Good Fences Make Good Neighbours—Except When They Don't

a good long time, Ontario has had two systems for recording the ownership of real property: the registry system and the land titles system, and in the last few decades has been undertaking the concerted effort of consolidating all lands into the land titles system. The process for converting lands from the registry system to the land titles system involves the making of what is called a "first application", which requires the submission of a 40 year title search, a current survey and notice to adjoining land owners-the idea being that, at the time of conversion, one is establishing that the owner has absolute title.¹

One of the magic things about having absolute title to real property under the land titles system, is that another cannot acquire (or continue to run the clock to acquire) adverse possessory rights to such real property-what you might think of as squatter's rights.²