Alteration pursuant to a court order
230.Paragraph 2 enables the court to order the alteration of the register in three situations:
first, to correct a mistake;
secondly, to bring the register up to date; (if, for example, a court decided that a claimant in proceedings had established his or her entitlement to an easement by prescription over a parcel of registered land, it could order that the benefit and burden of the easement be recorded in the registers of the affected titles); and
thirdly, to give effect to any estate, right or interest excepted from the effect of registration.
231.Where land is registered with good leasehold, possessory or qualified title, rights are excepted from the effect of registration (for details of the different classes of title see sections 9 and 10). It is these rights that may be the subject of court proceedings which ultimately give rise to an alteration in the register. When the court order is served on the registrar, it places him under a duty to give effect to it in the register of title. Rules may specify the circumstances in which the court is under a duty to order the alteration of the register in situations where the alteration does not prejudicially affect the title of the registered proprietor, i.e. when rectification is not involved. Rules will also make provision about the form of court orders and their service.
232.Paragraph 3 relates to rectification cases only. The paragraph reproduces the existing principle that the register should not be rectified against a registered proprietor who is in possession of the land without his consent, unless either he or she has by fraud or lack of proper care caused or substantially contributed to the mistake in the register, or there is some other reason why it would be unjust not to make the alteration. The court is also obliged to make an order which it has power to make, unless there are exceptional circumstances which justify it in not making the order. Sub-paragraph (4) widens the meaning of “a registered estate in land” for the purpose of this paragraph to make it clear that it includes any registered estate which exists for the benefit of the proprietor’s estate in land, such as an easement.