LAND TRANSFERS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4816, 28 July 1939, Page 4

LAND TRANSFERS

AMENDING BILL. MODIFICATION OF COSTS. SIMPLER PROCEDURE. Simplification of the procedure and modification of the costs of land transfers form the salient feature of the Land Transfer Amendment Bill which has been prepared by the At-torney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason). The Minister gave notice in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon of his intention to bring the measure forward.

One of the main clauses of the Bill gives facilities for appropriate entries on the register where the parties agree to give a subsequent mortgage priority over a previously existing mortgage. Under the present law this operation requires the discharge of the existing mortgage, the registration of the new mortgage, and the subsequent execution of the mortgage to secure the charge previously covered by the discharged mortgage. This involves considerable work, consequent registration fees, stamp duty, and legal costs.

Saving in Expense

The new procedure will enable the register to be changed giving effect to the rearrangement on the production of a simple memorandum signed by all parties concerned, thus saving considerable expense. Apart from its use in day-to-day experience, it is thought that this facility may have special usefulness in relation to proposals for the making of advances for the erection of buildings on farm lands that are subject to existing encumbrances.

Another clause enables a lease to be renewed by the signing and registration of a memorandum of extension instead of-by the execution of a new lease as at present required. A further clause enables an encumbrance registered "against a lease to be brought forward against a new lease substituted for the old one without the necessity of executing a new mortgage. Other clauses relating to procedure are designed to facilitate removal from the register of entries which by changed circumstances or effluxion of time have become spent.