IDM Global Holdings

What is a title search?

A title search (also called a real property title search or a land title search) is the methodical process of obtaining documents and information from the “public record,” plus that available from private sources, about a particular piece of land which show the ownership history of that land and matters that affect the land. Such documents may include survey plans, Crown Grants, indentures/deeds of conveyance, debentures, mortgages, grants of rights of way or easements, contracts for sale, options, affidavits, assignments, etc. Also, records regarding probate, marriage, taxes and court judgments are part of the public record.

What is the purpose of a title search?

A title search is usually done to determine the status of the title of a property for the purpose of buying the property. Ideally, when conducting the search, the researcher will establish an unbroken chain of owners from a “good root of title” to the current owner, thereby proving the current owner’s rights to the land.

When purchasing property, the primary reason you do a search is because you want to buy land from someone who really owns it. Other examples of why a title search is done may be to find out whether your neighbor built his pool on part of your land, or whether there are restrictions on what you can do with your land, or who owns the land next to yours.

What does a title search reveal?

A title search should reveal everything that is deposited in a nation’s public record and can be found, retrieved and viewed using the nation’s recording system. Recording systems vary and some have more limitations than others. Generally speaking, among the numerous documents that can be recorded and information that will be posted by the government, the following documents and/or information should be revealed by research in the public records of The Bahamas:

1. Deeds
2. Conveyances
3. Mortgages debentures, charges or other liens against the property
4. Satisfactions
5. Releases
6. Agreements
7. Affidavits
8. Exchanges of property and or rights
9. Condominium Declarations
10. Easements and/or rights of way
11. Declarations of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions
12. Grants (of rights, use, possession, to navigate, to go over, upon and along, to cross over, etc.)
13. Actions in courts
14. Court judgments and orders
15. Information about companies
16. Survey Plans

Are there limitations to what you can search?

Depending on the reason you need to conduct a title search or the source from which you obtain title information, you may not be able to readily find what you are looking for. For instance, if you want to learn who owns the land next to yours, you could not find that information in the Deeds and Documents Section of the records of the Registrar General of The Bahamas because their documents are only retrievable though a Grantor/Vendor – Grantee/Purchaser index. Therefore, you will have to know the name of the owner of the land to conduct your search, which is precisely the information you are looking for in the first place.

This is one of the reasons IDMGH developed proprietary databases of the land records of The Bahamas; that is, to be able to search beyond the limited scope available from the public record. IDMGH’s approach to searching title is different because of their unique databases. They do not merely rely on the government’s limited Grantor-Grantee index, but instead use unique databases, which allow searches that can discover things adverse to an owner’s interest that a search limited to the Bahamian registry system does not allow.