Title Search Report provides information about a piece of land. It will include information about the owner, if there are any mortgages, easements or restrictive covenants or any other interests affecting it. It will also provide information about any surveys registered on the title.
It is not uncommon to have interests that have not been resolved in the Registry system be carried forward from the older Registry Titles System to the newer Land Titles System upon computerization and be recorded in the legal description.
While a Municipality has no control over which system a property is filed in, the Ontario government, along with Teranet, Inc., has been trying to certify all “Registry” titles and bring them into the “Land Titles” system. If you remember, the “Registry” system is designated with an (R) in the Property Identification Number (PIN) and is simply a means of accepting and filing documents affecting title. In order to ensure good title, documents need to be reviewed for up to 40 years in the past. A "Land Titles" system using an (LT) designation in the PIN and is a system of actually certifying title. As new documents are registered, they are reviewed for accuracy and correctness and old documents get ruled off so that only current documents or interest remain on the title.
If you have a title that contains the words "Subject to" this does not necessarily mean that there is an interest that should concern the purchaser and that their was no resolution to it. It might simply mean that it was not found registered on the title at the time it was converted to the Land Titles system. it is possible that a spousal interest or a beneficiary’s interest is contained in the file of the purchaser’s lawyer at the time of the previous sale. Sometimes the answer is contained in the “General Register” rather than on the title but they usually do not have an impact on the land after its sale.
If an interest is neither one contained in (a) (b) or (c), it will no longer affect the title after the tax deed is registered. The statute is included in the law that gives the Land Titles Registrar the ability to remove the interest from the title if it will be cancelled by the tax sale
Municipality tax sales are for "as is" properties and they are not required to provide clear title. The onus is on the purchaser to determine what, if any, interests will remain on the property after the sale.
You may find that the legal description of a property contains the language “S/T interest in spousal interest/beneficiaries interest.” This does not mean that there is an interest that was not previously resolved, or that will continue to affect the land after the tax sale. There are only three categories of interests that will continue to affect a property after a tax sale. The first is easements or restrictive covenants that run with the land. The second is any interests of the Crown and the final is any interest that is acquired by adverse possession of abutting landowners before the tax deed is registered. Any other interest may be removed by the Land Titles Registrar after the sale in accordance with the Municipal Act.
Sometimes the words 'Subject to execution number XXXXX, if enforceable' will appear on the legal description to a property. An execution is a judgment issued by a court against a person or a company and filed with the local Sheriff’s Office. It will state that the person or company owes a dollar amount to the Execution Creditor and sometimes the Execution Creditor is the Crown.
An execution will not show up on a Title Search Report because a Title Search Report provides records of land and not those of individuals or companies. An execution is filed with the Sheriff’s Office and not at the Land Registry Office against the debtor’s land. However, sometimes you will see the language mentioned above on the legal description of the land.
When an execution is enforced, the Sheriff seizes the debtor’s property and sells it to satisfy the debt. The words "if enforceable" might appear because the Land Registry Office might not be aware that an execution was either satisfied or expired unless an application has been made to remove it from the title.
Just as with other debts, executions in favor of anyone other than the Crown will cease to affect a property after it has been sold at tax sale. However, it is very important to learn whether there is an execution in favor of the Crown as these will most certainly be enforced. This information can be obtained through an Execution Search Report from the municipality in which the property is located. It can be provided by the Land Registry Office, an attorney can obtain it for you and you can get one from taxsaleshub.ca. If you purchase a Title Search Report from taxsaleshub.ca, information about executions will be provided in the report.
Crown interests on property may include Business Development Bank of Canada mortgages liens for arrears of income tax or HST remittances among many others.
Learn why would a Municipality or Treasurer cancel a tax sale, when is the cut off for tax sale cancellation, and what is the best way to protect yourself by minimizing chances of wasting time and money.
It is possible the building may have been damaged, decayed or even destroyed in the intervening time. It is also quite possible that the photos don’t depict the property from significant angles.
