Torrens title is a land title system where a court grants a certificate to those listed in the land register, avoiding problems of older systems. It was first used in Australia in 1858 and is based on three principles: mirror, curtain and insurance. The system is mainly used in Canada, Europe and the British Commonwealth countries.
A Torrens title is a type of land title in which a court grants a title certificate to those listed in the land register. The process is done to register property titles with the aim of avoiding the problems, costs and ambiguities of the older title systems. A Torrens title is also known as a Torrens property or registered property.
This type of property law was first used in Australia in 1858 when Sir Robert Torrens, the Premier of South Australia, decided to address the imperfections in the deed registration system of the time. When the old system caused a major loss of land grants, Torrens devised the new system, in which a centralized register of all lands in the region recorded property transfers and the names of various landowners. With the names then registered legally, landowners had full and inalienable rights to their property, avoiding any confusion as to who actually owned the property and held title. A quick search of the land registry could yield the name of the rightful owner of the property.
Understandably, the land registry is the centerpiece of the Torrens title system. In this detailed catalogue, each property is given a number and, in addition to the owner’s name, the size of the property and its boundaries, as well as a record of any legal matters concerning the property. The registrar who maintains the list updates it with any legal changes, such as a transfer of ownership. Traditionally, land tenure registration was done on paper, but in the modern era it has moved to a system of computerized record-keeping databases.
There are three guiding principles of the Torrens title system. One is the mirror principle, which means that the registry correctly mirrors the title information of the property; if the property is sold, the mirror principle ensures that the only information that is changed in the register is the landowner’s name. With the curtain principle, the certificate of ownership serves as the primary proof of ownership, eliminating the need for lengthy documentation. There is also an insurance principle, which financially protects the landowner against loss in case the registrar makes mistakes in the proper registration of the property.
The Torrens title system is mainly used in Canada, Europe and the British Commonwealth countries. It is in limited use in the United States. In France, a Torrens title is known as a cadastre and follows the same general principles.
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