Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1958-1959 — Page 8

Functions

PART II

LAND OFFICE

3. The principal function of the Land Office is the registration in accordance with the provisions of the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128) of deeds and other instruments relating to land in Hong Kong, Kowloon, New Kowloon, and a few lots in the New Territories which have been exempted from the provisions of Part II of the New Territories Ordinance (Cap. 97). The Ordinance provides that all such deeds, etc., so registered shall have priority according to the priority of their respective dates of registration, and also that all such deeds, etc., other than bona fide leases at rack rents for any term not exceeding three years, which are not registered shall, as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration, be abso- lutely null and void. No notice, actual or constructive, of any prior unregistered instrument affects the priority of any duly registered instrument. Legally the system is one of registration of deeds and not of title; but in view of the above provisions instruments relating to land are always registered promptly after execution, and the Land Registers show the devolution of title to each property and all incumbrances on it. The result is that in practice the system is regarded as virtually equivalent to registration of title,

4. Among the other functions of the Land Officer are the checking and registration of Conditions of Sale, Grant, and Exchange of Crown land, the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown Leases, the granting of Mining Leases, and advising the Government generally on matters relating to land.

Deeds Registration

5. Although land speculators were much less active than in previous years, many large building projects were completed during the year and the number of assignments rose by 891 to 8,116. This rise was due to the increase in the number of flats being sold as separate entities, the procedure being to assign an undivided share in the land coupled with the right to exclusive possession of a floor or part of a floor. In one such case the lot is split up into no less than 397 undivided shares; in another the process has been pushed to a logical if grotesque conclusion,

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