Question:
What is included in the title search?
a, liens
b. outstanding mortgage
c. taxes
d. easements
Various answers were provided as to which answers were correct.
Answer:
This is really not a good question. Some liens, some easements and some taxes are registered against the title.
Most of the time taxes would not be registered against the title. That would be the case unless there was a tax sale.
There are even mortgages which are not registered,
The way the question is posed does not generate one singular accurate response.
Taxes rarely would be registered (99% of the time).
Mortgages are almost always registered (99% of the time).
A Construction lien is unregistered for the first 45 days, then it expires unless a Certificate confirming that an action has been commenced is registered.
Easements should be on title but the ones which have been acquired by prescriptive rights are not registered. To confirm them, the parties agree and register the easement or there is a Court Order.
Easements are mostly registered (75% of the time). However, 25% of the time they are not.
It is estimated that there are about 33,000 unregistered mutual driveways (reciprocal easements) in the City of Toronto. So, you can’t find them from a title search, but they are still there.
An execution, which is a Judgment affecting property is not on title. It’s in the Sheriff’s office. This would truly be a non-title search, until it is a Judicial Sale. Then, it’s on title.
The concern here, is not the underlying information, but the question itself.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker