Land Registry Circular Memorandum (LRCM)

Land Registration (Amendment) Regulation 1994

Land Registration Fees (Amendment) Regulation 1994 and

Land Registration (New Territories) Fees (Amendment) Regulation 1994

1. Amendments to the Land Registration Regulations and Fees Regulations are made to enable new and improved services to be introduced in the Land Registry and to standardise the fees charged in the Urban Land Registry and the New Territories Land Registries.
2. Details of the amendments are contained in the captioned amendment regulations which were gazetted on 3 June and 10 June 1994 respectively. These amendment regulations will come into operation on a day to be appointed by the Land Registrar by notice in the gazette, sometime in July1994.
3. The new services to be introduced will include the computerised direct access facilities (known as "Direct Access Services") to search the urban land register, the computerisation of the New Territories land registers and microfilming-cum-imaging of New Territories land records.
4. The Land Registry will shortly introduce the "Direct Access Services" to enable users to make on-line searches of the computerised urban land registers. Such service will be extended, in phases, to include the New Territories land registers as soon as they have been computerised.
5. The New Territories computerisation project has recently commenced. The first phase of the data conversion exercise will cover all New Territories Town Lots, on a district by district basis, starting with Tsuen Wan. The second phase will cover all DD and SD lots and the whole exercise will take three years to complete. However, it is expected that Town Lot registers in Tsuen Wan will become available for search in computerised mode later this year.
6. Planning for the microfilming-cum-imaging of New Territories land records is in an advance stage and this new service will be introduced in phases commencing mid-1995.
7. Another improved service is the replacement of Memorial Card Index in the Urban Land Registry by a new section in a computer search printout called "Deeds Pending Registration" and an "Unposted Memorial List". Details are set out in a separate Land Registry Circular Memorandum No. 3/94 of 10 June 1994.
8. As regards the standardisation of fees, this means that fees payable for land registration and other services provided in all the eight New Territories Land Registries (NTLRs) will be brought in line with the levels charged at the Urban Land Registry (ULR) on a cost recovery basis. For historical resons, fees currently charged at the NTLRs are lower than those in the ULR. Existing fees payable at the ULR will remain unchanged.
9. The opportunity is taken to regularise certain operational practices, for example, to standardise the opening hours of both the Urban and the New Territories Land Registries and the prescribed mode of delivery of instruments for registration
10. Any enquiries regarding the amendment regulations should be addressed to the Senior Solicitor Ms Queenie Ngai at 867 8005 (now changed to 3105 0000).