Land Registry News

A Message from the Land Registrar on the Land Registration (Amendment) Bill and Land Titles Bill

Hong Kong is beginning a period of transformation in its Land Registration system.

The present land registration system depends upon an ordinance enacted in 1844. It has been updated from time to time to reflect changing social and economic needs - and in the New Territories has been accommodated to traditional practices. But, the Land Registration Ordinance of February 1844 itself is derived from English and Irish legislation of the early 1700s.

21st Century Hong Kong is a far cry from early 18th Century Europe. Engineering excellence has built a city that works with population densities far greater than any comparable metropolis. A free society and open markets have unlocked people's potential and created an extraordinary concentration of commerce and finance. A trusted land registration system has operated quietly at the heart of this. The security given by registered property is the basis today for over HK$1,000 billion in loans to families and businesses.

Transforming the registration system to meet the present and future needs of this city will help maintain trust and is the contribution that the Land Registry can make to the life of Hong Kong.The Land Registration (Amendment) Bill passed by the Legislative Council on 3 July is the first step towards that transformation. It allows us to proceed with the contract to deliver the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) by the end of next year. The benefits of this will be:

• A much faster and more secure registration system serving the whole territory
• Fast internet access to all search services supported by user friendly search offices in convenient locations
• A better working environment and more interesting working procedures for staff
• A more cost effective operation that allows us to give better value to customers
• A robust platform from which to develop greater electronic service delivery and new information services
• A system able to support our goal of bringing title registration to Hong Kong

On 5 July the Legislative Council Lands and Works Panel considered the administration's proposals for revision to the draft Land Titles Bill. We are now preparing to submit the revised bill to the Legislature before the end of 2002.

This legislation is the key to the Land Registry being able to provide a system of registration commensurate with Hong Kong's aim to be a city that stands always in the forefront of protecting individual rights and providing excellence in services. Title registration will give individuals, businesses and banks greater certainty, greater convenience. It will allow the Land Registry to meet public demand for service they can trust, service of excellent quality, service of excellent value.

K A SALKELD, J.P.
The Land Registrar & General Manager
The Land Registry Trading Fund, Hong Kong

Update : Information Systems Strategic Plan Implementation

After 6 months of hard work selecting the best proposal, the Land Registry completed the tendering process for a system development and IT services contract for the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) in February 2002. Some very high quality submissions were made. The winning bid came from a consortium led by the Computer & Technologies International Limited, a Hong Kong based company with extensive experience in government IT projects. The contract signed with the company included both the development of a turnkey system (IRIS) and outsourcing of IT services. It was one of the first contracts of this type signed by a public service agency.

IRIS will replace three separate systems we run at the moment. It will support major service enhancements including a central registration office, streamlined registration processes and comprehensive search services on the Internet. With electronic service delivery, colour imaging, on-line processing and 24-hour disaster recovery, IRIS will provide much greater operating efficiency, much greater security for data and capacity for future development. The contract includes a ten year programme to develop the IRIS platform to deliver further improvements in services to the community. Teranet, a company that has developed from the Land Registry of Ontario, Canada, is a partner in the consortium. They have long experience in handling both deeds registration and title registration. This will help us to manage the major reforms of land registration practice to be introduced over the next few years through the Land Titles Bill.

The Land Registration (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on 3 July 2002. This removed many outdated restrictions on our operation and opens up the potential to reform our organization and working practices. The passage triggered off an 18 month system development period for IRIS. We will be working closely with our contractual partners, customers, business associates and stakeholders to build a system that meets the needs of all users of our services.

Update : Colour Imaging of Plans (CIP)

After 6-month's preparation work for the conversion centre, system development and training of staff following the award of the CIP contract to the Automated Systems (HK) Limited on 15 September 2001, the conversion started on 15 March. Both incoming and existing plans are being scanned and converted into electronic colour images. Quality is our prime objective. Each of over 3.5 million plan images is being checked by both the contractor and the Land Registry before they are stored securely on CD-ROMs for filing and retrieval. Conversion of all New Territories plans was completed on 23 July. The conversion of all urban area plans is on schedule for completion by 14 December 2002.

The Land Registry is investing $22 million in this project. Customers will benefit from high quality colour plan copies of the same size and colour as the original plans being provided through a simple and efficient retrieval and printing system and without any increase in fees. This project also 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

The Amendment Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on 3 July 2002.

The effect of the amendments to the Land Registration Ordinance is to empower the department to set up a Central Registration System and to introduce the new service of colour imaging of plans. It also allows for improvement in the performance of registration and search functions, better protection of personal data and for the regulation of certain existing practices.

The provisions relating to specified types of certified copies of instruments accepted 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 will come into operation in end 2002.

Agreement on provisions relating to the removal of long outstanding stopped deeds could not be reached in time for these to be retained in the bill passed on 3 July. The Land Registry is continuing consultation with the Law Society and the Bar Association to settle exactly how this new arrangement will operate. Fresh legislation to cover this matter will be taken forward in the coming session of the Legislative Council.

Update: Land Titles Bill

The proposals for revising the Land Titles Bill previously discussed with the main professional bodies and interest groups were presented to the Lands and Buildings Advisory Committee and to the Legislative Council Panel on Lands and Works in June and July. The Bill is now being finalized. It is expected that the Bill can be introduced into the Legislative Council later in 2002.

Update: Land Registry New Website (http://www.info.gov.hk/landreg/)

The new homepage for the Land Registry was launched on 1 July 2002. It is designed to be more informative and easier to use. The new homepage features a professional design with user-friendly navigation. More hyperlinks are established to give users easy access to information they require. The contents are enriched to include useful information such as office location maps, fees schedules and answers to frequently asked questions on the Land Registry services.

As a free service to help those responsible for completing memorials improve accuracy, a Memorial Form Easy Guide is available on our new homepage to give users a step-by-step guide and solution to problems in preparing a memorial. In the Easy Guide, all items in the memorial form are linked to three sub-topics: Short Description, Quick Tips and Frequently Asked Questions via hyperlinks. Users are also linked to other relevant information such as Land Registry Circular Memoranda, Notes on Registrability of Instruments and Notes on Re-registration of Instruments, simply by a click of the mouse.

Comments or suggestions about our new homepage are welcomed. If you wish to subscribe to electronic delivery of the newly issued Land Registry Circular Memoranda, please register with us through e-mail.

Follow-up Session on Annual Development Theme Training "Learning Improvement Plans Presentation"

To foster a culture of learning after the workshops on the Annual Staff Development Theme (2001/2002): "Change in Action: Sustaining a Learning Organization", section leaders embarked on their 3-month post-training exercise of implementing various learning improvement plans. Every staff of the department was involved in this initiative.

A total of 21 plans were implemented covering improvements on IT, work procedure and attitudes. On 4 May 2002, all directors and 83 officers of the department met together for a seminar on departmental learning. Five Best Learning Improvement Plans from the 21 were presented during the session and one was selected for a grand prize based on an assessment of:

- Achievements (immediate results and sustainability)
- Benefits brought to staff/customers
- Creativity
- Presentation

The Reports-on-Title team won for their plan for improvement to preparation of memorials. All participants had a very enjoyable and rewarding afternoon. We trust that our continuing efforts to improve our skills, knowledge and standards will be seen by all our clients in better service to you.

"Meet the Clients" Programm

The Land Registry recently embarked on a new initiative on customer relationship management with a pilot "Meet the Clients" programme held with estate agents during their goodwill visit to the Land Registry on 6 June 2002.

After a briefing session on land search services and a tour to the Central Search Office and the Direct Access Services Help Desk, the visitors and our frontline staff had a one-hour discussion over service improvement in a comfortable and open atmosphere. Our frontline staff found the opportunity to have a wide ranging discussion with customers whom they serve every day a valuable experience. They heard directly about the value and importance of the land search services to estate agency work and got a better understanding of customers' needs. They also built up greater skills and confidence in communicating with customers.

We will be using the experience gained from the pilot programme and recommendations from a review of our customer service arrangements now underway to find new ways to keep on improving the quality of our services and meeting customer needs.

Removal of Sha Tin New Territories Land Registry

The Sha Tin New Territories Land Registry (STNTLR) at Citylink Plaza was moved to Room 901, 9th Floor of the new Sha Tin Government Offices, No. 1 Sheung Wo Che Road, Sha Tin on 11 March 2002.

The new STNTLR is only 5 minutes walk from the Sha Tin Railway Station. This new office provides our customers a more comfortable, spacious and efficient environment in which to obtain our services on deeds registration, search of land records and registration of owners corporations.

New Performance Pledges for 2002/2003

The Land Registry team is pleased to report that in 2001/2002 we met all our pledges for service performance and in a number of areas exceeded our performance targets.

As an on-going commitment to providing improved and quality service to our customers, the Land Registry has set higher performance standards for this year.
For the supply of "All Services" search at the Central Search Office, the service standard is improved from 40 to 35 minutes. For the supply of computerized land registers and imaged copies of land records, the service standard is shortened from 25 to 22 minutes. For certification of computerized land registers acquired through the Direct Access Services, the service standard is improved from 21/2 to 2 working days. A new performance pledge has been introduced for the sale of Monthly Memorial Information on Mortgage Transactions (MMIM). The service standard for the approval of MMIM applications is 2 working days and the service standard for the delivery of MMIM by courier is within 6 working days excluding Saturdays at the beginning of the month.

The enhanced service standards set new goals, motivate staff to face new challenges and keep pace with customers' expectations. Pamphlets on the new performance pledges have been released and copies are available for collection at any office of the Land Registry, the District Offices of the Home Affairs Department and major public libraries. It can also be downloaded from our website at http://www.info.gov.hk/landreg/. A table showing the actual performance for major services of the Registry in 2001/2002 and the new service standards for 2002/2003 is given below:

Sale of New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (3rd Edition)

The 3rd edition of the New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (CRT) is available for sale at the Islands New Territories Land Registry on 17th Floor of Queensway Government Offices. The price is HK$300 per set.

Since the 2nd edition, 1,489 amendments have been made and 37 new streets and 1,949 new lots / sections / subsections have been added to the CRT data. Available Chinese street, building and development names have also been incorporated in the CRT. In support of a green environment, the User's Guide in paper form has been incorporated in the CD-ROM.

For enquiries, please contact our CRT Unit at 2867 8071.

COMMENTS

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The Land Registry
Freepost No. 10
Hong Kong

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