Title, searches and the paper trail
Buying and selling · 3 min read · revised August 2026
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Chain of title | The unbroken sequence of recorded transfers reaching the present owner. |
| Encumbrance | Anything recorded against the property: a mortgage, lien, judgment or unpaid tax. |
| Easement | A right someone else holds over the land, such as access or a utility run. |
| Restriction | A recorded limitation on how the property may be used or altered. |
| Municipal search | Zoning, permits, open violations and outstanding assessments. |
| Title insurance | Cover against defects that existed before purchase and were not found. |
Ownership is a bundle, not a thing
Buying a property does not buy an object; it buys a bundle of rights over land, minus whatever rights other people already hold in it. Someone may have a recorded right to cross it. A utility may have the right to run a cable beneath it. A previous owner's lender may still have an unreleased charge against it. A restriction recorded a century ago may limit what can be built. None of this is visible on a viewing, and all of it travels with the land to the next owner. The purpose of a title search is to find the bundle's actual shape before money moves.
What the searches do
The title search follows the chain of recorded transfers backwards and looks for breaks: a deed signed by someone who did not have authority, an estate that was never properly settled, a name that does not match, a mortgage that was paid but never discharged on the record. Alongside it, searches are run against the parties for judgments and liens, against the property for unpaid taxes and assessments, and against the municipality for zoning classification, permit history, open violations and any work done without approval.
The municipal search is the one that most often produces a genuine surprise. A converted attic, an enclosed porch or a finished basement carried out without a permit is a common finding, and it matters because the obligation to regularise it, or undo it, passes to whoever owns the property next.
Why title insurance exists
A search is a search of records. It cannot find what was never recorded, and it cannot make a forged signature from 1948 visible. Title insurance covers that residual risk: defects that already existed at the moment of purchase and were not discovered. It is unlike other insurance in two ways. It is paid for once, and it looks backwards rather than forwards - it insures nothing that happens after closing. A lender's policy protects the lender's interest only; an owner's policy is the one that protects the buyer's equity, and it is a separate decision.
Reading a survey against a title report
The two documents are meant to be read together. The title report describes rights in words; the survey draws where they physically fall. Reading them side by side is how you discover that the driveway you were shown sits partly on the neighbour's land, or that the easement described in paragraph fourteen runs directly under the extension. Neither document alone would have told you.
What to do with an objection
Most findings are ordinary and are cured before closing: a stale mortgage is discharged, an old judgment against a similarly-named person is disposed of by affidavit, an unpaid assessment is paid from the proceeds. A minority are structural to the property and are not curable - a genuine encroachment, an unresolvable break in the chain, a use that cannot be legalised. Those are the findings that change what the property is worth, or whether it should be bought at all.
This explains what these searches are for in general terms and is not legal advice on any particular title.