THE LAND TITLE SURGERY – THE BENEFIT OF SURRENDER AND RENEWAL
You might be wondering what the correlation between surgery and land title is. Yes, the two appear miles apart. Although I am not a medical doctor, my short story below can help you relate the topic to the message.
A pregnant woman in her second trimester was discovered to have convulsion (Seizures) due to a brain tumor as reviewed by a Neurosurgeon when her family took her for treatment. The Neurosurgeon noted that though her brain tumor had existed largely unnoticed before her pregnancy, complications were now more visible as a result of the pregnancy. The Neurosurgeon’s verdict was that she needed to do a surgery to cure the convulsion, which means the woman will have to undergo a brain surgery. The family, in their wisdom, felt since the pregnancy was the issue now complicating the convulsion, the surgery should be handled by the family Obstetrician to deliver the baby hoping the problem would be solved and the pregnant woman restored to how she felt before pregnancy.
The obstetrician observed the pregnancy was causing complications too and quickly performed the Caesarean section to deliver the baby. However, the convulsion persisted. Although she appeared a little normal, the Neurosurgeon on examination of the woman after the Caesarean section, pointed out to the family that the surgery by the Obstetrician could have been delayed till after the neurosurgery, which could have resulted in a better outcome in solving the convulsion and salvaging the pregnancy, if he had been carried along. The cost would also have been minimal since it would have been single admission process and in the same hospital. He also noted that both him (the neurosurgeon) and the obstetrician, could have worked together on the process to ensure holistic treatment for the patient. In other words, the cart has been put before the horse and the woman had to go through another surgery to be treated for the main problem, the convulsion from the brain tumor.
While the story above may be a fiction, it is very close to reality in the way a lot of people and organizations handle their land title or other real estate matters, which will cost more in the long run as they jump from one class of professionals to another in order to avoid payment of professional charges, in most cases.
Now, relating this to land title registration in real estate transactions. The pregnant woman represents the land to be transferred in a transaction but with low or insufficient unexhausted residue of interest being the complication with the land title. The pregnancy to be delivered is the transfer of title from the Assignor to the Assignee. This can be regardless of whether the Assignor has insufficient unexhausted interest in the land. This may be 9 or 6 years. It can still be transferred at whatever value it can command then. [Get a Valuation Report from a Valuer/Appraiser].
A typical case is the handling of land title registration where a client has been advised by an Estate Surveyor and Valuer (“the neurosurgeon”) to do a Surrender and Renewal at the point of title registration, on a leased land which the client wants to acquire for a 50 years business operation or development (which represents the pregnant woman). Unfortunately, the client may take it to a lawyer, to handle the registration process. The lawyer goes ahead to process and complete the transfer of the existing unexpired term only with consideration for the need to solve the longer-term problem of insufficient unexpired term for the project the client (Assignee) wants to do on the land. This is not to say that it was not the brief the lawyer might have be given. However, bringing together of the professionals, the Estate Surveyor and Valuer (Chartered Surveyor) from the economic and va…
