The Land Registry was established in 1892 to provide a comprehensive and secure system of land registration. Under the provisions of the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006 the Land Registry was re-constituted as part of the Property Registration Authority. The Land Register is comprised of some 1.9 million registered titles divided into individual counties. Within each county each title is registered on a separate document called a folio. Some 93% of the total land mass (comprising 88% of the legal titles) in Ireland is now registered in the Land Registry. The system of recording deeds, in respect of the remaining titles, operated by the Registry of Deeds, is gradually reducing and will, ultimately, be of interest to historians and genealogists only.
Section 73(1) of the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006 provided that, as and from the 1st January 2007, the Property Registration Authority would cease to issue Land Certificates and Certificates of Charge under the Registration of Title Act, 1964. Section 73(2) of the Act provided that Land Certificates and Certificates of Charge issued before the commencement of Section 73, which were not already cancelled, would cease to have force or effect from 1st January 2010.
Since 1981 the Land Registry has been creating a computerised register to replace the former paper register. As counties were gradually computerised the existing Land Certificates, when presented for a new registration, were replaced by a new Land Certificate in computerised format. In 1999 the Integrated Title Registration Information System was introduced and at this point the entire register has been digitized. As part of the process of computerization all paper folios were scanned and indexed and the full archive of the original paper folios dating back to 1891 is now safely stored off-site and preserved for posterity. As a benefit of the scanning, we can also issue a copy of an original folio from the computerized scanned image, showing the history of the ownership of that property from the date of registration, up to the date the record was computerized.
Each year a significant number of Land Certificates was lost and an expensive and time consuming process had to be undertaken before the Land Registry could issue a replacement or dispense with its production to allow a registration to proceed. Both the legal profession and the financial institutions had made proposals to abolish Land Certificates. They also recognized that Land Certificates had become an anachronism with the advent of computerised folios and internet based access to records via the PRA’s www.landdirect.ieservice
During the three year period since 1st January 2007, a number of requests have been made to preserve Land Certificates of historical or sentimental value to the lodging party and where possible these certificates have been preserved and retained. In addition, the PRA has implemented a policy of review and identification of certificates which may have a historical or particular archival interest. These have been preserved without formal requests being made by the lodging parties.
Where a Land Certificate has been retained for historical, sentimental or other special reasons and it has been preserved by the PRA, arrangements may be made to return the Land Certificate to the person registered as owner of the property.