Policy and Procedures for Lawyers and Surveyors Issue 5 September 2007
The Electronic Index is the Authoritative Index
The electronic Grantor Grantee Index is the most current and accurate index for real estate professionals to use. Over the last 20 years, the Land Registry has been converting data from the old paper consolidated index to an electronic Grantor Grantee Index. At least 40 years of paper indices have been converted to electronic in all counties. Halifax=s electronic Grantor Grantee Index now goes back to 1749 and in most other counties, the electronic data goes well beyond 100 years for easy access by real estate professionals. All paper indices, where the electronic indices are available in the electronic GGI, will be removed from the Land Registration Offices in October, 2007.
County Electronic GGI Start Date
|
Annapolis County |
01-Jan-1760 |
|
Antigonish County |
01-Jan-1785 |
|
Cape Breton County |
01-Jan-1965 |
|
Colchester County |
01-Jan-1931 |
|
Cumberland County |
01-Jan-1892 |
|
Digby County |
01-Jan-1785 |
|
Guysborough County |
01-Jan-1785 |
|
Halifax County |
01-Jan-1749 |
|
Hants County |
01-Jan-1879 |
|
Inverness County |
01-Jan-1825 |
|
Kings County |
01-Jan-1917 |
|
Lunenburg County |
01-Jan-1759 |
|
Pictou County |
01-Jan-1861 |
|
Queens County |
01-Jan-1924 |
|
Richmond County |
01-Jan-1821 |
|
Shelburne County |
01-Jan-1783 |
|
Victoria County |
01-Jan-1851 |
|
Yarmouth County |
01-Jan-1774 |
Since the conversion to electronic, many of the Land Registration Offices have retained paper printouts of the indices; some clients preferred to use the paper indices and retaining them seemed a reasonable solution to allow adjustment to the new searching process. However, the paper index is not as reliable because errors, which are corrected right away in the electronic index, may not appear in the paper indices.
Lawyers and searchers may rely on the results that they obtain from the electronic index as they have in the past on the paper indices. If a search is conducted for AHutton, John@ for the appropriate search date range, the lawyer is only liable for the results that are returned. If a AHutton, John@ entry failed to appear in the search, a copy of the results would indicate the name searched, date range and results returned. This would act as the lawyer=s proof that the entry did not exist in the indices at the time of his/her search.
Paper indices often contain handwritten entries or notations that cannot be authenticated as having been done by the registry staff. Those conducting searches have made notes in the indices over the years and continue to do so when they identify what they consider to be errors or omissions in the indexing of documents. Paper indices do not allow us to control the unauthorized editing of our indices nor to track when these Acorrections or edits@ were made.
Reliance on indices that may not reflect the most up-to-date corrections is a dangerous practice whether dealing with historical searching or current subsearches. One must know that the indices used reflect all additions, deletions or edits that have been made to date and the origin of any changes made.
Although some users of the paper indices feel that information is lost when the paper index is converted to electronic, in fact, the paper index is improved upon greatly by the electronic quality assurance processes applied to create consistency in names and cross-matching of Grantors and Grantees.
For searchers, the functionality of the electronic Grantor Grantee indices is significantly increased. Electronic indices give the user the ability to:
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Search across many index books at once;
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Sort, append to, filter, select individual record(s) and print the result set;
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Monitor the currency date of the indices (real time dynamic display), as well as real time corrections to the index.
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Search for MAC will have MAC and MC returned, and vice versa - many paper index books handle MC/MAC differently even within the same registry;
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Search the Grantor/Grantee indices, the judgment roll, and the Powers of Attorney roll from one application; and
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Provide proof of search results.
In Halifax County, where over 50 per cent of the province’s land transactions take place, the paper indices have not been available for use for over five years.
&<<![endif]-->Voluntary E-Submission Becomes Mandatory December 2007 to March 2008
Voluntary E-submission was implemented province wide in Nova Scotia in April 2006 for land titles transfers, mortgages, and releases, which made up 70 per cent of all documents. After two years of enhancing the system and consulting with lawyers on system functionality and their needs for e-submission implementation, we are able to submit over 95 per cent of all documents. We are now moving from voluntary E-submission to mandatory E-submission.
Mandatory E-submission only applies to all documents where the E-submission functionality exists. All authorized lawyers must E-submit any transaction they are doing on behalf of a client and which is supported by the system. Where the functionality does not exist to submit a particular document electronically, it will continue to be submitted on paper.
It will take us approximately four months to implement the system in 18 counties. In order to do this while staying away from the busiest times of the year for law firms, the following schedule was put in place:
West Region December 10, 2007:
Hants, Kings, Annapolis and Digby Counties
North Region December 10, 2007:
Cumberland, Colchester, Pictou and Antigonish Counties
Halifax Region February 4, 2008:
Halifax County
South Region February 25, 2008:
Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne and Yarmouth Counties
East Region March 10, 2008:
Guysborough, Richmond, Inverness, Victoria and Cape Breton Counties
See also the Common Ground articles on E-submission Training and Tutorials (Page 1 and Page 4) and E-Submission FAQs (Page 2).