Performance

The Land Charges and Agricultural Credits Departments

Land Charges
The Land Charges Department operates under the authority of the Land Charges Act 1972. The department maintains registers of land charges, pending actions, writs, and orders affecting land and other encumbrances registered against the names of owners of property that is not registered under the Land Registration Acts.

The last land charges work was processed through the old data preparation system in March 2004. A new one-step electronic system has improved our work processes and our service to the customer. Due to this system and the sheer determination and effort of the Land Charges Department, for the first time, a large proportion of land charges are being processed and issued on the day of receipt of the application.

Agricultural Credits
Agricultural Credits is responsible for maintaining a register of short-term loans by banks under Part II of the Agricultural Credits Act 1928. These charges are secured on farming stock and other agricultural assets of the farmer.

This year the combined totals of applications dealt with by both departments was 6,032,834 an increase of 2.3 per cent over the totals for 2002-03. This was due in the main to a continuing increase in the number of insolvency search and registration applications received.

The proportion of Search and Office Copy applications made by telephone, direct access services and fax increased to 64 per cent of the totals received during this year compared to 60 per cent in 2002-03, with 77.3 per cent of Office Copy applications being delivered in this way. The percentage of telephone searches conducted as a proportion of total search applications received decreased to 54 per cent compared to 59 per cent in the previous year.