Prologue

Question 1

PROLOGUE

Overview

Answer 1

1) What is Torrens system
2) Characteristics of Torrens System
3) Registration in Torrens System
4) Principles in Torrens System
5) Additional features of Torrens System

Question 2

WHAT IS TORRENS SYSTEM

Answer 2

• The Torrens System is a land registration system in which the government keeps all records of land and title, and a land title acts as a certificate of full, indefeasible and valid ownership.
• The Malaysia National Land Code 1965 is essentially based on the Torrens System & indefeasibility of title is one of the important characteristics of the system.
• The National Land Code 1965 is based on the Federated Malay States Land Code of 1928, during colonial period the British brought in the Torrens System to replace the rules of Malay customary tenure.
• However, compared with the Torrens System, the NLC has additional characteristics of its own.

Question 3

REGISTRATION IN TORRENS SYSTEM

Answer 3

• Under the Torrens System, registration is everything.
• The register reflects all the facts material to the registered owner’s title in the land.
• The registration includes name of the proprietor, the land which has been alienated, the area, the location, the survey plan, the boundary limits and other material facts.

Question 4

PRINCIPLES IN TORRENS SYSTEM

Answer 4

1) Mirror principles:

• THE PRINCIPLE: reflect the nature of Torrens system that the register with the attributes of a mirror of sorts;
• REVEAL: The register can reveal all the necessary particulars relating to the land that would interest a potential purchaser or chargee.

2) Curtain principles:

• THE PRINCIPLE: requires that the register is the sole source of information for intending purchasers.
• CURTAIN & PROTECT: The registration serves as a curtain to protect the purchaser as he/she can safely rely on the information revealed in the register, and need not to look behind it.
• THE OBJECT: To save persons dealing with the registered proprietors from the trouble and expense of going behind the register in order to investigate the history of their authors’ title and to satisfy themselves of its validity”.

3) Shield principles:

• THE PRINCIPLE: Provides compensation for loss of rights if there are errors made by the Registrar of Titles.
• MONEY: If through human frailty (in the Registry), the mirror fails to give an absolute correct reflection of the title and a flaw appears, anyone who thereby suffers loss must be put in the same position, so far as money can do it, as the reflection were a true one.

Question 5

ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF TORRENS SYSTEM

Answer 5

1. No possessory right however long;
2. The rules of equity still apply;
3. Reversion to the State under several circumstances;
4. Indefeasibility of title guaranteed but not absolute;
5. Strata Title recognized;
6. Easement by express grant only;
7. Non-exclusive system