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Torrens title is a system of land title where a register of land holdings maintained by the state guarantees indefeasible title to those included in the register. The system was formulated to combat the problems of uncertainty, complexity and cost associated with old system title, which depends on proof of an unbroken chain of title back to a good root of title. The Torrens title system was introduced in South Australia in 1858, formulated by then colonial Premier of South Australia Sir Robert Torrens. Since then, it has become pervasive around the Commonwealth of Nations and very common around the globe, the United States being a notable exception.
Background
Common law
At common law, land owners needed to prove their ownership of a particular piece of land back to the earliest grant of land by the Crown to its first owner. The documents relating to transactions with the land were collectively known as the "title deeds" or the "chain of title". This event could have occurred hundreds of years prior and could have been intervened by dozens of changes in the land's ownership. A person's ownership over land could also be challenged, potentially causing great legal expense to land owners and hindering development.
Even an exhaustive search of the chain of title would not give the purchaser complete security, largely because of the principle nemo dat quod non habet ("no one gives who does not possess") and the ever-present possibility of undetected outstanding interests. For example, in Pilcher v Rawlins (1872) the vendor conveyed the fee simple estate to P1, but retained the title deeds and fraudulently purported to convey the fee simple estate to P2. The latter could receive only the title retained by the vendor - in short, nothing.
The common law position has been changed in minor respects by legislation designed to minimise the searches that should be undertaken by a prospective purchaser. In some jurisdictions, a limitation has been placed on the period of commencement of title a purchaser may require.
Deeds registration
The effect of registration under the deeds registration system was to give the instrument registered "priority" over all instruments that are either unregistered or not registered until later. The basic difference between the deeds registration and Torrens systems is that the former involves registration of instruments while the latter involves registration of title.
Moreover, though a register of who owned what land was maintained, but it was unreliable and could be challenged in the courts at any time. The limits of the deeds registration system meant that transfers of land were slow, expensive, and often unable to create certainty of title.
Creation of the Torrens system
In order to resolve the deficencies of the common law and deeds registration system, Robert Torrens introduced the new title system in 1858, after a boom in land speculation and a haphazard grant system resulted in the loss of over 75% of the 40,000 land grants issued in the province (now state) of South Australia. He established a system based around a central registry of all the land in the jurisdiction of South Australia, embodied in the Real Property Act 1886 (SA). All transfers of land are recorded in the register. Most importantly, the owner of the land is established by virtue of their name being recorded in the government's register. The Torrens title also records easements and the creation and discharge of mortgages.
The historical origins of the Torrens title are a matter of considerable controversy. Torrens himself acknowledged adapting his proposals from earlier systems of transfer and registration, particularly the system of registration of merchant ships in the United Kingdom. James E. Hogg, in Australian Torrens System with Statutes (1905), has shown that Torrens derived ideas from many other sources and that he received assistance from a number of persons within South Australia. Stanley Robinson, in Transfer of Land in Victoria (1979) has argued that Ulrich Hübbe, a German lawyer living in South Australia in the 1850s, made the most important single contribution by adapting principles borrowed from the Hanseatic registration system in Hamburg.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Torrens' political activities were substantially responsible for securing acceptance of the new system in South Australia and eventually, in other Australian colonies. He oversaw the introduction of the system in the face of often vicious attack from his opponents, many of whom were lawyers, who feared loss of work in conveyancing because of the introduction of a simple scheme. The Torrens system was also a marked departure from the common law of real property and its further development has been characterised by the reluctance of common law judges to accept it.
Overview of the Torrens system
The Torrens title system was designed to obviate the need for a chain of title and the necessity of tracing the vendor's title through a series of documents. Each parcel of land is identified by reference to a numbered deposited plan. Each lot of land is the subject of a separate folio in the register. The folio records the dimensions of the land and its boundaries, the names of the registered proprietors, and any legal interests that affect title to the land. There are other parcels of land which simply await conversion.
The English commentator, Sir Theodore Ruoff, in An Englishman Looks at the Torrens System (1957) has stated that the Torrens system reflects three principles: the mirror principle, the curtain principle and the insurance principle.
Indefeasibility of title
Adoption
Other Australian colonies introduced similar legislation between 1862 and 1875.
Nevertheless, it has since become popular throughout the globe as it addresses two major problems identified with poverty in the third world by Hernando de Soto that of uncertainty surrounding land ownership and confusion around land transactions.
Civil law
The more or less equivalent concept in the French civil law is that of the cadastre.
Strata titles are an enhancement of Torrens Title for apartment buildings.
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