An American firm that specializes in real estate searches and title insurance has warned that unscrupulous individuals could use the current status of the Bahamas Registry to sell their property to multiple purchasers, or to mortgage their property to multiple banks.
International Data Management (IDM) also says in a new report examining the state of the Registrar General’s Department that these unscrupulous individuals could count on at least a couple of months of delay before a bank or purchaser can have a title company or law firm check the record.
“And, if they are really lucky, the transaction will not get properly indexed and they will have a couple of years before any record appears,” says the report, which was completed this month and is being widely circulated among local attorneys.
The report says, “Banks and law firms are carrying a risk when they don’t know about other recorded mortgages or land conveyances. Banks issue loans based on recorded data and law firms issue attorney opinions on title based on recorded data.
“Each of these institutions carries more risk when the data is uncertain. Banks in particular, take a higher risk on mortgage loans if they cannot find out whether other mortgages have been issued on the subject property in the last three years.
“Attorneys, although their opinions on title disclaim liability for the lack of information about the title in the public record, are still subject to suit from a client experiencing a loss from an unsatisfied mortgage whose indenture document had been lodged, but not yet made publicly available.”
The report claims that there are significant delays in registering documents, saying that it can take six to eight weeks for a document to be entered into the Registry’s electronic index database so that it is available to be searched by the public.
The report says, “According to anecdotal evidence, at some point in the past the Registry lost some of its database and, in the process of restoring data, ended up with different databases. When the data is entered, it does not always get copied to all the databases.”
It further claims that obtaining evidence of recordation (receiving back your document stamped by the Registry) can take from 10 to 18 months, and in some cases two and a half years
The report also says there are often substantial delays at the Treasury where stamp duty must be paid.
“Searching for documents at the Deeds & Documents section of the Registry is time consuming,” it adds.
“The department has only three PC compatible computers that search clerks can use to search the electronic index. Clerks must wait in line just to get on the system; if they do not get there early enough in the morning they may not be able to search that day.
“Also, the clerks have to know that there are two databases on the PC they will potentially need to search to find the information they are looking for since the information might be on the other database.”
The report also claims that the search clerks who search the electronic index on a regular basis on behalf of various law firms and title companies complain that the data entry is often incomplete or in error.
It says lot numbers are often entered incorrectly or not at all. Additionally, the report claims that names are misspelled, or the middle name is entered as the family name, and the search clerk cannot find the entry by searching the name.
“There is no means of printing out a search since the Registry does not have printers,” the report further claims. “The search clerk must write down the information obtained, increasing the potential for human error.”
The report says one of the largest challenges faced by the Registry is the time lag between lodgment and the ultimate recordation of documents.
It claims, “all microfilming at the Registry stopped sometime in 2002 when the filmer passed away. Until very recently, no microfilm (or any other format) of any currently lodged public deed or document has been made available by the Registry since 2002.
“No bank, no law firm, no company and no person has received any information pertaining to public deeds and documents, other than their own, in this time period.
“Effectively, the period is longer than three years as many firms accumulate documents to take them all at once. Essentially, there is no data available to the general public from any documents that were lodged in the past couple of years except for a small batch recently released.”
Despite this report, Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard-Gibson has continued to point to substantial improvements at the Registry.
On Friday, she pointed out to a group of Rotarians that for the first time, the Registry is online and accessible in all parts of The Bahamas and in fact throughout the world.
“Convenience has been created for those who may not be able to reach the office itself because of geographical reasons or economic reasons,” Minister Maynard Gibson said.
“Also, we have eased the burden of worry as to the status of documentation important to the young, the middle aged and the senior citizen.”
The Registrar General’s Department was recently relocated to the British Colonial Hilton Hotel in downtown Nassau.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
