I want to bring one major point to the attention of the Minister. It concerns the necessity for a person applying to the Land Registry to do so with the consent of every person who is a necessary party to the conveyance. A person cannot take advantage of this section unless he is able to do so with the consent of every necessary party. This may be a most difficult procedure for a householder wishing to take advantage of this provision and get title on a very simple inexpensive basis because the question immediately arises as to who is a necessary party. It does not merely mean giving notice and getting the consent of the person to whom he pays his rent. It involves the consent of every superior interest plus the consent of the mortgagee of every such superior interest. The alternative procedure is arbitration under section 21 where it is provided that the registrar shall determine the application by arbitration. The householder wishing to avail of this provision will have to get the consent of all superior interests and he will have to bear the cost of such consent. Furthermore he has to bear the cost of locating such people for the purpose of, first of all, contacting them and, secondly, of obtaining their consent. This was the difficulty under the 1967 Bill. Apart from the arbitration section, which I will come to later, this difficulty has not been removed in so far as the householder is concerned.
If the Minister accepts that this is the situation—and I think he must—will there be any assistance given to the householder in dealing with this problem? As the Bill stands, the householder cannot even go to the registrar until such time as he has served all the notices on all these people and has obtained their consent. I will qualify that by saying that he cannot first go to the registrar for arbitration but he can go to the registrar under section 20 for a simple transfer at the fee mentioned in the Bill. It is my experience that in the majority of cases he will have difficulty in locating the various people and in obtaining their consent. I appreciate what the Minister has in mind but I am worried that the householder, owing to his lack of information and technical knowledge as to how to investigate this type of situation, will not be able to take advantage of this Bill other than by arbitration because of the need to have the consent of all the parties before going to the registrar to get the freehold.
The Minister should consider some procedure whereby the registrar will in advance of or in default of the obtaining of such consent be there to advise the householder of the best procedures and how to serve the various notices. Better again, if we are putting the onus on the registrar, why not have the registrar serve the notices as he does the technical work involved? That is the suggestion I am putting to the Minister in the light of the practical difficulty of any householder who is not holding under an immediate landlord who has the freehold and who is agreeable and co-operates with the householder.