Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) If, under
section 39(1)(b)(iv), legal aid is granted subject to a condition that
legal costs payable to the Commission by the assisted person are to be secured
by a charge on land registered under this section the Director shall deliver a
memorial to the relevant official, specifying the land to be charged and
certifying that legal costs are to be charged on the land.
(2) A memorial shall
be in a form approved by the relevant official.
(3) The relevant
official, on receipt of a memorial delivered under subsection (1) and on
payment of the appropriate fee, shall register the memorial and endorse or
note accordingly the relevant registers or records in respect of the piece of
land concerned.
(4) Where a memorial
is delivered under subsection (1) the Director shall inform the assisted
person in writing of the action so taken.
(5) Where the relevant
official has registered the memorial and endorsed or noted the relevant
registers or records, the legal costs payable to the Commission by an assisted
person are a charge on the land for the benefit of the Fund.
(6) If any default is
made in respect of the payment of the legal costs, the Commission has the same
powers of sale over the land charged as are given by the
Transfer of Land Act 1893 to a mortgagee under a mortgage in respect of
which default has been made in the payment of principal.
(7) Where the amount
secured by a charge registered under this section is paid or recovered, or the
Commission determines that such a charge is no longer required, the Director
shall request the relevant official to remove the charge.
(8) The relevant
official shall, on receipt of a request referred to in subsection (7),
remove the charge in the relevant registers or records.
(9) No duty under the
Duties Act 2008 is payable in respect of any action of a relevant
official pursuant to this section.
(10) In this
section —
legal costs means the whole or part of the cost of
providing the legal aid;
relevant official means —
(a) in
the case of land which is under the operation of the Transfer of Land
Act 1893 or Land Administration Act 1997 , the Registrar of Titles;
or
(b) in
the case of land which is alienated from the Crown but which is not under the
operation of the Transfer of Land Act 1893 , the Registrar of Deeds and
Transfers.
[Section 44A inserted by No. 73 of 1992
s. 11; amended by No. 31 of 1997 s. 63; No. 12 of 2008
Sch. 1 cl. 19.]