I was recently involved in a transaction where I represented the purchaser of a parcel of land. In the normal course, the vendor’s lawyer prepared the Transfer of Land.

For this particular parcel, there was more than one registered owner and there was not enough room on Box 7 of the Transfer of Land for each of the registered owners to sign. The solicitor for the vendor took it upon himself to complete a Schedule which was then attached to the Transfer of Land and left Box 7 of the Transfer of Land blank. All of the registered owners signed the Schedule and the particulars of Box 7 were also replicated on that Schedule.

Once submitted for registration in the Winnipeg Land Titles Office, I received a call from the Winnipeg Land Titles Office that the Transfer of Land was going to be rejected. 

Given the large value of the parcel and the nature of the series registration, the problem Transfer of Land was submitted with (multiple Transfers of Land, a paper title, a deceased party, discharges of existing registrations, blanket mortgage in excess of $10million across residential, farm land, commercial and residential multi-family properties), the Transfer of Land was not rejected.

To correct the problem, the vendor's lawyer had a new Transfer of Land executed in which one of the registered owners who signed the schedule signed Box 7 and the original schedule was attached to that new Transfer of Land.

Therefore, when encountering a situation where there is not enough room on Box 7 of the Transfer of Land for each of the registered owners to sign, please ensure you replicate Box 7 on the approved form of Schedule and have one of the registered owners also sign Box 7.

The "rule" will also apply when registering a Mortgage.