What’s the problem with paper Certificates of Title?

Many people who own land without a mortgage hold their paper Certificate of Title.  Particularly, the older parchment ones are quite beautiful.

However, there is a problem with doing this – whenever you want to deal with a Title (e.g. mortgage the land or sell it), you have to produce the Title, and they can easily be lost or mislaid.  Copies are of no value.

An application for replacement of a lost title costs more than $400 to lodge, and the preparation of the application imposes fairly onerous preparation requirements on your conveyancer or lawyer, and so the fees charged for this task are not small.

Glenferrie Conveyancing strongly recommends that you do not hold paper Certificates of Title, but have them all converted to electronic form. An electronic Certificate of Title is controlled for you by your conveyancer or lawyer, who remains responsible for it indefinitely, and it cannot be lost or mislaid.  If you want to keep a parchment title after its conversion, it can be returned to you discreetly marked as “destroyed” and “of no legal value”.

If you are looking for a reliable property conveyancing company in Melbourne and Northcote area, contact Glenferrie Conveyancing on 03 9815 2351 for more information.