Title search and requisition date등기 조사, 등기 조사 기한

What is it?

A title search is a review of the official ownership record of a property (the title). It confirms that the seller really owns the home and shows whether anything is registered against it, such as a mortgage or a lien (a claim by someone who is owed money).

In Ontario the buyer’s lawyer does this before closing. If the lawyer finds a problem, they send the seller’s lawyer a written request to fix it, called a requisition. The last day to send requisitions is the requisition date written in the contract.

How Ontario’s land registry works

Ontario’s land records are only available online. The electronic registry run by ServiceOntario covers more than 7,400,000 parcels and holds not only ownership but other legal interests such as mortgages, transfers and leases.

Ontario has two registration systems: the Registry Act system and the Land Titles Act system ("Land Titles"). Land under the Registry Act can be moved into Land Titles, and your lawyer will confirm which system applies to your home. In Land Titles, what is on the register is what counts legally: once a document is registered, it is treated as transferring the land or creating the mortgage it describes.

Every property has a nine-digit PIN (Property Information Number). Pulling the "parcel register" for that PIN shows the current owner and the list of registered documents. Lawyers search through a professional system called Teraview; the public can pay to search on OnLand.

What the lawyer looks for

• Whether the registered owner matches the seller named in the contract, and whether all co-owners signed.
• Mortgages (charges): how many are registered and whether they can be paid off and discharged on closing.
• Liens, including construction liens filed by contractors who were not paid.
• Executions (writs): court judgments against the seller can affect the property, so the lawyer searches the seller’s name separately.
• Easements (rights of others to cross or use part of the land) and rights of way: utility easements, a shared driveway with a neighbour, and so on.
• Restrictive covenants: promises that limit how the land or buildings can be used.
• Registered notices such as notices of lease or cautions (notices filed by someone who claims a right in the land).
• Matrimonial home rules under the Family Law Act: whether a spouse must also sign.

Things that are not on the register

The Land Titles Act lists interests that bind the land even if they are not written on the register: unpaid provincial and municipal taxes and water rates, rights of way and other easements, short leases (three years or less with someone actually living there), and a spouse’s rights. So the lawyer does not stop at the parcel register.

The usual practice is to get a tax certificate from the municipality to confirm no taxes are owing, and, where needed, to ask the municipality about outstanding work orders or zoning compliance. Standard contracts usually set a separate deadline for these checks; confirm the dates in your agreement.

Easements and boundary issues cannot always be understood from words on the register. A survey or title insurance fills that gap.

The requisition date in your contract

The standard Ontario agreement (OREA Form 100) normally has a "Title Search" clause with a last date for the buyer to examine title and raise objections, the requisition date. You set it when you write the offer, usually a few weeks before closing. Check the exact date and wording in the contract you sign.

Your lawyer must finish the search and send any requisitions in writing by that date. In the usual structure of the standard form, problems not raised in time are treated as accepted. That is why you should send the agreement to your lawyer as soon as the offer is accepted.

With a conditional offer, the search often starts after the conditions are satisfied. When you write the offer, ask your agent and lawyer whether the condition deadline and the requisition date leave enough room between them.

How title problems get fixed

1. The buyer’s lawyer sends requisitions (requests to fix) to the seller’s lawyer before the deadline.
2. The seller’s lawyer answers. Mortgages are normally handled with an undertaking to pay them off from the sale money and discharge them on closing; liens and executions are usually paid and removed from title.
3. Problems that are hard to remove, such as an old easement or a registry error, can be covered by title insurance or accepted (waived) by the buyer.
4. If the seller cannot or will not fix a valid objection and the buyer will not waive it, the usual structure of the standard contract is that the agreement ends and the deposit is returned. The real outcome depends on the contract wording and the facts, so ask your lawyer.

What about fraud?

A fraudulent document (for example, a transfer or mortgage of someone’s home without their knowledge) registered on or after October 19, 2006 does not become effective just because it was registered. Later documents that are not fraudulent can still be valid. A victim can apply to Ontario’s Land Titles Assurance Fund, but only if they showed the required due diligence and cannot recover their loss another way. This is why the lawyer verifies the seller’s identity and explains whether title insurance covers fraud.

Example

Condos and pre-construction

A condo unit has its own PIN and is searched the same way. For a condo, though, the lawyer also reviews the status certificate (the document about the condo’s finances and rules).

A pre-construction condo unit has no title at all until the building is finished and the condominium corporation is registered. The title search and the transfer happen at the final closing, after interim occupancy. Until then, your protection comes from the agreement, the Condominium Act and the Tarion warranty.