34. (1) A charging order may be executed by—

(a) the chief executive (within the meaning of the Act of 2001) of the designated local authority, or

(b) a member of the staff of the designated local authority to whom that function has been delegated by the chief executive.

F41[(2) A charging order shall be deemed to be a legal mortgage under Part 10 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 and—

(a) the first charge shall be deemed to have been executed on the later of—

(i) the date of the final part payment of a remediation option grant, or the payment of the whole of the remediation option grant, to the relevant owner under section 18,

(ii) the date of the final part payment of an increased grant, or the payment of the whole of the increased grant, to the relevant owner under section 18A, or

(iii) the date of the final payment of an ancillary grant to the relevant owner under section 22,

and

(b) the second charge shall be deemed to have been executed on the date of the retrospective payment.]

(3) The designated local authority shall, on and from the date on which the charging order was deemed to have been executed under subsection (2) —

(a) be deemed to be a mortgagee of the relevant dwelling for the purposes of Part 10 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, and

(b) have, in relation to the charge, all the powers conferred by that Act on mortgagees under legal mortgages.

(4) Where a designated local authority makes a charging order, it shall, as soon as practicable thereafter, cause the order to be registered in the Registry of Deeds or the Land Registry, as appropriate, and it shall be a sufficient description of the charge in respect of which the order is being registered to state that it is the charge referred to in F41[section 31(2) or section 31(2A), as the case may be].

(5) A charging order affecting a relevant dwelling which is registered land within the meaning of the Registration of Title Act 1964 shall be registrable as a burden affecting such land whether the person named in the order as the owner of the land is or is not registered under the said Act as the owner of the land and the Property Registration Authority shall, on application being made to it, register such order affecting the land concerned.

(6) Neither a charging order nor a charge that arises under it shall be regarded as a conveyance for the purposes of section 3 of the Family Home Protection Act 1976 or section 28 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010.

(7) An amount due and payable under section 32 or 33(4) may, without prejudice to any other power in that behalf, be recovered by the designated local authority from the relevant owner as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(8) The designated local authority shall, where requested by the relevant owner to do so, give a statement in writing to the relevant owner of—

(a) the accumulated amount of incremental releases that have been applied to the charged amount under section 31, and

(b) the reduced charge amount.

(9) The relevant owner and any other person shall give such assistance to the designated local authority as it requests to facilitate the registration of the charging order in the Land Registry or Registry of Deeds.

(10) The designated local authority shall be liable for any expenses incurred in the execution and registration of a charging order in the Land Registry or Registry of Deeds.

(11) Other than expenses referred to in subsection (10) and section 35(3) a designated local authority shall not be liable for expenses incurred by any person under this Chapter.

(12) The Minister may prescribe:

(a) the form of a charging order, and the manner in which it shall be transmitted to the Property Registration Authority for registration;

(b) the documents which may be considered evidence of the matters referred to in section 31(4), and the form and manner in which such evidence is to be provided;

(c) the form and content of an affidavit referred to in section 31(4);

(d) the procedure by which a determination may be made under section 33(1)(c) and representations may be made under section 33(5);

(e) the form of a deed of discharge under section 35.