Review on Land Registration

Submitted To: Sir Nasir Abbas

Submitted By: Hira Khalid

0409-BH-GEOG-17

Government College University, Lahore

Land Registration
Registration is essentially a written record which is a reliable means of ensuring accurate
knowledge of facts after they have transpired, since it is relatively permanent and unalterable.
The device is susceptible of infinite variation. Land registration can, as said before, be labeled as
‘the process of recording legally recognized interests (ownership and/or use) in land’

Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be any
asset, including an object, land or real estate, intellectual property.

The juridical cadaster is concerned with documenting such rights relating them to the land. It is
concerned with all forms of property rights

Types of owners

In person Individuals may own property directly. In

most societies both men and women can own property with no
restrictions and limitations at all.

Ownership models

 State ownership: Ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or

a public body representing a community as opposed to an individual or private party.
 Private ownership: Ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities.
 Collective ownership: either joint ownership of an economic entity (e.g.,
a cooperative) or public ownership.

Land right

It is the rights to use land that can be owned. To prove the right of owned land need to define
land tenure In order to prove rights it is necessary to inspect the title. Title is the evidence of
person’s rights to the land.

In order to prove who owns the rights to any particular area of land, it is necessary to know the
title of land. Land rights have been described as a bundle of sticks, each stick representing
something which may be done with land. One person may own the overall rights but may
have allowed another to lease for specific period.

Land Titling

It is a form of land reform in which private individuals and families are given formal property
rights for land which they have previously occupied informally or used on the basis of
customary land tenure.
  The principal source of land title information is cadastre.

Land may be owned by one person, in the possession of another and occupied by a third.
“Ownership” means the right to enjoy the use of something, the ability to dispose of it and to
benefit from the rights associated with it. With real property this is referred to as the “title”,
which is the highest level of rights in the land.

The title is held by the owner, who may not necessarily be in possession of the land.

Land Parcel

The basic unit of the cadastral record is the land parcel.

Sometime lot or plot the parcel is an area. Continuous area (volume) of land within which
unique, homogeneous interests are recognized. Its extend can be vary (Sq. km or Sq. m)

 Parcel is a unit of land with homogeneous tenure interests. Parcel is defined as a set of
adjoining areas linked by a uniform set of ownership rights. In the context of the
juridical cadastre, a land parcel is defined by a set of property rights.
 While defining parcel problem
 Non-continuous area
 Administrative boundaries
 Changes in natural features
 Differences in tenure and use
 Delimiting or demarcating limited interest

Register of the title

Contains two elements

i. Parcel attribute

Parcel attribute that may be recorded in the registers include the;

a. Name of owner

b. Nature of tenure

ii. Parcel descriptions

The function of the cadastral plan is first & foremost to identify the parcel of land which has
been referred to in the written parts of the registers. This may of course be achieved by a
 simple parcel reference number relating to the house, street, town, location Parcel
description provide additional information such as shape, size, approximate location of
boundary, details about adjoining parcel.

Title Registration Features

 Land register is a record of all interests in individual land parcels.

 Simple pro forma documents used for transactions with land.
 Documents are checked for validity
 Registered by a recording in land register.
 Certificate of title may be issued.
 Documents are archived.
 Check of title by current details in register.
 Land register supported by cadastral maps.
 Title search based on location of land. Modern field survey techniques produce
numerical data

Deed Registration

• Deed: is a written (signed, sealed and delivered) document or record of an isolated

transaction; evidence that a particular transaction took place. Deed is a legal document
that is signed and delivered, especially one regarding the ownership of property or legal
rights.

• Deeds registration is a land management system whereby all important instruments

which relate to the common law title to parcels of land are registered on a government
maintained register.

• Fraud can be reduced under a system of registration of deeds

• These registered documents then provide a priority claim to ownership

Three basic elements

1. Logging of time of entry of a property document

2. Indexing of the document

3. Archiving of the document (or copy)

Three core principles:

i. Security: registration in a public (government) office provides a measure of security

against loss, destruction or fraud;
ii. Evidence: registered documents can be used to support a claim.
iii. Notice and priority: registration gives public notice that a property transaction occurred
(and the time of registration may resolve the priority of claims).

Improve Basic Record Management

Improving Deeds Registration System

 Standardized forms and procedures

 Improve physical storage facilities
 Make microfilm copies
 Adopt more flexible survey standards (GPS)
 Adopt more flexible survey procedures (satellite data)
 Partially examine title
 Make registration compulsory
 Computerized access to index
 Computerized abstract of title

Title Registration

In registration of title each parcel is defined on a map that is cross referenced to the registers that list
the name of owner & the nature of tenure

The registers must be kept up to date at all times and be reflection of the legal position on the ground

Land Titling Programmmes

 Basic unit for registration is the land parcel.

 Generally, each parcel is surveyed and mapped.
 Registers kept up-to-date (using field records).
 Information in registers generally guaranteed

Negative and positive systems of land registration

The classification in negative and positive systems of land registration has been used
extensively in the Netherlands during the debate on the new civil code during the 1950s
through 1980s, in which the guarantee and indemnity issue was central. Under a positive
system the registrar or his or her employer (usually the State) guarantees the titles that are
registered. Whatever is in the registration is –by law– regarded correct. Damage caused by
mistakes is settled (financially) by the State (or the registry). In a negative system there is no
guarantee regarding the actual title. Only mistakes by keeping the registers are redeemed, not
the (mainly private law based) problems that might not appear from the deeds, but still exist.

List of main characteristics of a negative system, which are amended in a positive system:

 lack of guarantees for completeness, correctness and validity of the transferee

 the inactiveness of the registering institutions in connection therewith;
 lack of a complete registration of interest themselves, with the accompanying
guarantees
 lack of a financial guarantee in the form of liability for the State for the whole
registration system

But when looking at it from the position of the owner or purchaser, both systems do have pros
and contras. The negative system does not give guarantees, but the processing of instruments
that are being offered is very fast and the registering institution does not interfere much with
the seller and purchaser. In the positive system the guarantee of the title one will finally
receive, is preceded by an often time consuming and in depth investigation in all kinds of
aspects of the purchaser, the seller and their agreement.