Have you found yourself in an odd situation involving land titles? Land titles have been around in Manitoba since 1855. So don’t worry, you aren’t getting scammed. But you may have to wait a while before receiving any money after selling your house.

Land titles are a safe and secure way to transfer ownership and funds after the sale of a house. Land titles operate under three main principles: the mirror principle, the registration and required principle and the assurance principle.

The Mirror Principle

This means that the title to the property accurately reflects the current facts surrounding the title. It will be considered as conclusive evidence of the current owner of any given property.

The Registration Required Principle

Things like mortgages or anything else that has to do with transfers and changes to the title must be registered with the Land titles Office if the title is to be considered conclusive.

The Assurance Principle

If you pay attention to real estate news, you’ll know that mix ups can happen. For example, in some instances, one single property has been sold TWICE to two different buyers! This causes a lot of problems as you can imagine. Our Lands Titles system operates in a manner that prevents this from happening. And if something like that ever DID happen, the Province of Manitoba has a failsafe set up where they will compensate any afflicted party through the Land Titles Assurance Fund.

So How Long Does It Take For Land Titles To Clear?

In an average situation, it takes about three to four weeks for Land Titles to clear and for the money to be transferred to the seller’s lawyer. It is also important to note that any money being paid to the seller, which is delayed will accrue interest. So the home seller should be receiving three or four weeks’ worth of interest on the sale.