Part III of the Land Registration Act sets up the physical machinery of the Torrens system: the certificate, the Register, and what registration proves.
Section 8 — prepared in duplicate
Where required for the purposes of the Act, the Registrar shall execute a certificate of title in the approved form. It shall be prepared in duplicate, and the Registrar shall endorse on one duplicate a note that it is not to be taken out of his custody.
- The Registrar’s duplicate stays in the office. It becomes a folio of the Register, and it is the authoritative record.
- The owner’s duplicate is delivered to the person entitled. It is the document you produce when dealing with the land.
Section 8(2A): a person who removes a certificate of title which is a folio of the Register from the custody of the Registrar without authorisation is guilty of an offence — a fine not exceeding K2,000.
Section 8(3) and (4) — what is recorded
When preparing a certificate, the Registrar shall record on both duplicates the particulars — so as to preserve their priorities — of all encumbrances, instruments, dealings and matters affecting the land which the Act requires to be registered or entered.
Two things follow. Everything registrable that affects the land should appear on the folio — the mirror principle, given effect through section 33(1)(b). And the order in which they are recorded matters, because priorities are preserved by the recording.
Where a certificate is issued for a person under a disability, the Registrar records in the same way (a) for a minor, the date of birth; and (b) in any other case, the nature of the disability so far as known.
Section 9 — the Register
- The duplicates retained by the Registrar form a running series, which is the Register.
- Each duplicate is a separate folio.
- The Register may be kept in such form as the Registrar considers appropriate, in or upon any medium or combination of mediums suitable for recording information about registered interests in land.
- The Registrar may change the form in which the Register, or part of it, is kept.
They are the statutory basis for moving the Register off paper. The Act does not require a bound volume — it requires a Register, in whatever medium the Registrar considers appropriate. That is what permits digitisation without further legislation.
The traditional description survives in practice: a title is identified by its volume and folio.
Section 10 — when a certificate is registered
A certificate of title is registered as soon as it has been (a) marked with the volume and folio in which it is entered in the Register, and (b) signed, sealed and dated by the Registrar.
On registration, one duplicate shall be delivered by the Registrar to the person entitled to it.
The moment of registration is not a formality. It is the moment indefeasibility attaches, and the moment priority is fixed against competing dealings.
Section 11 — the certificate as evidence
The Registrar’s duplicate of a certificate of title, when registered:
(a) is evidence of the particulars it specifies; and
(b) is conclusive evidence, in relation to the land it describes, that the person named (i) as seised of an estate in the land, or (ii) as taking or otherwise entitled to an estate or interest, is seised of, possessed of or entitled to that estate or interest.
Section 11 attaches conclusive evidentiary force to the Registrar’s duplicate — the folio of the Register — not to the copy in your safe. Where the two differ, the Register governs.
This is why a title search is essential and why producing your own copy is not a substitute. It is also why the Registrar’s correction powers under section 161 operate on the Register.
How to read a title
- Volume and folio — the identifier for the title.
- The land — portion, or allotment and section, with the plan or survey reference. Check it against the ground; a wrong description or boundary is an exception to indefeasibility under section 33(1)(e).
- The estate or interest — almost always a State lease, with its term and purpose. Both matter: the unexpired term is what you are buying, and the purpose limits what you may do.
- The registered proprietor — and whether they are the person you are dealing with.
- The encumbrances, in order — mortgages, registered leases, easements, caveats. Priorities follow the recording.
A tenancy of three years or less (s 33(1)(f)); an unregistrable lease or licence granted by the Head of State or a Minister (s 33(1)(h)); and unpaid rates and statutory charges (s 33(1)(i)). For those you must inspect the land and search for rates. And the title says nothing about the Land Act position — rent arrears, unmet improvement conditions, or a notice to show cause.
Sources
- Land Registration Act (Chapter 191) — ss 8–11, 33, 161; Part III Division 1
- Land Act 1996 — ss 76, 82, 122
- Mudge v Secretary for Lands [1985] PGSC 13; [1985] PNGLR 387
- Wiring v Muingnepe [2012] PGNC 247; N4889
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Land Act 1996 and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.