Policy and Procedures for Lawyers and Surveyors June 2006
1. Arbitrary Document Numbers in the Grantor Grantee Index (GGI) 1
7. Farm Loan Board Occupiers 3
8. Searching in Property Online (POL) 3
10. Help Line: Use and Mis-use 4
Applications For Registration (AFRs)
Arbitrary Document Numbers in the Grantor Grantee Index (GGI)
During data conversion to prepare for introduction of the Property Online (POL) system, arbitrary document numbers had to be assigned to documents that appeared not to have been given their own document number in the old Registry of Deeds indices. Lawyers and legal assistants have asked whether those numbers should be repeated in an Application for Registration (AFR). Submitters should follow these rules when preparing an AFR:
1. If the instrument has a number, use it, no matter what POL says. Staff will go into the system and change the arbitrary document number in POL to the correct one prior to approving the AFR;
2. If the instrument has no number, and POL shows a number (arbitrary instrument number), use the POL number;
3. Rescinded December 2007 (Reference to using "0" for document number has been rescinded. System no longer requires a "0" instrument number where there is no document number
Lawyers are reminded of the requirement to update a parcel’s description after benefits or burdens have been added to or removed from a registered parcel’s title.
Boundary line agreements in the true sense of the word do not enable an interest in land, but they clarify a missing property line. Therefore, as a general rule, boundary line agreements do not belong on an AFR. These non-enabling instruments are to be referenced in the parcel description. That said, boundary line agreements can be quite creative and may create a burden or benefit on a parcel. AFR submitters need to advise Land Registration Office (LRO) staff (by way of AFR comment) if the agreement creates an interest in a parcel. Otherwise, the AFR will be rejected.
Converting Parcels where the Crown Interest has been Extinguished
Lawyers are reminded that when they are registering a parcel on which the Crown interest has, in their professional opinion, been extinguished, a Notice of Registration in Form 9 must be sent to the Department of Natural Resources. A copy of the notice and proof of service needs to be placed in the AFR bundle. See Land Registration Administration Regulations, clause 9(4)(e) and subsection 17(6).
Lawyers may remember receiving information on this issue in the August 2005 procedural update. The problem continues. What follows is a repeat of the information that was sent out last August.
Often a cottage parcel will be conveyed together with a fractional interest in a road system, green space, boat launch area, etc. These are not benefits that attach to the fee simple for the cottage parcel; they are conveyances of an interest in one, two or more other parcels. This has serious AFR implications.
If your client’s cottage is the first to be converted in the subdivision, you will need to convert the road and common area PIDs too. Your client is registering 100 per cent ownership of the cottage parcel and a proportionate share of the other PIDs. The co-owners of the road system or green space are going to be added as Tenants in Common Not Registered Pursuant to the Land Registration Act (LRA)on the AFR.
When it comes time to revise the ownership of the cottage and share of the other Parcel Identification Numbers (PIDs), successive owners must remember to submit Form 24s to transfer ownership of the cottage and to elevate their Tenant in Common interest from unregistered to registered – see Land Registration Administration Regulations Section 15 for the required documentation.
Some developers or their lawyers are failing to notify the Development Officer that the required parcel registration (from a triggering plan) has been completed. The Municipal Government Act requires that the conversion take place before final approval can be granted by the Municipality.
Most Development Officers allow the final plan to be submitted without parcel conversion so that the final approval process can be started. Proof of conversion is then submitted before final endorsement.
The developer or converting lawyer must notify the Development Officer when conversion has occurred, or the plan will not receive final endorsed approval. Simply send a fax of the Statement of Registered and Recorded Interests, or a form letter with the Property Identification Number, to the Development Officer so the plan can be endorsed.
Users are asked not to place a farm’s occupant in a textual qualification. The proper place to enter the name of the occupant is in the “Farm Loan Board - Occupants & Mailing Addresses” section of the AFR.
There is an important difference between the way names appear in POL and the Grantor Grantee Index. For parcels registered under the LRA, the name in POL will be the exact name as provided by the lawyer. In the GGI, well-established indexing rules are used by LRO staff and system users.
Early on, users reported different results for the same search. When this came up, it obviously caused concern and a thorough diagnostic was completed on the POL system. After ruling out a system problem, we investigated the searching techniques being employed by the affected users. We determined that the user was searching by name in POL and duplicating the search in the Grantor-Grantee Index.
Variations in names are ignored on indexing in the GGI. For example, “Ajax Development Corporation Limited” will appear as “Ajax Devel Corp Ltd” in the GGI, and if that same name appears as an interest holder on a Land Registration parcel, it may appear as “Ajax Development Corporation Limited.” The lawyer instructs how the name should appear on a parcel either via the AFR or a Land Registration cover form.
The easiest way to ensure a complete search result set in POL is to use wild cards in your search. For example, a Company/Entity Name search for “Sobey%” will yield results for:
SOBEY LEASED PROPERTIES LIMITED
SOBEYS LEASED PROPERTIES LIMITED
SOBEYS LAND HOLDINGS LIMITED
SOBEYS PROPERTIES LIMITED
SOBEYS CAPITAL INCORPORATED
For parcels registered under the LRA, a search for “Ajax Devel Corp Ltd” will not yield parcels registered in the name of “Ajax Development Corporation Limited.” Search “Ajax” under POL and all variations of the name entered by AFR submitters or revising lawyers will be captured.
Also, it is important to note that POL and the GGI are two completely different data sets. When a search is performed in POL the result is based on information that has been assigned to a PID.
For example, a search by name will only return the current owners that have been attributed to the parcels. When a search is performed in the Grantor Grantee Index, the results are based on all documents submitted to the Registry of Deeds system for that county for a specific date range. No documents affecting Land Registration parcels will appear in the GGI.
People may recall that a couple of years back, we announced that Nova Scotia would be introducing standard charge terms for mortgages. This plan was put on hold pending further analysis of the pros and cons of employing a Standard Charge Terms Roll and of electronic submission of mortgages.
After speaking with jurisdictions that use standard charge terms, we decided that a roll would not work as originally envisioned. Provinces that employ standard charge terms have told us that there are literally thousands of variations in mortgage terms, and that variations from these terms are still being introduced by lenders or appended to the standard form of
mortgage.
Preliminary analysis showed that electronic submission of mortgages is preferable to a complex and ever-expanding Standard Charge Terms Roll.
However we recently received a briefing on standard charge terms from a member of the New Zealand Bar, and further analysis is being conducted. In the interim, the logistics for scanning lengthy mortgages can be simplified by using document merge tools.
Miscellaneous Items
In August 2005, eligible lawyers were sent a procedures update that discussed, among other things, the fact that some lawyers and legal assistants contact the POL Help Line with legal questions. We are finding that many calls continue to involve legal questions. Service Nova Scotia staff cannot advise a caller on these issues. For example, callers should not ask the Help Line for a decision on how to characterize a particular interest (burden? recorded interest?) or who should be shown as the owner of the registered interest in a particular parcel.
What was said in August bears repeating. Callers should remember that Help Line answers are grounded in process and not in legal substance. In other words, the lawyer/assistant may be using “substance language” when asking the question, but the Help Line is answering in “process language.” If the lawyer reacts to the latter thinking it was the former, negative consequences will likely result.