THE Deeds Registry (Amendment) Bill 2012 tabled in the National Assembly, last Thursday, by Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, seeks to promote an Agreement of Sale of immovable property to the status of a bond, a lease or other registrable interest.
The proposed amendment to the Deeds Registry Act, if approved, will allow persons in possession of an Agreement of Sale of immovable property to be able to register it in the Deeds Registry.
This will enable the agreement to be recorded or annotated against a transport or other duly recorded deed to the property in question.
The annotation will enable persons buying any property held by transport, to have some form of protection until the transport is conveyed, or transferred to their name, after the sale is completed.
Currently, an agreement of sale confers upon the purchaser no interest in the land which is the subject of that agreement.
The need for the amendment arose from the fact that over the years, there have been several reported cases of purchasers of land being defrauded of the benefit of the agreement of sale by the land being re-sold to a third party and transport passed to that party without the knowledge of the original purchaser.
The amendment proposed seeks to end this type of mischief. Both the agreement of sale and the annotation can be cancelled if and whenever necessary, by the consent of the parties.