NATIONAL LAND CODE (PENANG AND MALACCA TITLES) ACT 1963

LAWS OF MALAYSIA ONLINE VERSION OF UPDATED TEXT OF REPRINT Act 518 NATIONAL LAND CODE (PENANG AND MALACCA TITLES) ACT 1963 As at 1 December 2014 2 NATIONAL LAND CODE (PENANG AND MALACCA TITLES) ACT 1963 First enacted … … … … … 1963 (Act No. 2 of 1963) … … … … … 1994 (Act 518 w.e.f. 7 April 1994) Revised Latest amendment made by M.P.U. 14 of 2013 which came into operation on … … … 12 September 2013 PREVIOUS REPRINTS First Reprint… ... ... ... 2002 Second Reprint ... ... ... 2006 3 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 518 NATIONAL LAND CODE (PENANG AND MALACCA TITLES) ACT 1963 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS PART I PRELIMINARY Section 1. Short title 2. Application 3. (Omitted) 4. Interpretation PART II ADMINISTRATION Chapter 1 – Areas and Officers 5. (Deleted) 6. Appointment of officers 7. Seals of office 8. Protection of officers 9. Powers of Director 10. Powers of Land Administrator Chapter 2 – Land Titles Appeal Board 11. Land Titles Appeal Board 4 Laws of Malaysia Section 12. Meetings of the Board 13. Proceedings of the Board 14. Power to appoint secretary, etc. 15. Appeals 16. General powers of the Board 17. Orders of the Board Chapter 3 – Questions of Law 18. Power to reserve question of law for Court 19. Appeals on points of law Chapter 4 – General 20. Evidence at enquiries, etc. 21. Review of orders of the Director and the Board 22. Cesser of powers upon indefeasibility 23. (Deleted) PART III THE INTERIM REGISTER Chapter 1 – General 24. Provision relating to Malacca Chapter 2 – Holdings 25. Powers of the Director relating to holdings 26. Limitations on powers of the Director 27. Special provision relating to enquiries by the Director 28. Applications relating to boundaries of holdings ACT 518 National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles) Section 29. Finality of certain boundaries 30. Seashore and riverine holdings Chapter 3 – Preparation and Maintenance of the Interim Register 31. Director to prepare and maintain Interim Register 32. Interim Register to be a public document 33. Where the title to a holding is not clear 34. Correction of errors PART IV REPLACEMENT TITLE Chapter 1 – General 35. Presumption relating to replacement title Chapter 2 – Creation of Replacement Title 36. Extinguishment and replacement of existing interests 37. General incidents of replacement title 38. Replacement title protected from adverse possession 39. Replacement titles 40. Grant (first grade) 41. Grant 42. State lease 43. Mukim indication 44. Title by adverse possession 45. Conditions, etc., of replacement titles 46. Merger and division of titles 47. Estates in absolute possession 48. Leaseholds 5 6 Laws of Malaysia ACT 518 Section 49. Mortgages, etc. 50. Settled estates 51. Easements and public right of way 52. (Deleted) Chapter 3 – Claims relating to Replacement Titles 53. Presentation of claims 54. Enquiry by Director 55. Reference to Court PART V EFFECT OF INTERIM REGISTRATION Chapter 1 – General 56. Interpretation 57. Restrictions to bind proprietor 58. Limitations of replacement title 59. Saving for fraud, contractual rights, etc. 60. Evidence of entries in Interim Register Chapter 2 – Leases 61. Saving of pre-existing rights, etc. Chapter 3 – Mortgages and Charges 62. Saving of pre-existing rights, etc. 63. Priorities of mortgages 64. Procedure on exercise of power of sale, etc. 65. Discharge of mortgage or charge National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles) Chapter 4 – Trusts and Settlements Section 66. Trusts generally excluded from Interim Register 67. Pre-existing trusts, etc., to continue 68. Where person entitled to be registered as proprietor is an infant 69. Registration “as trustee” 70. Act not to affect powers under certain laws Chapter 5 – Easements and Restrictive Covenants 71. Registration of easements 72. (Deleted) 73. Public rights of way 74. (Deleted) PART VI DEALINGS ON THE INTERIM REGISTER 75. (Deleted) 76. Effect of registration 77. Pre-executed instruments 78. Instruments to be in prescribed form 79. Saving 80. Duties of Director 81. Procedure relating to registration 82. Dealings prior to indefeasibility 83. Dealings after indefeasibility 7 8 Laws of Malaysia ACT 518 PART VII INDEFEASIBILITY OF TITLE Chapter 1 – Investigation of Title Section 84. Examination of title by the Director 85. Indefeasibility after twelve months’ notice 86. Minors and persons of unsound mind 87. Examination of title at the instance of a proprietor 88. Indefeasibility after twelve years on Interim Register Chapter 2 – Certificate of Title 89. Certificate of indefeasibility 90. Cancellation of pre-existing deeds 91. Release of documents of historic interest 92. Advance certificate of title 93. Final documents of title PART VIII PROVISIONS RELATING TO MALACCA Chapter 1 – Preliminary 94. Interpretation 95. Application 96. Repeal 97. Special provision relating to the Naning Custom 98. Finality of certain boundaries Chapter 2 – Application of the National Land Code 99. Effect of repealing the Ordinance National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles) 9 100. Saving relating to incomplete proceedings 101. Rent 102. Malacca Customary Land Register 103. Mortgages of customary land Chapter 3 –Certificate Lands Section 104. State Authority may declare a person to be a certificated person 105. Certificated land 106. When land ceases to be certificated land Chapter 4 –Restrictions in Use and Interest 107. (Deleted) 108. Limitation 108A. Liability of land to forfeiture where a Malacca Customary Land Company ceases to be such 108B. Summary action to secure restoration of the status of a Malacca Customary Land company 108C. Action to enforce forfeiture 108D. Forfeiture to take effect upon notification in the Gazette 109. Right of re-entry 109A. Application for endorsement of title as Malacca Customary Land 109B. Effect of re-entry 109C. Effect of surrender PART IX NATURAL RIGHTS 110. (Deleted) 111. (Deleted) 112. Special rights of certain riparian proprietors 10 Laws of Malaysia PART X GENERAL Section 113. Offences and Penalties 114. Rules 115. Service of notices, etc. 116. Saving of rights of Land Administrator, etc. 117. Surveys to be free of charge 118. Repeal 119. Power of the Minister to make orders 120. Searches 121. Title in continuation and procedure on subdivision 122. Provision relating to State Land, municipal streets, etc. 123. Transitional provisions relating to certain mortgages, etc. 124. Transitional provision relating to subdivision of certain lands FIRST SCHEDULE SECOND SCHEDULE (Deleted) THIRD SCHEDULE FOURTH SCHEDULE FIFTH SCHEDULE SIXTH SCHEDULE SEVENTH SCHEDULE ACT 518 11 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 518 NATIONAL LAND CODE (PENANG AND MALACCA TITLES) ACT 1963 An Act to provide for the introduction of a system of registration of title to land in the States of Penang and Malacca, for the issue of replacement titles, for the assimilation of such system to the National Land Code, and for matters incidental thereto. [1 January 1966, L.N. 475/1965] WHEREAS it is desired to introduce in the form of a National Land Code a uniform land system within all the States of Malaya: AND WHEREAS it is in consequence necessary for the purpose of ensuring uniformity of law and policy to introduce into the States of Penang and Malacca a system of registration of title to land and other provisions incidental thereto consonant with the provisions of a National Land Code: NOW, THEREFORE, pursuant to the provisions of Clause (4) of Article 76 of the Constitution BE IT ENACTED by the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong with the advice and consent of the Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I PRELIMINARY Short title 1. This Act may be cited as the National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles) Act 1963. 12 Laws of Malaysia ACT 518 Application 2. (1) This Act shall apply to the States of Penang and Malacca. (2) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to affect any law relating to the imposition or levy by the Government of the Federation or the State or by any local authority of any taxes, duties, rates, charges or other outgoings on land, or to any encroachment on State lands, or to drainage works and irrigation areas, for the time being in force in the State, nor shall anything herein (other than section 97) be deemed to affect the custom called the Naning Custom. 3. (Omitted). Interpretation 4. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires – * “appointed day” means the day appointed by the Minister under section 3; “Board” means the Land Titles Appeal Board established under section 11; “Director” means the Director of Land Titles appointed under section 6, and includes a Deputy Director; “country land” has the same meaning as in the National Land Code [Act 56 of 1965]; “Court” means the High Court in Malaya; “dealing” means any transaction of whatever nature by which any land is affected; * NOTE—The appointed day is 1 January 1966 vide L.N. 475/1965. National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles) 13 “Deputy Director” means a Deputy Director of Land Titles appointed under section 6; “Director of Survey” means the Director of Survey of the State, and in relation to any time prior to the creation of the office of Director of Survey includes any officer who was then exercising in the State the powers of the Director of Survey; “document of original title” means the original grant, indenture, lease or other instrument made by the Dutch Authorities, the East India Company, the Crown or the State, as the case may be, from which the pre-existing title to a holding or part of a holding descends or is presumed to descend; “estate in land” includes any title to land, any right thereunder, and any right subsisting under a replacement lease or replacement mortgage or charge; “Form” means any form prescribed in the First Schedule; “holding” means a piece of land (not being mining land or State land) duly surveyed under this or any other written law for the time being in force in the State and on the appointed day being delineated on a plan certified by or on behalf of the Director of Survey as a lot or lots delimited, except as otherwise provided in sections 29 and 30, by right-line boundaries; “interest” in relation to land means any interest in land recognized as such by law, and includes an estate in land; “Interim Register” means the register prepared and maintained under Chapter 3 of Part III; “Land Administrator” means any Land Administrator or Deputy or Assistant Land Administrator appointed for the State or any district thereof; “mining land” has the same meaning as in the National Land Code; 14 Laws of Malaysia ACT 518 “Mukim indication” means words endorsed on the Interim Register under section 43; “pre-existing” means, generally, in existence immediately before and not having lapsed or expired before the appointed day; “pre-existing deeds” means all deeds, documents of original title and instruments of any kind whatsoever evidencing or purporting to evidence any pre-existing interests; “pre-existing interests” means all interests, rights, titles and estates (not being interests, rights, titles or estates vested in the Yang diPertua Negeri or the Government of the State) subsisting immediately before the appointed day in any land in the State, including any title therein acquired by adverse possession or operation of law or under any unregistered pre-existing deed; “purchaser” means a person who in good faith and for valuable consideration acquires an interest in land, and includes a mortgagee, chargee and lessee; “registered” means, generally, registered under this Act or, in relation to the period preceding the appointed day, registered under the Registration of Deeds Ordinance [S.S. Cap. 121] or the Mutations in Titles to Land Ordinance [S.S. Cap. 126]; “replacement lease” means a lease endorsed upon a replacement tit