Tenure security and titles insurance : privatization of a public responsibility?
Roy, Francis
In Quebec, the security of tenure is the jurisdiction of the provincial government since the mid-19th century; it relies on a system of land registration consisting of a land register based on a cadastre. Over the years, this system has been greatly enhanced by the continual action of land surveyors and notaries, achieving a high standard of land titles quality. Nowadays, this high standard quality seems to be threatened by the arrival on the land tenure security market of a new product coming from the United States, the title insurance. In several American states, the title insurance has imposed itself in the absence of a public land tenure security system reliable and efficient. Private insurance companies became over the years the principal holders of land ownership data (as found elsewhere collated in cadastre and land books), for commercial purposes, instead of the State for public information, safety and security. At the time of a real estate transaction, a title insurance policy is attractive to consumers because it can be issued quickly (often within a 24-hour period), at a low cost (a few hundred dollars). In comparison, the joint intervention of a land surveyor and a notary is much more time consuming and expensive: the production of documents recording the physical condition of the building and the quality of the legal title may be spread over several weeks, for a cost of few thousand dollars.
Event: FIG Working Week 2013 : Environment for sustainability
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