Bill Author: Land Bill Will Benefit Massachusetts Developers

BOSTON-A land bill that is about to take effect in this state could mean developers here will be able to conduct many of their deals more efficiently and at lower costs, an attorney who worked on creating it tells GlobeSt.com. The bill allows landowners to voluntarily withdraw their property from the state’s registered land system.

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.