Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-05-14
The Torrens Land System.

The Torrens Land System.
The Florida Times Union discuss
ing this system i'll recent issue
says:
There should be no better Sc
eurity for money loaned than real
estate, if the holders title is good.
1t should rank with stocks and
bonds as basis for loan. One chief
reason why it does not is that be-
fore it caa be accepted as security
the holders title must be proved to
be good. This requires a search of
the records at an expense OF time
and money before the lender can
safely accept it as security.
mot only the owner of a city lot,
or lots, but the farmer as we'll
should demand the Torrens system
of registering land titles. If the
present rather chaotic system of re-
quiring an examination OF sltle in
every case of transfer of property
or of mprtgagiug it continues, the
time may come when the length of
an abstract. of title will he some
thing formidable and the cost of q
s.arch of the records will spell bank
ruptcs for the unfortunate owner Of
real estate.
Suppose the title of every piece
of land in Florida were judicially
assured to the proper owner by the
state, once and for all, simple GER
tificates Of title taking the place of
the warranty deed. If the state Of
Florida, after careful examination
by competent lawyers, recorded the
sscertained ownership of every piece
of land within its borders, large or
small, there would be an end of this
ceaseless examination of titles, of
which a we'll known lawyer says:
''As matters now stand, every
time piece. of land is sold Or
mortgaged a lawyer has to go over
the same ground that was gone over
the last time the land was sold or
mottgaged. And every lawyer 80
doing gets his fee. was looking up
a title last week. ! traced the title
back to 1880. ] had to read some
twenty deeds and examine about
forty mortgages; investigate Judge
nents against six individuals; look
into the settlement of two estates,
and see that the taxes had been paid
for twenty years. A year ago this
same land was mortgaged. Some at
torney did then just what did last
week. The year before the land was
purchased. Some lawyer then went
over the same ground that | did
last week and the other lawyer did
last year. The year before that, this
land was purchased by another man.
Again lawyer had to go over the
same ground. l suppose inVestiga,
sions of the,,'titl to this lot cost all
told about 5000 and twenty days
time. The tax valuation of the lot
vas less than 1000. In other
words, probably one-ffth of the tax
value of the land had been spent in
title Investigations.
Here is 3 great waste of both
time and money. If bonds and other
commercial securities had to go
through the same process every
time they were transferred or hy-
pothecated, with the same attend
ant delay, the operations of com.
mercial business would be irksome-
~ hampered. Land values are more
stable than those of bonds and
stocks, yet it is more difficult to
make them the basis eff financial
operations.
The Torrens system works well
IN Illinois, Massachusetts and three
or four other states in which it has
had fair trial, it has recently been
adopted in North Carolina, and vii!
doubtless be the law, in time, in all
che other states.'