A Guide to Buying Real Estate in Alberta, Part 2: Pull The Title

This is the second article, in a series that we're publishing over the next couple of weeks that will add up to a simple guide to buying and selling real estate in Alberta. If you missed part 1 you can read it here.

The title can tell you a lot about a piece of property. Why would you want to review the title for a property you are thinking of purchasing? There are a number of reasons:

1. The title will tell you the names of the legal owner(s) of the property. If you're going to purchase a home you definitely want to make sure you're purchasing it from the actual owner(s).
2. The title will tell you whether the property is a single family home or a condo. This may seem like a simple question to answer just by looking at a property, but a detached home could be a "bare land condominium" and some half duplexes are condominiums.
3. The title will tell you when the legal owners became the legal owners of the property, and it may tell you how much they paid for it.
4. The title will indicate mortgages registered on the property.
5. The title will indicated whether or not there are any liens, caveats, encumbrances or restrictive covenants, or any lis pendens on the property.

Understanding the title can be difficult and may require assistance. It's interesting to know that in Alberta the title is guaranteed by the government (this is not the case in many other areas).