What is a title search?

Every property in Ontario is composed of one or more parcels. Every parcel has a list of documents registered with the government, which indicates who owns the parcel, who has a financial interest in the parcel, and who has access rights to parts of the parcel. The registered list, which is maintained by Service Ontario’s Land Registry Offices, is called the parcel register, or the parcel’s “title.”

Title to any parcel in Ontario is public information, meaning that anyone can, for a fee, access the list of people and corporations with interest in any parcel in Ontario. When you purchase a property in Ontario, one of your lawyer’s main jobs is to search title, meaning they pay a fee to access the parcel register and examine the documents registered on title. If the interest of any person or corporation is expired, or if the purchaser was not aware the parcel was subject to someone else’s interest and has not agreed to purchase the property subject to that interest, the seller will need to remove that interest from title before the purchase can be completed.