The Province of Ontario has a long history of having two property registration systems: the registry system and the land titles system. For decades, however, the province has been working to merge these two systems into a single basic registration system called land title systems. Boundaries: describes the dividing line of a property; Usually used to set properties with more space As you begin to become familiar with reading legal descriptions, you will find that there are different types of legal descriptions. If you are struggling, don`t be afraid to look for an experienced eye in order to get all the information you need from the description. Under the registration system, the deeds constituted proof of ownership. According to the land registry, the proof of ownership is the parcel register created for this PIN code. The parcel register specifies the PIN code, the registered owner(s), the legal description of the property, the easements to which the property benefits or is subject, as well as charges, warnings or notices concerning the title. Compared to the registry, the land titles system has stricter rules on the documents and format that must be used to register land titles to protect against fraud or other malicious activity. This is important because it ensures that land purchases are valid and recognized under Ontario and federal law, and that the buyer understands all claims against the property. This type of description often includes individual lots, the location of the blocks, the location of the official record, and a reference to the map of the dish cited. Ultimately, you own what is in the legal description of your deed.
For absolute ownership with land titles, the parcel register says “Fee Simple Absolute”. This qualifier means that the property: You need the legal description for all purchase contracts, deeds and mortgages. The main difference between the Ontario land titles system and the land registry is that the land titles system is an electronic record and the land registry is a historical paper document. However, the Registry Act permits claims for adverse possession and fiduciary custody of property for another person, while the Land Titles Act does not. “Instruments” are essentially public notices approved by the land registry and placed (or “registered”) on a particular piece of land. A mortgage, for example, is a type of instrument, just like a deed that transfers ownership from the seller to the buyer. Other instruments may create rights to your ownership of neighbouring land or impose obligations on your land for the benefit of others. Instruments (such as R plans) are each given a unique registration number.
These alphanumeric numbers look like “PE1234” or “QR4567” and your country can either “succumb” (abbreviated as “S/T”) or “with” (“T/W”) to these instruments. These numbers alone mean nothing. The document of the deed itself must be retrieved by your real estate agent from the land registry to understand what is going on. If you see any of these instruments in the legal description of a property you are buying, a flag should appear in your head and further investigation is necessary if you do not want an unpleasant surprise. You are not interested in having your property “subject” to the neighbour`s rights to drive on part of it, or do you want to know that there is an easement for a natural gas pipeline that runs under your property? A good broker will review the instruments before making an offer on your behalf. The situation you want to avoid is to contractually commit to a purchase, only to discover that the property you want is actually “subjected” to something that no longer meets your needs. Your address is also far from a legal description, as it is unreliable and subject to change. While the legal description of a property can be controversial, the solution is often to hire another surveyor, on whom both parties agree, to conduct an additional version of a survey. Hi Don, a survey does not become “obsolete”, but a surveyor is only responsible for the survey for a certain period of time; Therefore, it is usually a good idea to do a new survey when that time is up when you buy or build on a property. Hi Raymond, you should always talk to a lawyer about legal documents, but I generally think it`s a good idea to copy a legal description as accurately as possible. It uses landmarks and distances to measure the perimeter of the property described in the legal description and is based on the physical characteristics of its geography as well as directions and distances.
The Ontario Land Registry is a recordkeeping system in which lawyers have submitted a title assessment after a 40-year manual search for title to that property. The land registration system creates an inventory of deeds that affect land ownership and establishes the deed as the main proof of ownership. As one of the most important pieces of information involved in real estate transactions, legal descriptions are important to understand before buying a property. A legal description is a description of real property by a government survey, Métis and boundary survey, or by lot numbers of a registered platform. Hi Jennifer, that sounds like a mess! In complicated situations like this, you should contact a title company and/or land use attorney to check what the correct legal description is and where the correct property boundaries are. In the property search, you can search for a property by PIN, street, registration number of an instrument registered on the property, or locate the property on a map (see example). Then you can inquire about the property, print and download a copy of a map, or order a land list registry. Here`s an example of what a legal description of a property can look like when you`re looking for yours. When creating a legal description, you must use the exact legal description that was on the last deed of ownership.
In the 1990s, the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services began creating the Province of Ontario`s Ontario Land Registration Information System (POLARIS) to facilitate the automation of the land registration system. POLARIS is essentially an electronic property registry and, with this introduction, Ontario was the first jurisdiction in the world to allow electronic registration of land records. Have the legal description of your property verified by a survey so that everything is aligned and ready to use. Are you confused when you`re just learning to read legal property descriptions? The starting point helps guide the surveyor to the starting point where the property actually begins. A professional surveyor creates legal descriptions of real estate. Metes and bounds: This type of legal description dates back hundreds of years. In this updated system, you can search for your parcel in the Ontario Land Titles Register and get up-to-date information about that property. These do not count as real estate title searches, but can provide the most accurate, complete and up-to-date recorded data about a particular property.
Before a parcel is converted from the registration system to the title system, the title is classified in the land registration system of the Parcelized Daily Register Act (PDFR).