Areas on Folios – Legal Office Notice No. 4 of 2012

Section 85 of the Registration of Title Act 1964, as substituted by Section 62 of the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006, provides that neither a description of land in a register nor its identification by reference to a registry map is conclusive as to its boundaries or extent.

Rule 8 of the Land Registration Rules 2012 prescribes the content of the description of land in a register. There is no requirement for such description to include the area. Rule 8(3) prescribes that where areas are recorded, they are not conclusive.

Hitherto areas, which were recorded on the register as part of the property description, were provided by or on behalf of applicants in the documents presented for registration, or on foot of certificates furnished by their surveyor, engineer, architect or other suitably qualified professional. It was not our practice to compute areas.

On inspection of the digital map, the customer is presented with a panel entitled “Property Details”. These details include the computed areas of plans that exceed 0.1 hectares. In view of this development, and the possibility of this area differing from that supplied by or on behalf of registered owners as recorded on the register, areas should no longer be recorded in Parts 1A or 1B of the folios of the register.

Where transfers of part are being settled, the area should be deleted from description of the property in Part 1A of the parent folio. Property note to be added “Description altered, date and instrument”.

Where customers request area details, they should be directed to the digital map.

Section 4 (“Areas on Folios”) of Practice Direction Mapping Practice (Published 1 November 2010) and Areas on Folios – Legal Office Notice No. 12/2006 are hereby rescinded.

Fergus Hayden

Deputy Registrar

1 August 2012

Updated 1 February 2013