5.3 Title Searches & Registered Encumbrances
Key Takeaways
Match the legal description and parties to the correct parcel. Use the title, actual instruments, plans and pending request list.
A caveat protects a claimed interest against subsequent dealings within the statutory rules. Determine whether a valid underlying interest exists.
The ordinary construction lien registration period is 60 days. The Act and regulation prescribe qualifying 90-day categories and an exception for installers and users of ready-mix concrete.
Apply the actual purchase contract to permitted encumbrances and financial discharges. The current AREA form allows the seller’s lawyer to use sale proceeds under clause 10.6.
Match the title to the land and the seller
Use a current title and identify the estate, registered owners, co-ownership, legal description, endorsements and pending matters. Alberta provides SPIN2 and Alberta Registry for Land Online (ARLO), with products also available through registry agents. A street address helps locate a parcel. The legal description identifies what is offered. Obtain the actual instruments and plans where their effect matters. Confirm signing authority, including for corporations and estates. Have a surveyor resolve a boundary or siting question and counsel address legal effect.
The Alberta Township System identifies land by meridian, range, township, section and, where relevant, quarter section or legal subdivision. Read SW-16-48-22-W4M as the southwest quarter of section 16, township 48, range 22, west of the fourth meridian. A township normally contains 36 numbered sections and a section has a nominal 640 acres. A quarter has a nominal 160 acres and a legal subdivision a nominal 40. Confirm actual area, exceptions and boundaries on the registered survey material. Plan, block and lot describe parcels by a registered survey plan. Condominium titles use a unit and condominium plan number.
Check the pending registration queue
Sections 14, 14.1 and 56 of the Land Titles Act govern ordinary registration order and priority. Priority does not follow the date of signature alone. Check the current PDF title and pending request list, and review instruments where available. A pending request has yet to be examined and registered. A request returned for correction ordinarily retains its place if returned within the prescribed 30 days. A rejected or removed request can lose the position. The regulation permits specified out-of-order handling. Under section 14.1(7), entry in the queue can satisfy a prescribed registration deadline if the request is not later removed under the specified deficiency provisions.
| Entry | What to investigate |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | A charge under section 103 rather than a transfer of ownership. Verify priority, terms and the lawyer’s payout or assumption arrangements. |
| Caveat | Sections 130 and 135 govern filing and the effect on subsequent dealings, and section 147 gives caveat registration the same priority effect as registration of an instrument. Filing does not create or prove the interest. Order the caveat and investigate the underlying claim. Under section 138 the ordinary lapse procedure requires notice and an application after 60 days, subject to exceptions, including a court-shortened period or proceedings supported by a filed certificate of lis pendens. |
| Easement or utility right-of-way | Check the affected land, beneficiary, plan, duration and use limits. An easement can benefit another parcel. Section 69 provides for certain grants to utilities or public bodies without a dominant parcel. Determine whether the actual instrument restricts the buyer’s proposed building or use. |
| Restrictive covenant | Review the scope, benefit, burden and enforcement. A restriction on use can continue against a successor. A positive obligation can have a separate contractual or statutory basis, so check the instrument and legal authority. |
| Writ or certificate of lis pendens | Distinguish enforcement of a money judgment from notice of an action affecting the land or an interest. Verify the debtor or parties, the proceeding, current status and proposed resolution with counsel. |
Check construction liens and closing terms
Section 41 of the Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act generally allows 60 days for lien registration, measured from the applicable last supply, completion or abandonment event. It prescribes 90 days for improvements to oil or gas wells or well sites and for the qualifying concrete category. The registry identifies the supply of qualifying ready-mix concrete as a 90-day category. Section 36 of the Prompt Payment and Adjudication Regulation excludes entities that install or use ready-mix concrete from the special concrete extension. Confirm the claimant’s actual role and which branch applies. A framing subcontract completed June 1 and entered for registration July 25 is within 60 days on those facts. Timeliness alone does not prove entitlement. Sections 18 and 23 separately regulate the lien funds and holdback. Section 43 generally requires both an action and registration of a certificate of lis pendens within 180 days after lien registration to preserve the lien. A notice under section 45 can accelerate the deadline. Section 48 allows a court order removing the lien from title against payment or security. A title search cannot rule out a lien that has arisen and remains within the registration period.
January 2026 AREA clause 5.1 identifies permitted burdens implied by law, specified customary non-financial registrations and items the buyer expressly assumes. Check the actual wording against the buyer’s plans. For example, locate a utility corridor before advising whether the buyer should investigate a planned garage. Clause 10.6 permits the seller’s lawyer to use sale proceeds to pay and discharge property-related financial obligations and deliver discharge evidence within a reasonable time after Completion Day. Confirm adequate proceeds and have counsel establish undertakings, any holdback, priority and discharge evidence. Clause 10.7 separately directs the seller’s lawyer to honour the brokerage’s written fee agreement. The lawyer handles any unresolved title issue before the parties release funds under the agreed closing method.
If a listing client claims authority to sell but the title shows a company or an owner who has died, verify the signing authority before taking instructions that commit the property. Give the client timely advice about registered restrictions and the need for specialist review, and record the source and the advice. A title issue can delay or prevent the transfer and can affect whether the transaction satisfies the signed brokerage fee terms. Read the fee trigger, payment timing and any agreed expense term, then apply the applicable recovery requirements in Act sections 21–24 separately. For example, a signed conditional sale and a delayed title registration need to be assessed against the particular contracts. A title search alone cannot establish whether remuneration is due.
RECA duties and offer rules · Real Estate Act, sections 21–24
Find Alberta titles, plans and documents · Pending registration regulation · Alberta Land Titles Act · Alberta construction liens · Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act · Prompt Payment and Adjudication Regulation · Law Society conveyancing guidance
An ordinary framing subcontract governed by the current Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act was completed June 1. The lien request entered the registry queue on July 25 and was duly registered without removal. Which conclusion is supported?
It was out of time because the deadline expired after 45 days.
It was within the ordinary 60-day period. Other requirements still determine lien validity.
It could only be in time if framing qualified for the concrete extension.
It was within 60 days, so the amount and priority are established without further evidence.
A current Alberta title shows a registered caveat claiming an interest under an earlier agreement. The buyer asks whether the caveat proves that the claim is valid. What is the best response?
Yes. Registration conclusively validates the agreement described in the caveat.
Yes, if the caveat was signed before the buyer’s offer.
Order the caveat and underlying documents and refer the claim and priority to counsel.
Ignore it unless the caveator already has a court judgment.
Under an unamended January 2026 AREA residential purchase contract, the seller’s lawyer has adequate sale proceeds and proposes to pay out a registered mortgage from them. What does clause 10.6 permit?
Use the proceeds to pay and discharge the obligation, then provide evidence of discharge within a reasonable time after Completion Day.
Require the buyer to assume the mortgage because the proceeds arise at completion.
Leave the mortgage on title indefinitely if the buyer was told about it.
Pay the mortgage only after the parties sign a contract amendment moving Completion Day.
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.