All about Land

1.1 Types of Land Registration in Ireland
There are two types of Land Registration in Ireland, viz.,
1. Registration of Deeds, introduced in 1707, by the Registration of Deeds Act, and
2. Registration of Title, introduced in 1891, by the Local Registration of Title Act.
Both of these are under the management and control of the Property Registration Authority (“PRAI”) as a result of the Registration of Deeds and Titles Act 2006.
Other systems exist which record various types of information about land, including:
• the Private Residential Tenancy Register wherein landlords of residential tenancies are required to register,
• records of land valuations and occupiers, held by the Valuation Office, and
• Planning Registers held by local authorities.
These are sometimes of relevance to proof of ownership of land, but we reserve the term Land Registration to the two systems controlled by the PRAI, which the law requires owners to avail of in order to protect and prove their title.
Registration of Deeds is carried out in the Registry of Deeds, (Henrietta Street, Dublin), while Registration of Title is carried out in the Land Registry (formerly centralised in the Four Courts Complex, at Chancery Street, Dublin, but now located at additional addresses in Dublin and in Waterford and Roscommon). The word Title is here synonymous with Ownership, in other words “Registration of Title” means “Registration of Ownership of Land.”

1.2 Difference between Registration of Deeds and Registration of Title
The crucial difference between the two systems is the amount of information recorded when a transaction is submitted for registration.
• The older system, Registration of Deeds, was established to help eliminate land frauds, and records only the date of the deed, the nature of the deed, and its parties.
• On registration of a transaction in the Land Registry, on the other hand, the owner of the plot of land in question is recorded.
• The Registry of Deeds passes no comment on the effect of the deed registered, which is left to the user to determine for himself, whereas the Land Registry interprets the deed, registers its effect in relation to the ownership of the land, and guarantees the truth of this information to the extent stated (i.e, Title Absolute or Qualified or Possessory ).

1.3 Registered Land and Unregistered LandOriginally, of course, all the land of the country was subject to the Registration of Deeds Act. Initially only land purchased under the Land Purchase Acts (of the late 19th century and early 20th century) was the subject of the Registration of Title Act, but the remit of this Act has gradually been expanded to include more and more of the land of Ireland.
Interests in Land whose title is registered (in the Land Registry) are called registered land, whereas all other interests in land remain the subject of the Registry of Deeds and are called “unregistered land.” It is not correct to say that a plot of land is “registered in the Registry of Deeds”, since no land is registered there at all, just deeds. It may true to say that a plot of land is “subject to the Registry of Deeds,” since all interests in land not registered in the Land Registry are subject to the Registration of Deeds Act.
It often occurs that one Interest in a Parcel of Land is registered land, whereas another interest in the same Parcel is unregistered land. For example, it might happen that the Freehold Interest is registered and a Leasehold Interest unregistered, or, conversely, that the Leasehold Interest is registered while the Freehold Interest remains unregistered. The ownership of Mines and Minerals often remains unregistered, which means that the Land Registry does not give you any information as to who the owner of the Mines and Minerals is.

1.4 Closing the Registry of Deeds by 2014
Registration of Title is considered the superior of the two systems, and, ever since its introduction, there has been a gradual extension of the system. The extension has become more rapid in recent years and there is an objective to extend compulsory registration in the Land Registry to the entire country by 2014. When this happens, the Registry of Deeds will be redundant so far as current transactions are concerned, but can continue as a repository of historic documents and a useful data source for genealogical research.