Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

CHAPTER SEVENTH
DISCHARGE FROM HYPOTHECS, OR CONFIRMATION OF TITLE

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   772.   Any person who has acquired immovable property by purchase, exchange, or other title of a nature to transfer ownership, may free such property from any mortgages with which it is charged, by following the formalities prescribed.

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   773.   Such person must lodge the title which he or she seeks to have confirmed in the office of the Registrar, and obtain from the Registrar a notice mentioning that the deed has been so lodged, containing a designation of the deed and of the parties thereto, a description of the immovable, the date at which the application for confirmation will be presented to the Court, an indication for confirmation will be presented to the Court, an indication of the persons who possessed the immovables during the 3 years next before such notice, and calling upon all creditors who claim to have any privilege or hypothec upon the immovable to file their oppositions at least 8 days before the day fixed for presenting the application. The notice must be inserted 6 times in the course of 6 months in the Gazette.

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   774.   Upon the day mentioned in the notice, the applicant is bound to present his or her application for confirmation to the Court, together with copies of the Gazette containing the advertisement.

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   775.   All hypothecary creditors, whose rights are not made known by the deed of which confirmation is sought, are bound to file their oppositions on or before the eighth day next preceding the day fixed for presenting the application.

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   776.   During the 6 months prescribed for the publication his or her authors, may appear at the Registrar's office and bid an increase over the sum, price, or other consideration or value, if any, mentioned in the title, and have his or her bid received, provided the increase be equal to at least 1/10 of the whole price, sum or other consideration, and the bidder offers, besides, to refund to the applicant all his or her costs and lawful disbursements, giving him or her security to that effect in the ordinary manner, or depositing for that purpose a sufficient sum, according to the discretion of the Court or Judge, reserving the subsequent completion of the precise amount.

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   777.   Any other creditor of the vendor or assignor may, in like manner, and under the same conditions, outbid such creditor; and all such creditor may continue outbidding each other, provided each outbidder offers an increase of at least 1/20 of the price, purchase money, or other consideration, over and above the costs and lawful expenses.

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   778.   The applicant may, however, retain the immovables at the amount of the highest bid legally offered.

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   779.   If no such outbidding takes place within the delay above mentioned, the value of the immovable remains definitely fixed at the price and sum mentioned in the title deed, subject to the provisions hereinafter made.

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   780.   If the applicant desires to discharge the property from hypothecs, he or she must deposit in the hands of the Registrar, the price mentioned in his or her title deed, or the amount which such price has reached by the outbidding; and if there are no oppositions or claims, or if the amount deposited is sufficient to pay all the charges which appear, then judgment of confirmation is pronounced purely and simply.

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   781.   But if the sum deposited is not sufficient to pay all the charges and hypothecs which appear, or if no price is mentioned in the deed, the Court or Judge may, at the instance of the applicant, name 2 experts, and the applicant names a third, in order to determine the value of the property and to report thereon; the whole according to the ordinary formalities.

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   782.   If the value determined by the experts does not exceed the price paid in by the applicant, the judgment of confirmation is pronounced purely and simply.

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   If the value determined by the experts exceeds the price thus paid in, or if no price is mentioned in the title deed, the applicant cannot obtain a confirmation, unless he or she deposits the difference between the value thus ascertained and the price, or the whole of such value, if no price has been agreed upon.

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   783.   The provisions of the last 2 preceding articles do not apply to cases of expropriation of property by competent authority for public purposes, when the compensation or indemnity has been settled by arbitration or by experts, according to law.

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   784.   Upon proof of the observance of all the formalities hereinabove prescribed, judgment is pronounced, confirming the title deed as free from all hypothecs.

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   785.   If the applicant is willing, and files a written declaration to that effect, judgment may be rendered subject to the hypothecs mentioned in the oppositions and claims filed; and in such case the immovable is discharged from such hypothecs only as are not mentioned in such judgment.

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   786.   The price deposited is distributed under an order of the Court, like monies levied upon the seizure and sale of immovables under execution.

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   787.   The Registrar, before delivering to any person whatever a copy of the judgment of confirmation of title, is bound to cause such judgment to be registered as prescribed in the Book respecting Registration of Real Rights in the Civil Code, and has a right to demand from the applicant the cost and expenses of such registration, and of the cancelling which it occasions.

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   788.   The word “hypothec” in this Chapter includes all privileges affecting real estate.