In Flat 4 on 3/F of Block A, Tin Yau Court, No 1 Tin Shing Road, Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long, New Territories ([2016] HKEC 751, CFI) title to the property had been in the joint names of a husband and wife. An order had been made to the effect that when a decree absolute had been made in the matrimonial proceedings, the husband would transfer his interest in the property to his former wife but it seems that this transfer did not take place. Over three years after the order, the husband entered into a personal, unsecured loan agreement. The lender sought to register the agreement against the property at the Land Registry. It was not registered but appeared as a deed pending registration. The wife asked the lender to withdraw the registration but it refused to do so. The wife applied for, and was granted, a declaration that the loan agreement did not create an interest in land and so was not registrable. The court has an inherent jurisdiction to vacate the registration or purported registration of any instrument in the Land Registry which does not affect land ([16]). The question of costs was left for later but Anderson Chow J. referred to authorities where, on similar facts, costs had been awarded to the property owner on an indemnity basis; the courts are concerned to prevent the abuse of the land registration process ([9] – [10]).
Michael Lower
