What Does A Mother Title Mean?

The ownership of a land or property does change through time. A lot can be sold many times or transferred to heirs as time goes buy. Hence, when purchasing a property, it is not only important to know the details about the previous land owner but also about all the previous owners of the land who can be traced. Any suspicious transfers or invalid transfers between two parties involved in the ownership of a property could lead to a potential problem to the current buyer.

There’s this situation I witnessed in Iligan City, where one of the heirs sold their lot to a business man. The two initiated the sale. The buyer paid the seller in cash. The moment the new owner started to register the purchase for transfer, it found out that the title was still on its original owner which means still in its MOTHER TITLE. No extra judicial settlement was signed and was not event transferred to the heirs of the original owner. It was then they found out that the seller has eight siblings and they don’t know anything about the sale. 7 out of 8 filed claims over the property and since the transaction invalidated due to the claims of the heirs; the new owner lost the case. What went wrong? The buyer herself did not do her assignment for due diligence.

Buying properties is not that easy as buying cellphones in a gadget store. More than checking its physical appearance, documents needs to be reviewed properly to protect your hard earned investments, most especially if the property is still on its MOTHER TITLE.

WHAT IS MOTHER TITLE?

Mother Title is the original title of ownership of a land or property. It’s the very first registered title of the property. It is the document that traces the origin of the property. Sometimes called the ancestral lot.

As the property changes hands from one owner to another through various transactions like gift deed, inheritance, etc., these needs to follow through the transfer document. The sequence of transfers should chronologically order. Any missing transaction in the mother deed needs to be fixed or understood by obtaining relevant documents from the registration authorities or through further discussions with the seller. The flow of transactions should be ascertained to the current seller. The right of each intermediary in the transfer of property should be checked especially when it includes PoA, etc. One should check whether the PoA assignment was registered or not before the sale or purchase of property through PoA.

Mother document is executed between the original owner of the property and the new buyer. Hence, the study of the mother property helps us realize the actual owner who has the title of the property. Gift deed, will, etc. should not be misunderstood as mother deed. [Source: India Real Estate Forums]

As a Buyer of a property with mother title, it is best to seek assistance with a real estate lawyer to help facilitate in checking the authenticity and legality of the title of the property.

WHY IS IT NOT ADVISED TO PURCHASE A PROPERTY WITH MOTHER TITLE?

Titles which are not transferred on time, incur a lot of penalties that may be higher or bigger than it’s selling price and market value. Other than that if other heirs do not cooperate with the transaction, as the buyer, you need to facilitate a settlement with them as well, which will somehow blow up the total purchase.

WHAT IF I ALREADY PURCHASED A PORTION OF A LOT IN A MOTHER TITLE?

If somehow you have purchased a portion of the a property in a mother title, as long as the heirs have initiated partition of the lot or they have subdivided the lot already and have changed the name in the tax declaration records at the city assessors, bring a copy of your Deed of Absolute Sale (DOAS) and submit it to the Registration of Deeds for annotation of the mother title. In the annotation, the ROD will attach in the title that this portion of the lot is sold to you and you are the new owner of that portion of land. [Source: UNTV]