Law of Property Act 1922

As to " local land charges. "

2 (1) Any charge (hereinafter called " a local land charge") acquired either before or after the commencement of this Act by the council of any administrative county, metropolitan borough, or urban or rural district, or by the corporation of any municipal borough or by any other local authority under the Public Health Acts, the Metropolis Management Acts, 1855 to 1893, or the Private Street Works Act, 1892, or under any similar statute (public, general, or local) passed or hereafter to be passed, which takes effect by virtue of the statute, shall be registered in the prescribed manner by the proper officer of the local authority, and unless and until so registered shall (save as hereinafter mentioned in regard to charges created or arising before the commencement of this Act) be void as against a purchaser for money or money's worth of a legal estate in the land affected thereby.

(2) Save as expressly provided by this section, the provisions of the Act of 1888, as amended by this Act, shall apply to a local land charge.

(3) As regards a local land charge, the registration by the proper officer shall (without prejudice to the right of the Land Registrar also to register the charge if and when sufficient information is furnished to him) take the place of registration by the Land Registrar, and, in reference thereto, the proper officer of the local authority shall have all the powers and be subject to the same obligations as the Land Registrar has or is subject to in regard to a land charge.

(4) Where a local authority has expended money for any purpose which, when the work is completed and any requisite resolution is passed or order is made, will confer a charge upon land, the proper officer of the local authority may in the meantime register a local land charge, in his register, against the land generally, without specifying the amount, but the registration of such general charge shall be cancelled within the prescribed time not being less than one year after the charge is ascertained and allotted, and thereupon the specific local land charges shall (unless previously discharged) be registered as of the date on which the general charge was registered.

(5) Nothing in this section shall operate to impose any obligation to register any local land charge created or arising before the commencement of this Act except after the expiration of one year from such commencement or to discharge a purchaser for value from liability in respect of any local land charge which is not for the time being required to be registered.

(6) Separate rules may be made under section eighteen of" the Act of 1888 in reference to local land charges for giving effect to the provisions of this section and in particular for prescribing :—

(a) The mode of registration of a general or specific charge:

(b) The power for a local authority where it has and means (without incurring unreasonable expense) of ascertaining the person against whom a specific charge should be registered, to register the same only against the land affected ;

(c) The proper officer to act as registrar, and as to official certificates of search to be given by him in reference to subsisting entries in his register ;

(d) The effect of an official certificate of search in regard to the protection of a purchaser, solicitor, trustee or other person in a fiduciary position, and the fees to be paid for any such certificate or search.

(e) The fees (if any) to be paid for the cancellation of an entry in the register ;

(7) For the purposes of this section, any prohibition of or restriction on the user or mode of user of land or buildings enforceable by any local authority by virtue of any such statute as aforesaid shall be deemed to be a restrictive covenant and where arising after the commencement of this Act shall be registered by the proper officer as a local land charge.

Provided that any such prohibition or restriction may be registered generally against the area or district affected by reference to the statute under which it is imposed.