Amendments on Land Title Fees and Costs

The total costs incurred from registration proceedings, cadastral survey, and monumenting are divided as follows:
- One-tenth borne by the Insular Government.
- One-tenth paid by the province where the land is situated.
- One-tenth paid by the city, municipality, municipal district, township, or settlement where the land is located.
- Seven-tenths taxed against the lots involved in the cadastral proceeding.
Manila is uniquely recognized as both a province and a municipality for these purposes.
If a local municipality or district lacks funds, its portion can be covered by the province upon the provincial board's judgment.

The amounts taxed on individual lots are considered special tax assessments and constitute a first lien on the land.
Collection is through the Director of Lands or authorized representatives in five equal installments over five years, with 6% annual interest.
Installments align with the due dates for the general land taxes.
The clerk of court provides orders to the collection officers.
Exceptions to liens and collections include lots surveyed at the owner's expense or those registered under a prior act or declared public lands.
Owners may prepay any installment before it is due.

For properties under cadastral proceedings with outstanding costs, the vendor or legal representative must fully pay the costs if the court has issued the apportionment order.
The register of deeds must require proof of payment from the vendor before registering sales or transfers.
If the apportionment order has not been issued, the register shall note the lien on the certificate of transfer as security for payment.

Costs include 10% of the survey and monumenting costs.
This amount covers services by the General Land Registration Office and clerks, publication, mailing, posting notices, decisions, and cost apportionment orders.
The General Land Registration Office bears expenses related to notices and publications.

All costs collected are remitted to the Insular Treasury.
Provincial or municipal governments may opt, with Secretary of the Interior approval, to pay costs on behalf of owners.
Payments made by owners in such cases go to the local treasury as part of general funds.

Upon collection, the General Land Registration Office Chief reports collections to the Insular Auditor and Treasurer.
The Insular Treasurer is authorized to reimburse the General Land Registration Office an amount equal to collections.
Appropriations for these reimbursements come from unallocated funds in the Insular Treasury.

The Act applies retroactively to all cadastral proceedings where the order apportioning costs had not been issued by the promulgation date.