A Message from the Land Registrar
During 2002 the Land Registry developed a new statement of vision, mission and values. We have just learned that in the Government's latest 'Outstanding Customer Service Awards Scheme' we have won the Grand Award for small departments as well as top awards for quality and for cost effectiveness and an improvement award. That's a good start to living up to the vision of being the best in all that we do. It gives recognition to staff for past performance and encouragement as we press on with a testing programme of change.
Within this year all the offices of the department will be refurbished to provide a better service environment for customers and a better working environment for staff, one that will allow us to deploy our new information technology effectively.
Development of the Integrated Registration Information System is well underway, on target for rolling out at the beginning of next year.
The Land Titles Bill was reintroduced in the Legislative Council on 18 December 2002 and will begin committee stage examination in the next few months.
These are all important developments. But, we keep in mind that improved offices, new technology and better legislation are not themselves our goal. They are steps along the way to giving better service to this city. Furthermore to these planned steps, new challenges have been added. Continuing weakness in our revenue means that we will have to do more to control costs so as to keep the Land Registry Trading Fund in health. Furthermore, we are being asked to support action being taken by the public sector as a whole to streamline organization and service delivery so as to deliver better value and reduce costs in the face of the Government's fiscal deficit.
Managing these challenges successfully depends on putting our values into practice : integrity in living up to the commitments we have made; respect and support for colleagues having to cope with unexpected change; learning constantly how to do things in new ways; always seeking excellence in services and performance.
K A SALKELD, J.P.
The Land Registrar & General Manager
The Land Registry Trading Fund, Hong Kong
Update: Information Systems Strategic Plan Implementation
We are happy to report significant progress on the implementation of our Information Systems Strategic Plan. The plan is being taken forward through investment in new systems and development of operational and management capacity. It adopts an information systems strategy which places major emphasis on enabling the new registration processes and enhancing customer services. It also seeks to maximize the opportunities provided by merging technology by developing an Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) to support the improved services.
The IRIS contract of system development and IT services commenced in early August 2002. We have since defined the details of the requirement specifications and conducted the system analysis and design of this new mission critical system. This has been achieved by department's concerted efforts and encouraging participation of all. We have now come to the construction and system integration test phase of the project, which will work us through till August 2003. Target operation date for IRIS implementing new business process, central registration and Internet search is January 2004.
A new design of the memorial form is required for the statutory requirements in the Land Registration (Amendment) Ordinance. The revised form is important for the future central registration process and must be designed to ensure maximum operation efficiency for updating the land register. The format of the land register will also be revised under the Amendment Ordinance and for better presentation. We are now consulting customers on the new design.
In parallel with the development of IRIS, we started an office refurbishment programme in October 2002. A new Customer Centre providing full range of counter services of registration and land search will be set up on the 19th floor of the Queensway Government Offices. Self-service terminals providing land search services will be installed in the Customer Centre. Through these terminals, search services will be available to our customers even at lunch break.
The advanced IT platform, the improved service environment and our team of well-trained staff will allow us to meet public demand for service of excellent quality.
Update: Colour Imaging of Plans
In March 2002, the Land Registry started to scan and convert both incoming and existing plans attached to registered documents into electronic colour images. All the existing plans in the Urban and New Territories Land Registries (over 3.5 million) were converted at the end of November 2002.
With this new colour imaging technology, the quality of the plans is preserved and are securely stored on CD-ROMs for filing and retrieval. Customers benefit from this project as high quality colour plan copies are provided to them, without any increase in fees. This completes the conversion of all of the Land Registry data into accessible digital format that can be used by IRIS in future.
Update: Land Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2002
Some provisions of the Amendment Ordinance including acceptance of specified types of certified copies of instruments for registration, temporary withdrawal of instruments, provision of latest copies of stopped deeds, colour imaging of registered plans and deletion of names of parties from the Memorial Day Book came into operation on 12 December 2002. A Land Registry Circular Memorandum No. 5/02 has been issued setting out the provisions in detail.
Other provisions relating to the implementation of the central registration system will be implemented by early 2004.
Update: Land Titles Bill
The Land Titles Bill was reintroduced into the Legislative Council in December 2002. The main features of the Bill are -
Certainty
Title to a property will be vested in an owner upon registration. There is certainty in title which is established by searching the title register.
Gradual Conversion
Conversion from the present deeds registration system to the proposed title registration system will be through a gradual process. When the Land Titles Bill comes into operation, a property will be brought under the title registration system upon registration on -
(a) first sale of the property after the implementation of the Land Titles Bill,
(b) new issue of Government lease of the property, or
(c) voluntary application by an owner.
Security of Title
When a purchaser acquires a property for value and in good faith and title is registered under the title registration system, the purchaser will be recognized as the legal owner. His title to the property cannot be overturned except in a case where fraud has been committed and a court considers that it is just in the circumstances to restore the property to the former owner.
Indemnity
A person suffering loss of ownership because of an entry or omission in the title register obtained through fraud or loss because of an entry or omission in the title register due to mistake of the Land Registry staff will be eligible to claim for indemnity, unless he contributed to the fraud. An indemnity fund will be established for this purpose, accumulated from a levy on each registration. An upper limit of $30 million is proposed to be set on any indemnity payment in respect of fraud. An upper limit for fraud cases is considered necessary in order to keep the levy required at an affordable level for the great majority of owners. There will be no upper limit for indemnity in respect of mistake of the Land Registry staff. The Land Registry Trading Fund will reimburse the Indemnity Fund for any amounts of indemnity paid out due to mistake of the Land Registry staff.
Unregistered Interests
Under the title registration system, unregistered interests will not affect the property of purchasers who acquired the property for value. Where a property is brought under the title registration system through voluntary application, the unregistered interests may persist, but they will lapse when the property is sold for value.
Title Certificate
A title certificate, which is optional, will be issued to an owner upon application. Once issued, a title certificate is a title document and must be produced and surrendered to the Land Registry upon the sale of the property. A fee will be charged for issue of the title certificate.
An information leaflet on the Bill is now available in the Land Registry. The full text of the Bill and further information on the Bill can also be found on the Land Registry website at http://www.info.gov.hk/landreg/.
Further Learning Improvement Plans
To keep up the momentum of continuous learning, staff actively embarked on another Learning Improvement Plan running from May to October 2002. Plans on different aspects such as improving computer skills, job knowledge and working procedures were implemented. Three winning teams were selected in November 2002 and presented with the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards. In recognition of the good work of individuals, each participant of the winning teams was given an attractive metal badge with our departmental logo.
2002/2003 Annual Staff Development Theme Training Workshops on " Changing Creatively: Seeking Continuous Improvement"
The 2002/2003 Annual Staff Development theme - "Changing Creatively: Seeking Continuous Improvement" continues to promote a learning culture. Over 360 members of staff participated in the 14 workshops held during December 2002 - January 2003. Each workshop was opened by either the Land Registrar or the Registry Manager which boosted up the learning atmosphere. The thrust of this year's development theme was on Creative Problem Solving. Major objectives of the workshops are to stimulate creativity in problem solving and explore ways to sustain a learning culture with the ultimate aim of continuous improvement. Post-training exercise will be carried out to put the theories learned into practice and to foster further improvement.
Customer Service Survey
The Land Registry has commissioned consultants to conduct a survey to gauge the customer satisfaction level of our services and our staff's attitude towards customer service and to review the training programmes for customer service. The objective of the survey is to enhance the quality of services provided to customers. A customer satisfaction survey was carried out at all service counters of the Registry and through telephone in November 2002. As shown in the chart below, majority of the respondents were satisfied with our services.
We would like to thank our customers for their invaluable comments and suggestions. We appreciate very much their continuing support and encouragement. We pledge to do our very best to serve.
Synchronization and Licensing Arrangement for Street Index and New Territories Lot/Address Cross Reference Table (CRT)
In response to the customers' feedback, a licensing arrangement for the sale of the new edition of Street Index and CRT will be introduced to cater for subscribers with more than one user. Under the new arrangement, an annual fee of $2,000 for less than 50 Local Area Network (LAN) users and $4,000 for 50 LAN users or more will be charged. To tie in with the new licensing arrangement, the sale of the 35th edition of Street Index will be synchronized with the 4th edition of CRT to April 2003. The price will also be reset from $300 to $250 for each copy.
The Land Registry Trading Fund Annual Report 2001/2002 and The Best Annual Reports Awards 2002
The Land Registry released its Annual Report for 2001/2002 in October 2002. The theme for the report is 'Value. Service. Trust' which reflects the Registry's mission and objectives. The report has a crisp but informative content, highlighting not only the Registry's evolution and progress over the past but also its plan to further enhance its services and provide Hong Kong with international best practice in land registration services. The report also consists of an audited financial statement with full account of the financial position of the Land Registry Trading Fund.
The Hong Kong Management Association organizes the Best Annual Reports Awards every year. The objective of the Awards is to encourage the publication of accurate, informative, well presented and timely annual reports. There were 120 organizations participating in the competition in 2002. It is gratifying to know that our Annual Report 2000/2001 was awarded with an Honourable Mention in the Best Annual Reports Awards 2002. Our report was commended for providing both insights and well considered details on our future plans and a very thorough description of the activities offered to employees and staff.
COMMENTS
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The Land Registry
Freepost No. 10
Hong Kong
For enquiries, please contact:
TEL: (852) 3105 0000
FAX: (852) 2523 0065
e-mail: csa@landreg.gov.hk