Between exchange and registration sit the searches, the transfer deed and the formalities of execution on which the passing of legal title ultimately depends.
Legal title to registered land does not pass at completion but at registration, and the gap between the two is where a transaction can come unstuck. This chapter starts with the pre-completion searches that protect the buyer through the priority period, then extends that protection to the lender — including the bankruptcy and company searches, and the equivalent search for unregistered land. It moves on to drafting the transfer deed on the correct form, the requirements for a valid deed, how individuals and companies execute one, and the effect of holding a deed in escrow. It closes with co-ownership, survivorship and the Form A restriction — including how overreaching cures the problem of a sole surviving tenant in common — before finishing with the discharge of the seller's mortgage and the application that completes registration.
