The Property (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

Certificate of redemption

16.—(1) Where, before the expiration of the period mentioned in Article 11(2)(a), a rent-payer pays a sum in respect of redemption money (or a first instalment of redemption money) to a person specified in a counter-notice, that person is under an obligation to give the rent-payer a receipt for the sum, and that obligation is deemed to be a covenant contained in the instrument which created the ground rent.

(2) The receipt mentioned in paragraph (1) shall be entered on the counter-notice; but, without prejudice to Article 26(1), rules may make provision about the circumstances in which a receipt not so entered is deemed to be so entered, in which other evidence of payment is deemed to be a receipt, and in which a copy of a counter-notice is deemed to be the counter-notice.

(3) Where redemption money is lodged with the Registrar in accordance with Article 14 and paragraphs (1) and (2) of that Article have been complied with, the Registrar shall prepare and seal with the seal of the Land Registry a certificate that the ground rent has been redeemed and send the certificate to the person who lodged the redemption money.

(4) A counter-notice in relation to which paragraph (2) has been or is deemed to have been complied with or a certificate which has been sealed under paragraph (3) is, for the purposes of this Order, a certificate of redemption.

(5) In this Order a certificate of redemption is said to be completed when a receipt is entered on or deemed to be entered on a counter-notice as mentioned in paragraph (2), and is said to be sealed when it is sealed by the Registrar under paragraph (3) with the seal of the Land Registry.

(6) The completion or sealing of a certificate of redemption operates as a full and final discharge of the land from the ground rent (but without prejudice to Article 9(4) or 14(3), or Article 17(2), and subject to registration in accordance with Article 20(4) where the land is registered land).