Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/86

 64

The Green Bag

No preliminary contract of purchase and sale is required and there is no

paid by the title insurance companies to the lawyers willing to surrender their

wait of thirty or more days for the title

clients to the mercies of this rapacious monopoly, and even if it were increased

to be searched over again. This is a distinct advantage to the grantee, and the grantor can get for his property a. much larger price, the difference repre senting a sum more than suﬁicient to cover the cost of his title registration.

4.

At any time after his title has

been once

registered, the owner can

in a few hours either obtain a short time loan from bank or trust company by depositing his certiﬁcate as collateral, or he can obtain a regular mortgage loan at slight expense and thus avoid payment of the excessive fees charged under the old system.

5.

It has been found by experience

to ﬁfty per cent, all sensible people,

lawyers and laymen alike, must appre ciate the fact that the property owner is a slave to present conditions, although

the chains of his thraldom may be gilded. No percentage of fees, however large,

can

tempt

the

conscientious

attorney to betray his client, when he knows that the Torrens System will encourage and facilitate transactions in real estate, and that there is no other

way to obtain a perfect title.

In the

end this will provide more business

for every one and the profession will get its full share of the reward of duty

that the average cost of a Torrens title is one per cent of the appraised value of the property and disbursements,

well performed.

the minimum fee being $150.00. This compares very favorably with the schedule of rates of the old title insurance

and consequent reduction of prices. The Lawyers’ Title Insurance Company

companies which do not pretend to

methods of the “T. G.& T." as it is

vest an indefeasible title. It must be borne in mind also that not only does the owner get more for his money under the Torrens System, but there is only one search and one fee which covers the entire life of the property, instead

Fifteen or twenty years ago there was

some

semblance

of competition

was organized as a protest against the commonly called.

But soon a com

bination was formed and a “Gentlemen’s

of successive searches and successive

Agreement" entered into, whereby the three leading title companies play into each others’ hands and together monopo lize the business of title searching by the possession of original searches,

fees, which thus tend to diminish the net amount received either on sale or

ways, by the control of the money

mortgage.

lending market, and by their millions

There are many other advantages which might be enumerated, but suﬂi cient has been said to prove the su periority of the Torrens System of Land Title Registration, which is des

tined ultimately to supersede the “anti quated, cumbersome and expensive” system employed by the old title com panies. In spite of the twenty-ﬁve per cent “rebate," “rake-off” or “commission”

maps and papers acquired in various

of dollars capital and surplus, so that

they can dictate terms to the customer and borrower. The term “Examining Counsel" is no longer a distinction and honor but has become a shame and reproach, and the framed certiﬁcate upon the wall is all that is left to remind the lawyer that he is still a conveyancer in name if not in deed. With regard to the question of