LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
responsibilities include the co-ordination of government departmental actions in the prevention and control of illegal dumping of waste throughout the HKSAR.
In 1996, the Lands Department commissioned a consultancy study, 'Systematic Identification of the Maintenance Responsibility of Slopes' (SIMAR), to identify the maintenance responsibilities for about 60 000 registrable man-made slopes. The study was completed in 1999 with the production of a register showing the maintenance responsibility for individual slopes covered by the study. The public can have easy access to the SIMAR register at the computer terminals in the Slope Maintenance Responsibility Information Centre of the Lands Department.
About 14 000 man-made slopes with no identifiable party responsible for their maintenance have been assigned to the Lands Department for maintenance through the SIMAR consultancy study. In this regard, additional resources have been allocated to the Slope Maintenance Section (SMS) of the Lands Department to carry out maintenance works for these slopes. The SMS commenced inspections of 3 500 slopes in 1998 with the assistance of a geotechnical engineering consultant. Another consultant has been engaged to inspect more slopes. Following inspections, the SMS will arrange the necessary slope maintenance works to be carried out by a term
contractor.
Land Registration
Hong Kong operates a deeds registration system under the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128). The Land Registry, comprising the Urban Land Registry and eight New Territories Land Registries, is responsible for registering documents affecting land.
The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all land documents registered in pursuance of the ordinance shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. If a document is registered within one month of execution, priority shall relate to the date of execution of the document. Registration is essential to the protection of a land title, but does not guarantee it.
A land document is registered by delivering it to the appropriate land registry with a memorial, which contains the essential particulars of the document, and the prescribed fee. These particulars are then entered into a computerised land register for the relevant piece of land or property.
Each land register provides a record of transactions affecting a property, starting from the grant of the relevant government lease. The registers, memorials and related land documents are available for search by members of the public at the respective land registries on payment of a fee.
The Direct Access Services is an on-line computer search facility which allows its subscribers, mainly solicitors, estate agents and other professional firms, to have direct access to the computerised land registers. The subscribers may also place orders for copies of land records from computer terminals in their own offices and obtain copies of imaged documents through their fax machines.
The Document Imaging System enables land documents presented for registration to be scanned and stored as electronic images on optical discs. The images can be retrieved and distributed quickly.
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