LowellDeeds

A regular blog reader sent me an email today asking why Registered Land never seemed to be a topic. Unfortunately, I don't have a very good answer. Two factors that contribute to this lack of attention are the relatively small amount of property that is in the Registered Land system (about 10% of our recordings). The other is that Registered Land is closely controlled by the Land Court in Boston and the Land Court is an institution that embraces tradition and the tried and true way of doing things. So where Recorded Land has made maximum use of the latest technology to streamline the recording process, the Land Court has failed to seize the opportunity to similarly streamline the Registered Land system. We have made a few changes locally (moving more records to the computers; changing the format of the Certificate Books), but our efforts have only been peripheral. There may be a good reason why certain fundamental changes have not yet been made in the Registered Land system, but as far as I can tell, no one at the Land Court is considering the type of long range, fundamental changes that are possible today. Instead, the system continues on as it has existed with no evidence that it is ready to change. During the coming week, I'll try to describe some of my ideas about Registered Land.