), 124, 126, Sch. 21 paras. 9(d), 12(2)(3) (the said s. 124 which induces Sch. 21 being repealed (prosp.) by Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (c. 41, SIF 76:1), s. 125(7), Sch. 20)

[F1 13A Specification of fees by registering authorities in England E+W

(1) Each registering authority in England must specify fees which are to be payable by persons for services relating to local land charges which are provided to them by the authority.

(2) This section does not apply to any fees payable for the making of a personal search (for which see section 14(1)(h)(i) below).

(3) Different fees may be specified for different services or descriptions of service.

(4) A registering authority may provide for there to be services or descriptions of service in respect of which no fees are to be payable.

(5) In specifying fees, a registering authority must secure that, taking one financial year with another, the income from fees for each service or description of service, or for each group of services or descriptions of service that they think appropriate, does not exceed the costs of its provision.

(6) When exercising the duty under subsection (1) above, a registering authority must specify the date on or after which the fees specified under that subsection are to be payable.

(7) Where the duty under subsection (1) above is exercised by a registering authority, they must publish details of the fees specified under that subsection before the date mentioned in subsection (6) above.

(8) If any fees specified under subsection (1) above are to be the same immediately before as immediately after the beginning of a financial year, a registering authority must publish details of those fees shortly before the beginning of the financial year.

(9) In specifying fees or publishing details of fees, a registering authority must have regard to such guidance as the Lord Chancellor may issue.

(10) That guidance—

(a) may also include provision concerning the manner in which fees are to be paid, and

(b) may be framed by reference to guidance issued by a person other than the Lord Chancellor.

(11) The Lord Chancellor must lay before both Houses of Parliament any guidance that he issues under this section.

(12) In this section “financial year” means a period of 12 months beginning with 1st April.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 13A inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), s. 148(1), Sch. 4 para. 83; S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 para. 11(e)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C4 S. 13A modified (28.6.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (Supplementary Provisions) Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/1693), arts. 1, 3

C5 S. 13A modified (28.6.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (Supplementary Provisions) Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/1693), arts. 1, 4

14 Rules. E+W

(1) The Lord Chancellor may, with the concurrence of the Treasury as to fees, make rules for carrying this Act into effect and, in particular, rules—

(a) for regulating the practice of registering authorities in connection with the registration of local land charges or matters which, when registered, become local land charges;

(b) as to forms and contents of applications for registration, and the manner in which such applications are to be made;

(c) as to the manner in which the land affected or to be affected by a local land charge is, where practicable, to be identified for purposes of registration;

(d) as to the manner in which and the times at which registrable matters are to be registered;

(e) as to forms and contents of requisitions for official searches and of official search certificates;

(f) for regulating personal searches and related matters;

(g) as to the cancellation without an order of the court of the registration of a local land charge on its cesser, or with the consent of the authority or body by whom it is enforceable;

[F2 (h) for prescribing—

(i) in relation to England, the fees, if any, to be paid for the making of any personal search;

(ii) in relation to Wales, the fees, if any, to be paid for the filing of documents with a registering authority, the making of any entry on a register, the supply of copies of, or the variation or cancellation of, any such entry, and the making of any search of a register.]

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) above, the power to make rules under that subsection shall include

[F3 (a)] power to make rules (with the concurrence of the Treasury as to fees) for carrying into effect the provisions of any statutory provision by virtue of which any matter is registrable in any local land charges register.

[F3 (b) power to make rules providing for the use of electronic means in the making of requisitions for, and in the issue of, official search certificates, notwithstanding subsection (3) of section 231 of the Local Government Act 1972 (service of documents on local authorities) provided that—

(i) such rules shall not provide that a requisition is duly made by electronic means, except where the local authority to whom it is made consents to the use of those means, or that an official search certificate is duly issued by electronic means, except where the person requiring the search consents to the use of those means; and

(ii) such consent may be given either generally or in relation to a specified document or description of documents, and either before or after the making of the requisition or the issue of the certificate; and

(c) power to make rules modifying the application of sections 10 and 11 above in cases where—

(i) the rules provide for the making of a requisition for, or the issuing of, an official search certificate by electronic means, and

(ii) there has been any error or failure in those means.]

(3) The power to make rules under this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

Textual Amendments

F2 S. 14(1)(h) substituted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), s. 148(1), Sch. 4 para. 85; S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 para. 11(e)

F3 “(a)” and paragraphs (b) and (c) inserted by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (c. 42, SIF 81:1) , s. 158(2)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C6 S. 14(1) certain functions transferred (31.12.2004) by The National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/3044) , art. 1(2) , Sch. 1 (with art. 3 )

15 Expenses. E+W

There shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament—

(a) any administrative expenses incurred by a Minister of the Crown or government department in consequence of this Act;

(b) any expenditure incurred by a Minister of the Crown or government department in the payment of any amount recoverable from him or them under this Act by a registering authority;

(c) any increase attributable to this Act in the sums so payable under any other Act.

16 Interpretation. E+W

(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires—

• “the appropriate local land charges register” has the meaning provided by section 4 above;

• “the court” means the High Court, or the county court in a case where the county court has jurisdiction;

• “land” includes mines and minerals, whether or not severed from the surface, buildings or parts of buildings (whether the division is horizontal, vertical or made in any other way) and other corporeal hereditaments;

• “official search certificate” means a certificate issued pursuant to section 9(4) above;

• “the originating authority”, as respects a local land charge, has the meaning provided by section 5(4) above;

• “personal search” means a search pursuant to section 8 above;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under section 14 above;

• “the registering authority”, in relation to any land or to a local land charge, means the registering authority in whose area the land or, as the case may be, the land affected by the charge is situated, or, if the land in question is situated in the areas of two or more registering authorities, each of those authorities respectively;

• “statutory provision” means a provision of this Act or of any other Act or Measure, whenever passed, or a provision of any rules, regulations, order or similar instrument made (whether before or after the passing of this Act) under an Act, whenever passed.

[F4 (1A) Any reference in this Act to an office copy of an entry includes a reference to the reproduction of an entry in a register kept otherwise than in documentary form.]

(2) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to an enactment is a reference to that enactment as amended, extended or applied by or under any other enactment, including this Act.

Textual Amendments

F4 S. 16(1A) inserted by Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (c. 30, SIF 81:1), s. 34(e)

17 Amendments of other satutory provisions. E+W

(1) The M1 Land Charges Act 1972 shall be amended as follows:—

(a) for section 1(3) there shall be substituted—

“(3) Where any charge or other matter is registrable in more than one of the registers kept under this Act, it shall be sufficient if it is registered in one such register, and if it is so registered the person entitled to the benefit of it shall not be prejudicially affected by any provision of this Act as to the effect of non-registration in any other such register.

(3A) Where any charge or other matter is registrable in a register kept under this Act and was also, before the commencement of the Local Land Charges Act 1975, recistrable in a local land charges register, then, if before the commencement of the said Act it was registered in the appropriate local land charges register, it shall be treated for the purposes of the provisions of this Act as to the effect of non-registration as if it had been registered in the appropriate register under this Act ; and any certificate setting out the result of an official search of the appropriate local land charges register shall, in relation to it, have effect as if it were a certificate setting out the result of an official search under this Act.”

(b) in section 2(4) and in section 2(5) the words “(not being a local land charge)” shall be inserted after “any of the following”.

(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C7 The text of s. 17(1)(a)(b), 17(2), 19(1) is in the form in which it was originally enacted: it was not reproduced in Statutes in Force and does not reflect any amendments or repeals which may have been made prior to 1.2.1991.

Marginal Citations

M1 1972 c.61

18 Power to amend local Acts. E+W

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Lord Chancellor may by order made by statutory instrument repeal or amend any relevant local Act provision that appears to him to be inconsistent with, or to require modification in consequence of, any provision of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a relevant local Act provision is a provision—

(a) contained in any local Act passed before this Act, and

(b) providing for any matter to be, or to be registered as, a local land charge or otherwise requiring or authorising the registration of any matter in a local land charges register.

(3) An order under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order under this section.

(4) Before making an order under this section the Lord Chancellor shall consult any local authority appearing to him to be concerned.

19 Repeals and transitional provisions. E+W

(1) The enactments specified in Schedule 2 to this Act (which include certain spent provisions) and the instrument there specified are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall operate to impose any obligation to register or apply for the registration of any local land charge within the meaning of this Act which immediately before the commencement of this Act was by virtue of subsection (7)(b)(i) of section 15 of the M2 Land Charges Act 1925 not required by that section to be registered as a local land charge, except after the expiration of one year from the commencement of this Act; and a purchaser shall not be entitled to compensation under section 10 above by virtue of section 10(1)(a) or, where the charge was not registered at the time of the search, section 10(1)(b) in respect of a local land charge which at the time of the search was not required to be registered.

F5 (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4) In so far as any entry subsisting in a local land charges register at the commencement of this Act could have been made in that register pursuant to this Act, or to any statutory provision amended by or under this Act, it shall be treated as having been so made, but nothing in this Act shall render enforceable against any purchaser whose purchase was completed before the commencement of this Act any local land charge which immediately before the commencement of this Act was not enforceable against him.

Textual Amendments

F5 S. 19(3) repealed (13.10.2003) by Land Registration Act 2002 (c. 9), s. 136(2), Sch. 13 (with s. 129, Sch. 12 para. 1); S.I. 2003/1725, art. 2(1)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C8 The text of s. 17(1)(a)(b), 17(2), 19(1) is in the form in which it was originally enacted: it was not reproduced in Statutes in Force and does not reflect any amendments or repeals which may have been made prior to 1.2.1991.

Marginal Citations

M2 1925 c. 22.

20 Short title etc. E+W

(1) This Act may be cited as the Local Land Charges Act 1975.

(2) This Act binds the Crown, but nothing in this Act shall be taken to render land owned by or occupied for the purposes of the Crown subject to any charge to which, independently of this Act, it would not be subject.

F6 (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4) This Act extends to England and Wales only.

Textual Amendments

F6 S. 20(3) repealed (22.7.2004) by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2004 (c. 14), Sch. 1 Pt. 12

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C9 Power of appointment conferred by s. 20(3) fully exercised: 1.8.1977 appointed by S.I. 1977/984, art. 2