(a) the public utility may apply to the board showing
(i) the situation of the land affected and the description of the land by metes and bounds,
(ii) the names of the owners and occupiers of the land,
(iii) encumbrances on the land that are known to or can be ascertained by the public utility,
(iv) the property, rights, easements or privileges sought to be expropriated, and
(v) the amount which the public utility has offered to pay the person owning or occupying the land;
(b) when the application is presented to the board the board shall set a time and place for the hearing of the proposed expropriation and a copy of the application and a notice giving the time and place of the hearing shall be served on the owner and occupier and upon the mortgagee or lien holder of the land affected at least 30 days before the date set for the hearing or a longer time that the board may decide unless the service is dispensed with as provided in paragraph (h) and the board for the purpose of the hearing has power to summon before it any persons and to require them to give evidence upon oath or affirmation and to produce those documents or things that the board considers necessary;
(c) at the time and place so named the board shall hear parties interested and the evidence and where satisfied that the property, rights, easements or privileges proposed to be expropriated are necessary for the purposes mentioned in this section and are not more extensive than are reasonably necessary, it shall by order declare them, or a portion of them that may be found reasonably necessary, to be vested in the public utility in fee simple, or in another estate that may be sought by the application and which may be considered advisable by the board, free from encumbrances, subject to the payment of damages;
(d) upon the making of the order, the public utility shall file a certified copy of the order in the office of the Registrar of Deeds, together with a plan and description of the lands affected by the order;
(e) before the fixing of the time and place for a hearing, the board may require the public utility to deposit with it a sum not exceeding $100 to reimburse an expenditure made by the owner or occupier on account of the application, and in case the application for the order referred to in paragraph (c) is refused, the board may order that a reasonable sum be allowed out of the deposit to defray the expenses of the owner or occupier of the property sought to be expropriated;
(f) the board shall without delay proceed to assess the amount of the damages for the property expropriated and on payment of the amount to the owner or occupier, the property expropriated shall vest in the public utility in fee simple or in another estate that may be considered advisable by the board, free of encumbrances;
(g) in case a property sought to be expropriated is found to be encumbered by mortgage or judgment, or where the title to it is in dispute, payment of the amount of the damages to the Registrar of the Supreme Court shall have the same effect as payment to the owner or occupier, and a judge of the Trial Division, on the application of an interested person, may order the payment out of court of the amount to the person entitled to it;
(h) where the applying public utility is unable to ascertain the name of the owner of a property, rights, easements, or privileges sought to be expropriated or where the owner is absent from the province or where the ownership is in dispute, the board may order the publication of the application once a week for 4 consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the City of St. John's and where there is a newspaper published in the locality where the property is situated, once a week for 4 consecutive weeks in that newspaper, and in the same issue of the newspaper in which the board publishes the application the board shall publish a notice that at a time and place named in the notice, which shall not be earlier than 30 days after the date of 1st publication of the notice, the board will hear objections to the proposed expropriation and the publication shall be sufficient service; and
(i) where the applying public utility is unable to ascertain the owner of property, rights, easements, or privileges sought to be expropriated it shall state in its application that the owner is unknown.