Land Registry (Fees) Order (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order.)

This Order prescribes the fees to be taken in the Land Registry for the purposes of the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 (“the 1970 Act”) and the manner in which those fees are to be paid.

The Order revokes and replaces the Land Registry (Fees) Order (Northern Ireland) 2000. The principal changes are as follows:

(a) the ad valorem scale of fees for transfers and exchanges has been restructured amounting to an increase in fee income of some 7% (paragraph 1 of Schedule 1);

(b) the fees payable in respect of applications for first registration of title have been increased; where the application discloses a title acquired by adverse possession the fee has been increased from £150 to £200; the fee in respect of other Form 1 applications has been increased from £50 to £70; the fee in respect of applications not made in Form 1 and which do not disclose a title acquired by adverse possession remains unchanged at £150 (paragraph 4 of Schedule 1);

(c) the fee in respect of an application under section 53 of the 1970 Act (acquisition of title by possession) has been increased from £150 to £200 (paragraph 5(a) of Schedule 1);

(d) a new fee of £100 has been introduced in respect of an application for rectification of the register where an order of the Registrar of Titles is necessary (paragraph 5(g)(ii) of Schedule 1);

(e) the fee in respect of an application to register a transmission on the death of a registered full owner or of a registered limited owner has been increased from £50 to £75 (paragraph 5(i) of Schedule 1);

(f) the present two tier fee in respect of an application to make any entry on the register for which a specific fee is not prescribed has been replaced with a new single fee of £75 in respect of such an application (paragraph 5(n) of Schedule 1);

(g) the personal search fee has been restructured and increased from £2 to £3 (paragraph 7(a) of Schedule 1);

(h) a new fee of £50 has been introduced for a certified copy of the registry map with appurtenant rights shown thereon (paragraph 7(e)(ii) of Schedule 1);

(i) the fees for official searches have been increased from £15 to £20, the fee for a priority search has been increased from £20 to £25 and the fees for searches applied for by telephone and fax have been increased from £10 to £15 (paragraphs 7(f) to (j) and 9(d) and (f) of Schedule 1);

(j) a new fee of £25 has been introduced in respect of an application for an order for substituted service under rule 197(2) of the Land Registration Rules (Northern Ireland) 1994 (paragraph 8(g) of Schedule 1);

(k) the fee for a personal search in the Statutory Charges Register has been increased from £2 to £3 (paragraph 9(e) of Schedule 1);

(l) provision has been made for the payment of fees in respect of matters arising under the Ground Rents Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 (paragraph 10 of Schedule 1); and

(m) the reduction of a fee where an application or dealing is refused, abandoned or withdrawn will apply only to a fee in excess of £50 instead of a fee in excess of £25 (Article 6).

(n) release from a charge of all the land charged is now exempt from fees.