Finance Act, 1996

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Amendment of section 146 (certificate relating to registration of title based on possession) of Finance Act, 1994.

128.— Section 146 of the Finance Act, 1994 , is hereby amended by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (4):

“(4A) In subsection (1), the reference to a certificate issued by the Commissioners shall be construed as including a reference to a certificate to which subsection (4B) relates, and the provisions of subsection (1) shall be construed accordingly.

(4B) (a) A certificate to which this subsection relates is a certificate by the solicitor for the applicant for registration in which it is certified, on a form provided by the Commissioners, that the solicitor—

(i) is satisfied—

(I) in a case where the applicant is a statutory authority within the definition of ‘statutory authority’ contained in section 3(1) of the Act of 1964, that the market value of the relevant property at the time of the application does not exceed £100,000, or

(II) in any other case, that—

(A) the area of the relevant property does not exceed five hectares, and

(B) the market value of the relevant property at the time of the application does not exceed £15,000,

and

(ii) having investigated the title to the relevant property, has no reason to believe that the relevant particulars, in so far as relating to the relevant property at any time during the relevant period, are particulars which related at that time to significant other real property, that is to say, real property which, if combined with the relevant property for the purposes of subparagraph (i), would cause a limit which applies to the relevant property by virtue of that subparagraph to be exceeded.

(b) In this subsection—

‘the relevant particulars’ means the particulars of title to the relevant property which are required to be produced to the Registrar for the purposes of paragraph 2 of Form 5 of the Schedule of Forms referred to in the definition of ‘Forms’ contained in rule 2(1) of the Rules of 1972;

‘the relevant property’ means the property in respect of which the application for registration is being made.

(4C) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4B), a certificate by the solicitor for the applicant for registration shall be a certificate to which subsection (4B) relates if it certifies, on a form provided by the Commissioners, that the solicitor is satisfied that—

(a) the area of the property in respect of which the application for registration is being made does not exceed 500 square metres,

(b) the market value of the said property at the time of the application does not exceed £2,000, and

(c) the application is not part of a series of related applications covering a single piece of property the total area of which exceeds 500 square metres or the market value of which at the time of the application exceeds £2,000.”.