Checking the land title of a property is an important step to take before you purchase a property, to ensure that you are purchasing the property from the person that actually has the title and you are not purchasing it from a fraudster who doesn’t actually have it. Today, I am going to show you how to check a land title for free.
Don’t Pay $40-$50 To Check A Land Title
There are lots of websites out there that would charge you $40 or $50, or even more to do a title search for a property. But you can actually do this for free if you’re in the process purchasing the property.
In order to do it for free you need to have a copy of the land title certificate from the current owner of that property. Because you need to check the details of that against a government site, which I’m going to show you how to get to.
If you don’t have those details and you just want to check out who owns the title for a particular property and you only have the address, well that actually is going to cost you money. It cost around $12 to $13 again through the government website.
How To Find The Government Site For Land Title Searches
Step 1: Google “Land Title Search”
Here I am in Google and I am just going to type in “land title search” and then click enter. Now you see here, this Australia.gov.au website. This is the one.
You want to avoid ads ads and everything else.
2. Choose Your State
We can now see that you have got all the different States that you can choose from here, as you see Queensland, etc. Let’s just choose New South Wales for this demonstration.
3. Proceed Past Security Certificate
I get this securities certificate error but let us click proceed anyway.
4. Click ‘Read More’ On Title Search and Records
In order to find the title, we want to look at this Title Search and Record, so we click ‘read more’ and it will bring up those options .
5. If You Don’t Have A Title Certificate Choose Title Search – $12.15
You can now see the Title Search for currently $12.15. This is if you just have the address of the property and you don’t have the certificate.
You will need to pay this if you only have the address. If you have the certificate you can check it for free. See the steps below.
6. For A Free Land Title Certificate Check Click Page ‘2’
To do the free land title certificate check choose page 2 from the options.
7. Click ‘Order Now’ On Title Certificate Authentication
Then choose this one, “Title Certificate Authentication” and so click order now.
8. Enter Details Found On Land Title Certificate
We can then see that we have these reference points that we need to enter: Title Reference, Edition No., etc, etc
Once we have entered these details we can then perform a search.
Here Is An Example Of Land Title Certificate
Here is a sample of a certificate for New South Wales and it shows you Title reference, Title Edition Number and Issue Date and CAC Code. It’s all there, all really easy to find, but then again you do need that Certificate of Title in order to do this check for free.
So that’s how you can check a land title certificate for free, and also there is that way to do it for $12.15 if you have the address.
Let’s See How Expensive It Is To Order For An External Company
Now, I m just going to try and find the price of one that’s not a government website. Let’s just click on this one here searchfirst.com.au
Avoid This $44 Title Search Report (can get for $12.15 or free)
The Title Search on this website is $44.00 instead of $12.15 for the same report from this government Land Title Search website.
Also Avoid This $66 Title Search Report (can get for $12.15)
This historical title search is $66.00 dollars, again this report is just $12.15 on our government website. If you go to another site it is going to cost you a lot more so, I suggest staying away from them.
So I hope that that’s been helpful in finding out how to check a land title for free.
If you want more information and step-by-step guidelines on how to research an area and find out more important information that is important as an investor, then On Property Plus is my premium membership website. On Property Plus is about $20 a month or $200 per year.