Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Question 173: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to introduce legislation to regularise the time frame to register title following completion to purchase property. [17722/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The position is that under section 24 of the Registration of Title Act 1964 compulsory first registration of title has been extended to all sales of freehold land and assignments of leases of more than 21 years' duration with effect from 1 June 2011. This means that where any such unregistered land is sold or assigned after that date, the title must be registered in the Property Registration Authority.

Section 25 of the 1964 Act (as substituted by section 128 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009) specifies the consequences of non-registration. It provides that a person shall not acquire an estate or interest in land in any case in which registration of title is compulsory unless the person is registered as owner of the land within 6 months after the purported acquisition or at such later time as the Property Registration Authority may sanction in any particular case.

Where land which is already registered in the Property Registration Authority is sold or assigned, the Registration of Title Act 1964 does not specify a time limit within which the change in ownership must be registered. It is however very much in the interests of a purchaser to register the change without undue delay as the estate or interest in the land, together with all associated rights, vest on actual registration and in the absence of such registration, the protection afforded to purchasers by registration, including the State guarantee of title, will not apply to the land.