LAND CHARGES BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 11 May 1896)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

explained that the object of this Bill was to simplify the mode of enforcing judgments against land, and to give fuller effect to the policy embodied in the Land Charges Registration and Searches Act, 1888. It was the opinion of many 990 eminent conveyancers that the proceedings under an elegit were cumbersome and ought to be abolished, and that a simpler form of execution against land might be adopted and made applicable whether the debtor's interest was legal or equitable. The object of the first part of the Bill was to give effect to the suggestions which had been made for this purpose, and to entitle the judgment creditor to a charging order giving him the same powers as if he were a mortgagee under a mortgage deed to which the provisions of Section 19 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, applied. Words were inserted for the purpose of making it clear that the charging order extended to all interests of the debtor, and not merely to those to which a writ of elegit was at present confined. The second part of the Bill was more simple. The Land Charges Registration and Searches Act, 1888, established at the office of Land Registry a register of writs and orders affecting land. The intention was that this register should supersede the register of judgments kept at the central office of the Supreme Court. But the latter register was still kept up and searches were regularly made in it on behalf and at the expense of purchasers of land, though it was doubtful what effect the registration of a judgment had and whether the search was of any value. It was proposed by the Bill to transfer to the office of Land Registry the business now conducted in the Judgments Department of the Central Office, and after a due interval, to repeal the enactments under which registered judgments might possibly operate as charges on land, and close the register of judgments.