A fundamental objective of the Land Registration Act 2002 Essay

A fundamental objective of the Land Registration Act 2002 - Essay Example The Land Registration Act 2002 aims at allowing prospective buyers of land know the existence of any equitable interests that may be attached to the land1. The basic assumption of the law is that prospective buyers should not take the burden of verifying the adverse interests attached on the land, but should rely on the land register that reflects any equitable interests attached to the land2. The Act also eliminates most of overriding interests in land by ensuring the duty of disclosure and reasonable inspection of interests attached to land3. This paper will mainly focus on the main provisions of the Act that has ensured accurate and timely reflection of the status of title of land. The enactment of the act provided a new breakthrough in the land title registration and verification since it changed the mechanism of sale and purchase of registered land from paper based transactions to electronic transactions. The Act followed the three principles articulated by Thoedore Ruoff, a for mer Land registrar of England. The principles are ‘mirror principle, curtain principle and insurance principle. For unregistered land, the title of the land must be inspected under the old rules and seller must prove 15 years unbroken chain of the title from the root of the title. The purchaser has the duty to register his title to the register within the stipulated time, failure to which he or she will lose his legal estate in the land. The Land registry provides a description of the piece of land, the legal owner and any other interests that may affect the value and ownership of the land. ... The electronic network capturers all transactions related to the land including the registration of the title by the parties. The Act has laid down formalities relating to electronic conveyance such as time and date when the electronic dispositions should take effect. All the electronic signatures must be authenticated and such electronic documents must be signed by all involved parties. Section 4 (1) (g) of the Act requires registration on the creation of a protected first legal mortgage that is protected by the deposit of title deeds and also registration of leases with a term remaining of more than seven years. The Act also grants the land registrar powers to use transaction information on the network in order to monitor and disclose such appropriate information to other parties in electronic conveyance chain5. The Act also facilitates electronic settlement by granting the Land registrar the powers to form or assist in formation of a company or invest in a company with this system of electronic settlement. In the case of Abbey National Building society v, Cann, the main concern was the registration gap that occurs when an interest is created at the point of registration but before completion6. However, The House of Lords ruled that a party must have actual occupation of the land at the date of completion of registration of any interest to land in order to attain an overriding status to the land. In practical basis, the purchase of the land is not completed on the day the purchaser makes official search, but after few days has lapsed. Provided the purchaser lodges a registration within the stipulated period, he or she is not bound by notices or restrictions that may be made within the intervening period7. Section 7 (1)