Local Land Charges Act 1975
| Year | 1975 |
Local Land ChargesAct 1975
1975 CHAPTER 76
An Act to make fresh provision for and in connection with the keeping of local land charges registers and the registration of matters therein.
[12th November 1975]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Definition of local land charges
1 Local land charges.
(1) A charge or other matter affecting land is a local land charge if it falls within any of the following descriptions and is not one of the matters set out in section 2 below:—
(a ) any charge acquired either before or after the commencement of this Act by a local authority, water authority or new town development corporation under the Public Health Acts 1936 and 1937 , the Highways Act 1959 , the Public Health Act 1961 or the Highways Act 1971 , or any similar charge acquired by a local authority under any other Act, whether passed before or after this Act, being a charge that is binding on successive owners of the land affected;
(b ) any prohibition of or restriction on the use of land—
(i) imposed by a local authority on or after 1st January 1926 (including any prohibition or restriction embodied in any condition attached to a consent, approval or licence granted by a local authority on or after that date), or
(ii) enforceable by a local authority under any covenant or agreement made with them on or after that date,
being a prohibition or restriction binding on successive owners of the land affected;
(c ) any prohibition of or restriction on the use of land—
(i) imposed by a Minister of the Crown or government department on or after the date of the commencement of this Act (including any prohibition or restriction embodied in any condition attached to a consent, approval or licence granted by such a Minister or department on or after that date), or
(ii) enforceable by such a Minister or department under any covenant or agreement made with him or them on or after that date,
being a prohibition or restriction binding on successive owners of the land affected;
(d ) any positive obligation affecting land enforceable by a Minister of the Crown, government department or local authority under any covenant or agreement made with him or them on or after the date of the commencement of this Act and binding on successive owners of the land affected;
(e ) any charge or other matter which is expressly made a local land charge by any statutory provision not contained in this section.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a ) above, any sum which is recoverable from successive owners or occupiers of the land in respect of which the sum is recoverable shall be treated as a charge, whether the sum is expressed to be a charge on the land or not.
2 Matters which are not local land charges.
2. The following matters are not local land charges:—
(i) England, Wales or England and Wales;
(ii) England, or England and Wales, with the exception of, or of any part of, Greater London;
(iii) Greater London.
Local land charges registers, registration and related matters
3 Registering authorities, local land charges registers, and indexes.
(1) Each of the following local authorities—
(a ) the council of any district,
(b ) the council of any London borough, and
(c ) the Common Council of the City of London,
shall be a registering authority for the purposes of this Act.
(2) There shall continue to be kept for the area of each registering authority—
(a ) a local land charges register, and
(b ) an index whereby all entries made in that register can readily be traced,
and as from the commencement of this Act the register and index kept for the area of a registering authority shall be kept by that authority.
(3) In this section ‘index’ includes any device or combination of devices serving the purpose of an index.
(4) For the purposes of this Act the area of the Common Council of the City of London includes the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple.
4 The appropriate local land charges register.
4. In this Act and any other statutory provision, unless the context otherwise requires, ‘the appropriate local land charges register’, in relation to any land or to a local land charge, means the local land charges register for the area in which the land or, as the case may be, the land affected by the charge is situated or, if the land in question is situated in two or more areas for which local land charges registers are kept, each of the local land charges registers kept for those areas respectively
5 Registration.
(1) Subject to subsection (6) below, where the originating authority as respects a local land charge are the registering authority, it shall be their duty to register it in the appropriate local land charges register.
(2) Subject to subsection (6) below, where the originating authority as respects a local land charge are not the registering authority, it shall be the duty of the originating authority to apply to the registering authority for its registration in the appropriate local land charges register and upon any such application being made it shall be the duty of the registering authority to register the charge accordingly.
(3) The registration in a local land charges register of a local land charge, or of any matter which when registered becomes a local land charge, shall be carried out by reference to the land affected or such part of it as is situated in the area for which the register is kept.
(4) In this Act, ‘the originating authority’, as respects a local land charge, means the Minister of the Crown, government department, local authority or other person by whom the charge is brought into existence or by whom, on its coming into existence, the charge is enforceable; and for this purpose—
(a ) where a matter that is a local land charge consists of or is embodied in, or is otherwise given effect by, an order, scheme or other instrument made or confirmed by a Minister of the Crown or government department on the application of another authority the charge shall be treated as brought into existence by that other authority; and
(b ) a local land charge brought into existence by a Minister of the Crown or government department on an appeal from a decision or determination of another authority or in the exercise of powers ordinarily exercisable by another authority shall be treated as brought into existence by that other authority.
(5) The registration of a local land charge may be cancelled pursuant to an order of the court.
(6) Where a charge or other matter is registrable in a local land charges register and before the commencement of this Act was also registrable in a register kept under the Land Charges Act 1972 , then, if before the commencement of this Act it was registered in a register kept under that Act, there shall be no duty to register it, or to apply for its registration, under this Act and section 10 below shall not apply in relation to it.
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