Tithe Act 1951

Provisions as to annuities registers

1 Repeal of provision for registers of annuities for all districts, and substituted provision as to selected districts

(1) Section nine of the Tithe Act, 1936, in this Act referred to as " the principal Act" (which requires the Tithe Redemption Commission to determine the amount of every annuity charged by that Act and the land in respect of which each is charged, and to prepare for every district a register specifying the amount of every annuity and indicating the land in respect of which each is charged) is hereby repealed, and the fact that effect has not been given to the provisions of the said section nine shall not be treated as having affected the validity of any determination made by the Commission, or of any other thing done by them, before the commencement of this Act.

(2) The Commission may prepare and seal a register of annuities charged in respect of lands in any district in the case of which it appears to them to be expedient so to do by reason of any circumstances calculated to render it difficult for persons concerned to ascertain the subsistence, amount or incidence of annuities charged in respect of lands in that district, and the provisions of subsections (4) to (9) of this section shall have effect as to any such register.

(3) So much of subsection (2) of section four of the principal Act as provides that it shall be the duty of the Commission to determine what annuities are charged, and to record particulars thereof, shall have effect, and shall be deemed always to have had effect, as requiring them so to do only where it appears to them to be requisite for the purposes of that Act or this Act.

(4) An annuities register for any district shall comprise the following particulars of every annuity charged in respect of land in the district at the date of the sealing of the register, that is to say, a specification of the amount thereof and, by reference to a map sealed on that date, an indication of the land in respect of which it is charged.

(5) Before sealing an annuities register for any district the Commission shall determine the matters particulars whereof are to be comprised therein, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of section thirty-nine of the principal Act (which confers rights on persons interested to make representations and to refer questions of law to the court).

(6) The specification in a sealed annuities register of an amount as that of an annuity charged at the date of the sealing of the register, together with the indication in the map referred to therein of land as that in respect of which that annuity was then charged, shall be treated as conclusive evidence that an annuity of that amount was then charged, and that it was charged in respect of that land, unless it is shown that subsection (5) of this section was not observed as to the matter in question, and shall be treated as conclusive evidence that it was not charged in respect of any other land.

(7) A sealed annuities register for any district shall be treated as conclusive evidence that no annuity other than those particulars whereof are comprised in the register was charged in respect of any land in the district at the date of the sealing of the register.

(8) A sealed annuities register or the map referred to therein may be varied by the Commission for correcting any clerical mistake therein, or any error therein arising from any accidental slip or omission, but not otherwise.

(9) An annuities register and the map referred to therein shall when sealed be deposited at the principal office of the Commission.

(10) The power to prepare and seal an annuities register for any district shall be exercisable whenever it appears to the Commission that such circumstances as are mentioned in subsection (2) of this section have arisen therein, whether or not such a register has been sealed therefor on any earlier occasion.

(11) Where the Commission are satisfied in the case of any district that there is no annuity charged in respect of any land in the district, they may make and seal a declaration of that fact, and a declaration as to any district sealed under this subsection shall be conclusive evidence of that fact.

Any such declaration shall when sealed be deposited at the principal office of the Commission.