Land
Registration Act - LRA - Migration of Title
What is Land Registration ?
If you are buying or selling a home in Nova Scotia you will hear about
Land Registration(LRA) and migration of title. This is a system for
registering property that came into effect in the Halifax area in November
2004. In order for property title to change hands the title of the property
must now be moved to or " MIGRATED" to this new electronic
system from the old system. There is a one time cost to do this and
an additional amount of time involved. The cost can vary considerably.
The average cost as of Title Migration is about $600 plus HST (2009).
This cost can be paid by the buyer or the seller but in all cases in
our office since it's implementation the seller has paid it.
There is additional time to transfer title as well. The way the system
works is the lawyer enters the title information online and a government
official checks the information and either approves it or asks for changes.
If changes have to be made then the lawyer must make them and submit
the information again. The process can take a few weeks or more. What
this could mean is a closing cannot be completed as fast as before so
closings of less than a few weeks are almost impossible unless the property
is already migrated. Sellers can migrate the title before the property
is sold and many do just that. On the mls listing information sheet
for a property there is now a section that states whether the property
has been migrated or not.
What should I do as a buyer/seller regarding LRA?
The most important thing for a buyer or seller to do is make sure that
the section in the standard agreement of purchase and sale that deals
with Land Registration is handled properly. As of now there are boxes
that both the buyer and the seller must initial. This may change but
there likely will be a section in the agreement dealing with this.
The second thing is to be prepared for a closing of at least 3- 4 weeks.
Anything shorter than this will be difficult unless the seller has already
migrated the property. If the property has been migrated a short closing
of a week or even less is possible.
How will I know if the property is migrated
or not?
There is a section on the MLS listing sheet that is titled " Migration".
There is usually a "Yes" or "No" next to this. Even
if there is a "No" the property still may be migrated. Often
the property is not migrated at the time of listing but the agent has
advised the seller to migrate the title. Sometimes the MLS Listing sheet
is changed after the title is migrated but more likely it will remain
the same as it was input at the time of listing. If you are interested
in a property, require a short closing and migration is important have
your agent confirm the current migration status.
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