Once property becomes registered with a title adjudicated by a court, a procedure has to be adhered to within Land Court to ensure that transactions are conducted properly. According to Edward Smith, a real estate and government relations attorney who worked on the bill, those procedures are no longer necessary. "We now have title insurance," Smith tells GlobeSt.com, "and other imperatives in the marketplace that diminish the need for procedures."
According to Smith, it is in the interest of any developer to have their land treated as unregistered land, but until this bill only the state was allowed to take registered land out of the system. Now, landowners can withdraw their land from registration, but, says Smith, only commercial developers will probably take advantage of this.
"Developers want quick and easy transactions that don't require Land Court," he says. "There are too many benefits for residential landowners in registered land that any lawyer would advise them not to do this."
The bill stipulates that only three categories of land can be withdrawn as a matter of right: if the land that is registered constitutes less than 50% of a series of parcels next to each other with the same owner; if the land consists of a minor portion of a large registered parcel; or if the registered land has condos or time shares.
"We thought that it was legitimate that those would be withdrawable as a matter of right," notes Smith. If land does not fit into that category but the landowner can demonstrate to the court an economic hardship by having the land registered, the court can allow that land to be withdrawn from registration.
The process has yet to be tested in court, but Smith is confident that developers will feel the benefits of this bill very quickly. "We feel that this procedure will be fairly routine," he says.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
