– A landowner should not be enabled to exploit his ability for first registration of the land in order to evade certain interests that burdened his land while the title was still unregistered. This is so because when a first registration of land occurs the land registry will register the land and any interests that do not appear on the title register unless they are overriding, if not brought to the attention of the Registrar may potentially not be registered against the land and therefore not be binding against the proprietor of the land and subsequent transferees of an estate or interest in that land. So the LRA 2002 in a forthcoming move give these interests a lifeline technical by rendering them overriding. Arguably someone can say that overriding interests may be contrary to the whole concept of the LRA 2002 in its strife to render the land registry the a mirror image of the interests that burden a registered title. Conversely overriding interests neutralized or better yet remedy the potential injustice that may occur to an interest holder from compulsory first registration by section 4 of the LRA 2002 or voluntary registration. Overriding interests are not the only way in which certain interests may be protected from the effects of first registration of land. The LRA 2002 affords the right to people who claim to have an interest in the land to protect it against first registration by the filing of a “caution” against first registration of land. A caution against first registration is used where the interest is in an estate that is unregistered and the cautioner’s interest would entitle them to object to any application for first registration until their claim has been considered. S 15 of the LRA 2002 regulates the lodging of a caution against first registration. Cautions may be entered against first registration for some interests only. However an estate in land if not an overriding interest must be registered in its own right in order to be protected, i.e. a leasehold estate that does not qualify as an overriding interest under the LRA 2002 or under the LRA 1925 before the LRA 2002 came into force, out of a freehold estate in land if it is not registered in its own right then it may not be protected by caution against first registration neither it may be protected against first registration or a registerable disposition if it does not fall under the category of an overriding interest under schedules 1 or 3 of the LRA 2002.
Categories
