Section 55: Remuneration of advocate who is mortgagee

(1) If a mortgage is made to an advocate, either alone or jointly with any other person, he or she or the firm of which he or she is a member, shall be entitled to recover from the mortgagor in respect of all business transacted and acts done by him or her or them in negotiating the loan, deducing and investigating the title to the property, and preparing and completing the mortgage, such usual costs as he or she or they would have been entitled to receive if the mortgage had been made to a person who was not an advocate and that person had retained and employed him or her or them to transact that business and do those acts. (2) If, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, a mortgage has been made to or has become vested by transfer or transmission in an advocate, either alone or jointly with any other person, and if after the commencement of this Act any business is transacted or acts are done by that advocate, or by the firm of which he or she is a member, in relation to that mortgage, or the security created by the mortgage or the property comprised under it, then he or she or they shall be entitled to recover from the person on whose behalf the business was transacted or the acts were done, and to charge against the security such usual costs as he or she or they would have been entitled to receive if the mortgage had been made to and had remained vested in a person who was not an advocate and that person had retained and employed him or her or them to transact that business and do those acts. (3) In this section, the expression "mortgage" includes any charge on any property for securing money or money's worth.