The title and the guaranteed title in the proposed Central Registry Act

Abstract

This dissertation treats the implications connected with the various title certificates issued by the Land Registrar since the inception of the Land Registry office in Malta. However, it focuses on the corresponding provisions proposed by Bill number 16 of 2003 establishing the Central Registry. The first Chapter highlights the modes of acquisition of ownership and its recording in the Public Registry and in the Land Registry. It also examines the situations requiring registration at the Land Registry. The second Chapter gives an account of what a certificate of title consists of and examines the various types of certificates and their implications and analyses also the different limitations imposed on them by law. The third Chapter then deals with the various amendments in the Bill which seek to bring about greater certainty of title by, inter alia, establishing a "one-stop shop" wherein all registrations, whether related to personal or proprietary matters, are effected, or by limiting the number and applicability of encumberances burdening certificates of title. In the fourth Chapter the meaning of registration of titles will be evaluated in the light of the law of ownership as enunciated particularly in the Civil Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta. The relationship between the basis to registered land and the basis to unregistered land will be considered. The last Chapter is made up of concluding remarks on the future of the meaning of the various certificates of title. In this regard the Bill's new provisions improving the current situation as well as any matters left unchanged which ought to be criticised will be brought to attention.