Registrar-general (Recording of Documents) Act 1955

[3 May 1955]

[preamble and words of enactment omitted]

Interpretation

1 In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

"authorized officer" means the Registrar-General and includes any other officer authorized by regulations made under this Act to perform any functions thereunder;

"depositor", in relation to any document submitted for recording and registration under this Act, means the person depositing that document in the office of the Registrar-General for that purpose;

"Minister" means the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under this Act.

Saving for other statutory provisions

2 Except as otherwise expressly provided, nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to derogate from or abridge any provision of any other Act, or of any statutory instrument in force thereunder—

(a) relating to the recording and custody of documents, to the maintenance of registers and indices, or to the provi sion of copies of documents or entries in documents, by the Registrar-General; or

(b) relating to searches for, and inspection of, any such documents, registers or indices as aforesaid.

Recording and registration of documents deposited in the office of the Registrar-General

3 (1) It shall be the duty of the Registrar-General to cause to be recorded and registered any deed, power of attorney or other document which may be deposited in the office of the Registrar-General for record ing and registration and which the Registrar-General is authorized or re quired to record and register.

(2) Any such recording and registration of a document may, at the option of the depositor, be lawfully effected either —

(a) by the deposit of the original document in the office of the Registrar-General, by the preparation by an autho rized officer of a copy of such document, or abstract thereof where such is sufficient to meet the requirements of the Act under which such deposit is made, and by the insertion and retention of the copy or abstract as afore said in the appropriate record book; or

(b) by the deposit of the original document in the office of
the Registrar-General, together with a copy of such doc ument or of an abstract thereof in the prescribed form where such is sufficient to meet the requirements of the Act under which such deposit is made; by the compari son of such copy or abstract as aforesaid with the origi nal document by an authorized officer to ensure that it is a true copy or, as the case may be, correct abstract; and by the insertion and retention of such copy or ab stract in the appropriate record book.

(3) Any copy of a document made in pursuance of subsection (2)(a) may be typewritten, photographed or otherwise reproduced by any photographic or mechanical process.

(4) Upon the completion of the recording and registration of any document under this section —

(a) the original document shall be indorsed to the effect that it has been recorded and registered in the office of the Registrar-General, and such indorsement shall show —

(i) the date on which the document was deposited for recording; and

(ii) the number and page of the record book in which the copy is retained,

and shall be signed by an authorized officer, and

(b) the original document indorsed in accordance with para graph (a) shall be made available in the office of the Registrar-General for delivery to the depositor, or, upon pre-payment of the appropriate postal fee, shall be sent to such address as may be notified to the Registrar-Gen eral by the depositor.

Inspection of registers and indexes; copying; obtaining certified copies

4 Subject to any regulations made under this Act, the Registrar-General, upon the application of any person and upon the payment of the appropriate fee specified shall—

(a) allow that person to inspect and examine any document recorded and registered under this Act, or any register or index maintained thereunder; and

(b) allow that person to copy or make extracts from any such document, register or index as aforesaid; and

(c) cause to be prepared and furnished to that person a copy of any such document, register or index as afore said, sealed and certified by an authorized officer to be a true copy thereof.

Minister may make regulations

5 (1) The Minister may make regulations for carrying the forego ing provisions of this Act into effect; and without prejudice to the fore going provision, regulations made as aforesaid may provide —

(a) for requiring the maintenance by the Registrar-General of registers and indices of documents recorded and reg istered in pursuance of this Act;

(b) with respect to the insertion in record books of docu ments deposited for recording and registration under this Act and for prescribing which classes of documents are to be inserted and retained in each record book;

(c) for prescribing the safeguards to be observed in connec tion with the custody of documents, record books, reg isters and indices maintained under this Act;

(d) for specifying the form, including the material and size of pages, of copies of documents submitted in pursuance of section 3(2)(b);

(e) for specifying the conditions under which any of the documents, record books, registers and indices main tained under this Act may be inspected, examined or copied;

(f) for specifying the public officers who are to be autho rized officers for the purposes of this Act; and

(g) with respect to the sealing of certified copies of docu ments, or entries in registers or indices, furnished under this Act.

(2) Regulations made as aforesaid shall not prescribe fees oth erwise than as specified in this Act.

(3) The negative resolution procedure shall apply to regulations made under this section.

Registrar-General may issue study or research ticket

6 Without prejudice to anything in the foregoing provisions of this Act, the Registrar-General may, in his discretion, and upon payment of the fee specified in regulations made under the Government Fees Act 1965 [title 15 item 18], issue to any person who satisfies him that he wishes to read, or take extracts from, any of the documents, record books, registers or indices maintained under this Act for the purposes of study or research, and otherwise than for business purposes or profes sional practice, a ticket in a form approved by the Registrar-General and renewable annually, allowing access during ordinary office hours to any such documents, record books, registers and indices as aforesaid.

Functions transferred to Registrar-General on 1 June 1956 and later

7 The Registrar-General shall be the authority —

(a) for recording and registering deeds under the Disentail ing Act 1901 [title 26 item 10]; and

(b) for recording and registering mortgages and other condi tional conveyances of property under the Mortgage Reg istration Act 1786 [title 26 item 32]; and

(c) for recording and registering voluntary conveyances of land under the Conveyancing Act 1983 [title 26 item 21]; and

(d) with whom memoranda respecting the acquisition or disposal of land by bodies corporate are to be deposited under the Corporate Bodies' Lands Act (No. 2) 1936 [title 17 item 15], and for the carrying out of ancillary func tions under that Act.

Change in ownership of freehold estate not by way of mortgage to be registered

8 (1) Any person who becomes entitled to a freehold estate (except by way of mortgage) in any land in Bermuda shall, within three months after becoming so entitled, give written notice thereof to the Registrar-General.

(2) A notice under subsection (1) shall be given in duplicate in the form prescribed in the Schedule.

(3) The Registrar-General shall, on receipt of a notice given un der subsection (1) and upon payment of such fee, if any, as may be pre scribed under the Government Fees Act 1965 [title 15 item 18], register the name of the person entitled and such other particulars as may be appropriate in the parish assessment books transferred to his custody in pursuance of the First Schedule to the Parish Councils Act 1971 [title 4 item 40].

(4) Any person who fails to give the notice required of him by subsection (1) within the requisite time shall be liable on summary con viction to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars.

Change of name by deed poll

9 (1) The Registrar-General is authorized, upon payment of such fee as may be prescribed under the Government Fees Act 1965 [title 15 item 18] and subject to this section, to record and register deeds poll evi dencing the change of name of Commonwealth citizens resident in Bermuda.

(2) Any Commonwealth citizen resident in Bermuda of or over the age of eighteen years may make application to the Registrar-General for the recording and registration of a deed poll evidencing the change of his name and, additionally or alternatively, the change of name of such person as, under this section, he may lawfully change.

(3) The following persons are authorized to change the name of another by means of a deed poll recorded and registered by the Regis trar-General —

(a) the parent or guardian of an unmarried minor child may change the name of that child, so however that —

(i) if the child is of or above the age of fourteen years his consent thereto shall be endorsed upon the deed and signed by him and his sig nature shall be witnessed by two persons who are not members of the household of the maker of the deed;

(ii) if the Registrar-General has received notice given by or on behalf of a parent who is not a party to the deed poll that such parent objects to the change of name, then the Registrar-General shall not record and register such deed poll un less directed by the Supreme Court so to do,

and in the exercise of its powers to give a direction under sub-paragraph (ii) the Supreme Court shall make
such order as it may think fit having regard to the interests of the child and all the circumstances of the case;

(b) a married person may change the name of his spouse; but in any such case —

(i) the consent of his spouse thereto shall be en dorsed upon the deed and signed by such spouse; and

(ii) where in the same deed the maker thereof alters the name of any child under the authority con ferred upon him by this section, being a child of which his spouse is a parent, such signature by the spouse shall be sufficient evidence of the consent of the spouse to the change.

(4) No deed poll evidencing a change of name shall be recorded and registered by the Registrar-General unless notice of the application in the prescribed form —

(a) has been published in a newspaper circulating in Bermuda not less than fourteen days nor more than three months prior thereto; and

(b) in the case of a deed poll altering the name of a minor child made by one parent of the child during the lifetime of the other, has been served on the other parent in such manner as the Registrar-General may require or has been otherwise brought to that parent's attention:

Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall require such notice to be served on a parent who consents to the change and, provided further, that the Registrar-General may dispense with the requirements of this paragraph if he is of the opinion that compliance herewith is not rea sonably practicable.

(5) Section 62 of the Supreme Court Act 1905 shall be deemed to extend to the making of rules under that section to regulate the prac tice and procedure on an application to it by a person seeking the direc tion of the Supreme Court under subsection (3)(a)(ii).

(6) The following shall not be regarded as a change of name for the purposes of this section —

(a) any such alteration in the name of a child as is men tioned in section 10 of the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act 1949 [title 28 item 1];

(b) the alteration of the name of a child upon its adoption;

(c) the taking of her husband's surname by a woman upon her marriage or the resumption of any former surname by a woman upon a change in her marital status or if she is deserted by her husband.

(7) In this section —

"child" includes a child adopted under the laws of Bermuda;

"minor child" means a child under the age of eighteen years;

"name" includes a given name or a surname;

"parent" includes an adoptive parent but excludes the father of a child born out of wedlock who has not been legitimated by the subsequent marriage of the father with the mother.

Voluntary recording of documents

10 (1) The Registrar-General is authorized, upon payment of such fee as may be prescribed under the Government Fees Act 1965 [title 15 item 12], to record and register any deed or other instrument although the same shall not be required by law to be recorded or registered.

(2) Where application is made to the Registrar-General to record and register under subsection (1) any deed or other instrument which is required to be or which may be recorded or registered under any other statutory provision the Registrar-General may, if he considers that the deed or instrument ought properly to be recorded or registered under that provision, refuse to record and register the deed or other instrument under subsection (1).

Transitional

11 [omitted]

Amendment of Evidence Act 1905

12 [original section 9] [omitted]

Repeal

13 [original section 10] [omitted]

Commencement

14 [original section 11] [omitted]

[this Act was brought into operation on 1 June 1956]

SCHEDULE
FORM OF NOTICE TO REGISTRAR-GENERAL

In accordance with the requirements of the Registrar-General (Recording of Documents) Act 1955, I/we hereby give you notice that on the [blank] day of [blank],19 [blank]. I/we became entitled to an interest in all the parcel of land in [blank] Parish described below.

DATE

NAME IN FULL (in case of a married woman also give hus band's full name)

ADDRESS IN FULL

NATIONALITY

DATE OF BIRTH

OCCUPATION

NATURE OF INTEREST ACQUIRED
MODE OF ACQUISITION

FULL NAME OF PERSON FROM WHOM LAND ACQUIRED

FULL DESCRIPTION OF LAND ACQUIRED
(including measurements, area, boundaries and attach a scale plan)

PURCHASE PRICE

[Amended by

Bermuda Consolidated Legislation

Registrar-general (Recording of Documents) Act 1955