Why do you need title insurance for properties in Ontario?

In Ontario, the Provincial Government insures most titles under the Land Titles System, therefore, most titles to property are guaranteed by the Provincial Government. However, there are some situations where title to property is not guaranteed, such as:

• If the company that constructed your house held title to your property and the company was dissolved before giving you title, you don't own your property
• If searches were not made or incorrectly reported by the utility, the arrears could become a lien on your property.
• Height restrictions, building to lot line setbacks and other building and zoning issues.
• Conditions of many registered agreements which may not have been met.
• Unpaid Realty taxes.
• Easements over a property that Hydro has or has not registered a lien.

TitlePLUS saves you money and aggravation because it's insurance covers situations such as those set out above. It also saves you money because lawyers whose clients choose to use TitlePLUS do not perform the various expensive searches, which you, the client would in turn pay for through disbursements. But you are covered for any claims which may result from these searches which were not carried out and problems are subsequently uncovered.

Using TitlePLUS, the purchaser can have legal fees at a fixed amount, including disbursements. As well, both the vendor's and purchaser's lawyers can do the work needed without passing on the ever-rising cost of disbursements to the client, improving on the client-lawyer relationship. The solicitor can work more diligently with the client instead of having the stressful chore of performing repetitive searches, waiting for replies and sometimes having to rely upon oral results when the written response is not available in time for closing.

January 2000

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