ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
Hong Kong, .31st January,.....193 6.
REPORT ON ORDINANCE No. .............of 1936.
1.
I have examined the accompanying Ordinance intituled
an Ordinance to make provision for the apportionment
of Crown Rents.
2.
A print of the Objects and Reasons is attached.
3.
I am of opinion that the Ordinance is not
contrary to the Governor's instructions and that it
is one to which His Excellency may properly assent
in the name of His Majesty and on His behalf.
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سعد
Attorney General.
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Objects and Reasons.
1. Leases granted by the Crown, of land in this Colony, do not make any provision for apportionment of Crown Rent in the event of subdivision and transfer of a portion of the lot by assignment by the original lessee, who in practice then becomes known as the owner of the Remaining Portion of the Lot.
The original owner of the Remaining Portion, or his legal representative, remains liable to the Crown for the whole Crown Rent due in respect of the Lot and in practice so long as he retains the Remaining Portion he has to collect from the other section owners of the Lot the proportions of Crown rent attributable to their respective sections and pay the whole to the Treasury.
After transfer of the Remaining Portion, it has been the custom of the Crown to look to the owner thereof for the time being, for payment of the whole Crown Rent due in respect of the Lot, leaving him to collect their proportions from the other section owners.
While the number of subdivisions of Lots remained small this custom caused little inconvenience, but in recent years the number of subdivisions has increased very rapidly and .many of the older and larger Lots have been divided into fifty
or more separate sections or subsections.
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The owners of the Remaining Portions now find it increas- ingly difficult to collect proportions of Crown Rent and many of them, after having paid the whole of the Crown Rent to the Treasury for some time, have ultimately made default.
Many section owners who have always paid to the owner of the Remaining Portion their proportions of Crown Rent, have found that, without their knowledge, the owner of the Remaining Portion has made default.
In case of default the only satisfactory remedy which the Crown at present has, is to exercise its right of re-entry on the whole Lot, and this has been the practice in recent years.
Re-entry involves forfeiture of every portion of the Lot re-entered, and the extinction of all mortgages thereon, which is a serious matter, particularly for trustees who have invested trust funds on the security of house property.
Default in payment of Crown Rent by Remaining Portion owners is becoming more and more frequent and the serious effect of the increasing number of re-entries calls for a remedy.
2. The object of this Ordinance is to enable the Land Officer, in his discretion, on the application of an owner of a portion of a Lot and on payment of the prescribed fees, to determine the Crown Rent which shall be payable direct to the Treasury in respect of such portion.
Section 3 provides for the foregoing.
Section 4 provides the principles to be observed in deter- mination. Determination will, in so far as is reasonable, be according to area. Some old Crown Rents were fixed in sterl- ing and these will be converted into local currency, at the rate at which all sterling Crown Rents were converted in 1862. Provision is also made for the addition of such sum, if any, as may be necessary to make the determined rent an even
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number of dollars. This will facilitate Treasury collection and book-keeping, without loss to the Crown, and the loss to the payer will be negligible.
Section 5 makes provision for proof of area.
Section 6 states the result of determination, on the ap- plication of a section owner other than the owner of a Remain- ing Portion.
Section 7 states the result of determination on the ap- plication of the owner of a Remaining Portion. Special provision is necessary in this case as at present the Crown looks to the owner of the Remaining Portion for payment of the whole Crown Rent due in respect of the Lot, and he cannot be released from this burden unless determination is also made
in respect of each other section of the Lot. Compulsory determination is accordingly imposed in this case on the owners of the other sections of the Lot. The fees are in this as in other cases payable by the applicant for determination, namely the owner of the Remaining Portion, but relief is provided to enable him to recover from the owner of each section the fees applicable to such section.
Sections 8 & 9 specify the procedure on determination and its effect.
Section 10 deals with correction of errors in the deter- mination.
Section 11 deals with appeals to and revision by the
· Governor in Council.
Section 12 authorises the fees payable in the schedule. Section 13 enables the Governor to appoint different dates for the application of the Ordinance to different lots areas or - districts. Some such provision is necessary to prevent the Land Office being disorganised by too many simultaneous applications.
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November, 1935.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
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