Land Act, 1923

Facilities for exchange of holdings.

46.—(1) For the purpose of facilitating the improvement of holdings, the registered owner of any holding, whether registered as full owner or as limited owner, shall have power to enter into an agreement with the Land Commission under this section for an exchange of holdings, and the agreement may be carried into effect in manner provided by this section.

(2) The registered owner shall transfer the holding to the Land Commission, and the Land Commission shall in exchange provide for him a new holding either by selling to him a parcel of land under the Land Purchase Acts, or by transferring to him a holding purchased under those Acts.

(3) The transfer to the Land Commission of the original holding shall as from the date of its registration operate to vest in the Land Commission an estate in fee simple in the holding, subject to such of the burdens enumerated in section forty-seven of the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891 (other than succession duty and estate duty), as affect the holding on that date, and subject to any burden created under any Act relating to the Board of Works, but free from all other burdens and rights, whether registered or not registered, which then affect the holding (including succession duty and estate duty and any burdens the ascertainment of which was dispensed with on first registration), and all such burdens and rights shall, as from that date, be transferred to the new holding without any conveyance or order.

(4) Where the new holding is provided by transferring to the registered owner a holding purchased under the Land Purchase Acts, the holding shall be transferred to him subject to such of the burdens enumerated in section forty-seven of the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891 (other than succession duty and estate duty), as affect the holding on the date of the transfer, and to the burdens and rights transferred from the original holding, but free from all other burdens and rights whether registered or not registered (including succession duty and estate duty and any burdens the ascertainment of which was dispensed with on first registration of the new holding).

(5) The registration of the Land Commission as owners of the original holding, and of the registered owner as owner of the new holding, shall be effected on the same date, and it shall be the duty of the Land Commission to procure the registrations and to take all steps that may be necessary for that purpose.

(6) The provisions of this section with respect to the registered owner of a holding shall in the following cases extend to the following persons respectively (that is to say):—

(a) if Part IV. of the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891, applies to the holding and the registered owner (being registered as full owner) is dead, to his legal personal representative;

(b) if the registered owner is an infant, lunatic or person of unsound mind, to any person by whom he may be represented for any of the purposes of the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891; and

(c) if a representative of a registered owner is appointed by the County Court for the purposes of this section, to that representative.

(7) The County Court shall have power to appoint a representative of the registered owner of a holding for the purposes of this section when it appears to the Court, on the application of the Land Commission or any person interested, that the registered owner is a person not resident in Saorstát Eireann or a person as to whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead, and that it is to the advantage of the persons interested in the holding that it should be exchanged for a new holding under this section. Application to the County Court and the practice and procedure thereon may be regulated by rules of Court.