LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
computer network to provide on-line, direct search facilities at the offices of solicitors and other professional firms. This public network access for the land search service will be implemented around mid-1994. Instruments and memorials presented to the New Territories district land registries are still registered manually. They are made available to the public for search in their original form. Microfilming of the land documents registered in the New Territories has started. Conversion of the information kept in these registries into computerised data will start in mid-1994. The microfilming and computerisation of New Territories land records will provide a more efficient service.
The Land Registration Ordinance also provides that all instruments registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration, unless they are registered within one month of execution, in which case priority relates back to the date of the instrument. For charging orders made by the court and pending court actions, priority runs from the day following the date of registration. The ordinance further provides that unregistered instruments, other than bona fide leases at a rack rent for a term not exceeding three years, shall be null and void as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration.
Registration is essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it. Approval in principle has been given by the government to change the present system of land registration to one of title registration. Legislation to implement the titles registration system is being drafted.
Land registration statistics are at Appendix 34.
Government Conveyancing
Following the reorganisation of the Buildings and Lands Department, its Legal Advisory and Conveyancing Office has become part of the new Lands Department. The office provides professional legal services to the government for all government land transactions and associated matters. It is responsible for the issue, renewal, variation and termination of government leases as well as the drafting and completion of conditions of sale, grants and exchanges of government land, the apportionment of government rents and premia, and the recovery of outstanding rents. It provides conveyancing services for the Housing Authority in connection with the sale of flats built under the Home Ownership Scheme, and for the Financial Secretary Incorporated in connection with the extension of non-renewable government leases, the purchase and sale of government accommodation in private developments, mortgages to secure interest-free loans to private schools, the purchase of properties for government staff quarters and group housing schemes for the elderly. It is also responsible for the processing of the Consent Applications which are governed by the rules of the Land Authority's Consent Scheme. During the year, 14 applications involving 3 820 units in the urban areas were approved and in the New Territories, 46 applications involving 26 665 units were approved.
Survey and Mapping
The Survey and Mapping Office of the Lands Department is responsible for defining and recording land boundaries of all existing and new land developments, providing and maintaining the territory-wide survey control system, mapping the territory at various scales for land administration, engineering and other government purposes, and managing a computerised land information system.
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