The Register
Registration of Title Acts
PART II
Land Registry
F13[Land Registry.
7.— (1) There shall be an office or offices for the purpose of registering the ownership of land in the State.
(2) The office or offices shall be known as the Land Registry.
(3) The Land Registry shall be under the management and control of the Property Registration Authority.]
Registers
Registers of ownership.
8.—There shall be maintained in the F14[Land Registry]—
(a) registers of—
(i) ownership of freehold land, and
(ii) ownership of leasehold interests,
excluding incorporeal hereditaments held in gross;
(b) a register of ownership of—
(i) land comprising incorporeal hereditaments held in gross;
(ii) such other rights in land as may be prescribed.
Powers of the Authority
16.—(1) Subject to general rules, F22[the Authority] may, by summons under F23[its] seal, require the attendance of all such persons as F23[it] thinks fit in relation to the registration of any title.
(2) F23[It] may, by like summons, require any person having the custody of any map, survey or book made or kept in pursuance of any enactment to produce the map, survey or book for inspection.
(3) F23[It] may examine on oath any person appearing before F23[it] and administer an oath accordingly.
(4) F23[It] may allow to any person summoned by F23[it] the reasonable expenses of his attendance.
(5) Any expenses allowed in pursuance of this section shall be deemed to be charges incurred in or about proceedings for registration, and may be dealt with in such manner as may be prescribed.
(6) If any person, after the delivery to him of a summons under this section, or of a copy thereof, and after having had a tender made to him of the expenses, if any, to which he is entitled, wilfully neglects or refuses to attend in pursuance of the summons, or to produce such maps, surveys, books or other documents as he may be required to produce under this Act, or to answer on oath or otherwise such questions as may be lawfully put to him by F22[the Authority] under the powers of this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.
Jurisdiction of the Court
The court.
18.—(1) The High Court and, subject to the provisions of this Act, the Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Act and “the court” shall in this Act be construed accordingly.
(2) Unless the necessary parties to the proceedings sign, either before or at any time during the hearing, the form of consent prescribed by rules of court, the Circuit Court shall not have jurisdiction in relation to land the F26[market value] of which exceeds F26[€3,000,000].
(3) The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court to hear and determine any matter under this Act in relation to land shall be exercised by the judge of the circuit where the land or any part of the land is situate.
F27[(4) In this section ‘market value’ means, in relation to land, the price that would have been obtained in respect of the unencumbranced fee simple were the land to have been sold on the open market, in the year immediately preceding the bringing of the proceedings concerned, in such manner and subject to such conditions as might reasonably be calculated to have resulted in the vendor obtaining the best price for the land.]
Appeal and reference to the court.
19.—(1) Any person aggrieved by an order or decision of F28[the Authority] may appeal to the court and the court may annul or confirm, with or without modification, the order or decision.
(2) Whenever F28[the Authority] entertains a doubt as to any question of law or of fact arising in the course of registration under this Act, F29[it] may make an order referring the question to the court.
(3) In any proceeding under this section the court shall, if so requested by F28[the Authority], and may in any case, if necessary, appoint a guardian or other person to represent any infant, person of unsound mind, person absent from the State, unborn person or person as to whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead; and, if satisfied that the interests of any person so represented are sufficiently protected by the representation, may make an order declaring that he shall be conclusively bound by the decision of the court and thereupon he shall, subject to the right under this Act to appeal on special leave, be bound accordingly, as if he were a party.
Enforcement by High Court
of order of F30[the Authority].
20.—If any person disobeys an order of F30[the Authority] made in pursuance of this Act, F30[the Authority] may certify the disobedience to the High Court and thereupon the person guilty of the disobedience may, subject to his right of appeal to that Court from such order, be punished by the Court as if the order of F30[the Authority] were the order of the Court.
F31[The Authority] to obey order of court.
21.—(1) F31[The Authority] shall obey the order of a court of competent jurisdiction in relation to registered land.
(2) F31[The Authority] may, where F32[it] considers it necessary, apply to the court which has made such order either to vary the same or to give directions as to the mode in which it is to be obeyed; and thereupon the court, after such notice, if any, as it may direct, may vary such order in such manner, or make such new order, as it may think fit.
Power of court in action for specific performance
22.—Where an action is instituted for the specific performance of a contract relating to registered land or a registered charge, the court before which the action is pending may cause all or any parties who have registered rights in the land or charge, or have entered cautions or inhibitions against the same, to appear in the action and show cause why the contract should not be specifically performed, and the order of the court in the action shall be binding on those parties or any of them.