The Land Registration Rules 2003

Production of documents

201.—(1) The registrar may only exercise the power conferred on him by section 75(1) of the Act if he receives from a person who is a party to proceedings before him a request that he should require a document holder to produce a document for the purpose of those proceedings.

(2) The request must be made—

(a) in paper form in Form PRD1 delivered to such office of the land registry as the registrar may direct, or

(b) during the currency of a relevant notice given under Schedule 2, and subject to and in accordance with the limitations contained in the notice, by delivering the request to the registrar, by any means of communication, other than as mentioned in sub-paragraph (a).

(3) The registrar must give notice of the request to the document holder.

(4) The address for the document holder provided in Form PRD1 is to be regarded for the purpose of rule 199 as an address for service given under rule 198(2)(h).

(5) The notice must give the document holder a period ending at 12 noon on the twentieth business day after the issue of the notice, or such other period as the registrar thinks appropriate, to deliver a written response to the registrar by the method and to the address stated in the notice.

(6) The response must—

(a) state whether or not the document holder opposes the request,

(b) if he does, state in full the grounds for that opposition,

(c) give an address to which communications may be sent, and

(d) be signed by the document holder or his conveyancer.

(7) The registrar must determine the matter on the basis of the request and any response submitted to him and, subject to paragraph (8), he may make the requirement by sending a notice in Form PRD2 to the document holder if he is satisfied that—

(a) the document is in the control of the document holder, and

(b) the document may be relevant to the proceedings, and

(c) disclosure of the document is necessary in order to dispose fairly of the proceedings or to save costs,

and he is not aware of any valid ground entitling the document holder to withhold the document.

(8) The registrar may, as a condition of making the requirement, provide that the person who has made the request should pay the reasonable costs incurred in complying with the requirement by the document holder.

(9) In this rule, “document holder” means the person who is alleged to have control of a document which is the subject of a request under paragraph (1).