Nova Scotia has modernized the way it records and manages land ownership and interest records. The province has completed the transition to a new, leading-edge land registration system that provides a guarantee to the owners of every converted property that they are actually the owners, subject only to any disclosed outstanding interests. The world-class electronic system provides accessibility to Nova Scotia’s land records from any online location in the world.

With the proclamation of the Land Registration Act on March 24, 2003, the new land registration system was rolled out across the province county by county until the last counties were implemented on March 1, 2005. Over the next few years, the conversion of all 558,000 parcels of land in Nova Scotia will increasingly improve the ease with which land is bought and sold. To further enhance this process, two new innovative systems, electronic submission of documents and electronic payment, are being developed and tested. These should be fully operational throughout Nova Scotia by mid 2006.

While many parcels have not been converted, properties are moving into the system at a relatively fast rate as the mandatory triggers to the new system occur. Transfers for value, mortgages, subdivisions resulting in three or more parcels of land, new condominium developments, and the issuance of land titles clarification certificates and quieting of title certificates prompt mandatory conversion of the parcels involved to the new system. The traditional names based registries will continue to operate until all land parcels in the province are converted to the new system either by one of the mandatory triggers noted above or as parcels are converted voluntarily by land owners.

This site contains links to information that is relevant to the operation of the land registration system, including resource materials for each professional user group, act and regulations, prescribed forms, sample forms scenarios and much more.