Title Transfers

First quickly, what is a title?

What is a Property Title?

A title is essentially a piece of paper that is assigned to the owner of a property in the province of Alberta. Also, properties across Canada all have titles attached to them.

The title indicates:

- The registered owners; their names and contact address

- Encumbrances against the title (like a mortgage), utility right of way (so that the owners can get things like electricity to their home)

- In Alberta the titles are held by the Land Titles office.  The Northern areas are handled by the land titles office in Edmonton, while the Southern areas of Alberta are handled by the Land Titles office in Calgary.

Edmonton Land Titles Registrations: lto@gov.ab.ca

John E. Brownlee Building (Land Titles Office North)
Mezzanine Level
10365 97 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta  T5J 5C5

Calgary Land Titles Registrations: ltos@gov.ab.ca

Land Titles Office South
710 4th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta  T2P 0K3

When is a title usually transferred?

The transfer of Land title happens when the home is sold. Usually the lawyer will do this and the new title will have the names of the new owner on it.

Also, when the generation above us, like our grandparents, aunts/uncles want to do Estate Planning and give a gift to the next generation or their children. They will also consider transferring the title.

How long does it take?

Covid was crazy and it will depend on the market. At the moment the website says "You can expect a 10 to 12 business day turnaround time for registration of land title survey documents."

How do you know when your document should be ready?

I learned that if you go to https://alta.registries.gov.ab.ca/spinii/logon.aspx

In the top right hand corner it shows the documents that they are processing, so if you know the date that you submitted the application you should have a good idea if it being processed or if the date is past then your application is probably finished processing.

How can you check?

There is a fee, but on https://alta.registries.gov.ab.ca/spinii/logon.aspx

You can pull property titles if you know the information for the property.

Can you transfer the title without a lawyer?

Yes,  for sure. For Alberta, you can find out more information here:

https://www.alberta.ca/change-land-title-ownership

That said, the challenge that a lot of people have is that this is the only transfer of land that they may fill out in their lifetime. The document itself is created, generally speaking, by the land transfers act, and is effected by about 3 or 4 other pieces of legislation so without training and background and understanding these things, you can fill out the forms and hope it is done correctly.

Can you get help from the clerks at the Land Transfer office?

Yes, they will let you know if something is off in the paperwork, but they may not hold your hand if you need them to walk through each part with you.

Normally you pay the fee, and the clerks expect just to receive the document. I know in Edmonton, with Covid there was actually no one at the office that you could speak to and just a drop off slot for dropping off completed applications.

Do you Trust the people transferring the title to you?

When transferring the title, with a real estate transaction, the lawyer only transfers or has the name of the owner of the title changed after the funds are confirmed.

If you are transferring it and there is money involved then do you pay first and hope it is transferred well, or does the transfer happen and expect that the money is paid correctly.  To look at just the title change without a lawyer being involved, you would really need to trust the other party.

Things to watch out for if you want to do it yourself

Personally, I have done it myself. It was a transfer between family before I was a real estate agent. Because it was between family there was full trust there.

There were a few things that could have gone better.

You still need a lawyer/notary as you need to sign the document in front of them.  Their fee would be less, but they would still charge for the meeting for you both to sign the documents.  In our case the lawyer should have crossed out one line in the document because we were signing virtually. The clerks sent the document back to me (the applicants address) but I didn't check my mail in time before the date it needed to be corrected by so it was a bit of a stress wondering if the application was then cancelled and if I would need to redo the whole thing. Luckily, I was able to speak to the clerks and they helped me make the correction and accepted the document even though it was late.

There was a line of credit that was registered against the home. This was before I was a real estate agent, so now I would know better and would have checked the title but my father was sure he didn't have a mortgage so there was nothing against the home. I guess when they gave the Line of credit it was under a general credit offered by the bank and under that general credit was the line of credit, so when my father thought he had cancelled the Line of Credit it was not completely cancelled. Also, the bank didn't care to remove it from the title.

So, I had to fight with the bank to get them to figure out what the problem was. On top of that they wanted me to get a lawyer to remove the encumbrance from the title and when they finally did remove it, they told me that it would take up to three months.

On top of that, parking is paid near the Land titles office so having to go there, each time I needed to pay for parking. The first time I needed to find where the actual office was in the very large building. Plus, they have another form that you need to fill out there and submit together (like a cover letter) and I didn't think to bring a pen with me, so I needed to go and ask someone in the building to borrow a pen. Small things that added to the hassle.

Would I do my own title transfer again?

I am not sure. Since I basically understand it now, it would be a lot easier and less stressful than when I did it last time. I guess it depends on how busy I am at the time and how quickly I need it done

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