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Torrens Title is a system of land title registration introduced in South Australia in 1858 formulated by then colonial Premier of South Australia Sir Robert Torrens . Since then, it has become pervasive around the British Commonwealth and very common around the globe. Prior to Torrens Title, land owners needed to prove their ownership of a particular piece of land back to the earliest grant of land by the Crown to its first owner. This event could have occurred hundreds of years prior and could have been intervened by dozens of changes in the land's ownership. A person's ownership over land could also be challenged, potentially causing great legal expense to land owners and hindering development because land owners were concerned that their title over land could be overturned at any time, wasting the funds they invested in the property. A register of who owned what land was maintained, but it was unreliable and could be challenged in the courts at any time.
In order to resolve these deficencies, Torrens, by training a lawyer specialising in merchant shipping, developed a system of registration based on that used for the registration of merchant ships in the United Kingdom established a system based around a central registry of all the land in a jurisdiction (in his case, South Australia) and recording its owner. All transfers of land are recorded in the register. Most importantly, the owner of the land is established by virtue of their name being recorded in the government's register. The Torrens Title also records easements and the creation and discharge of mortgages.
The bill to introduce Torrens Title in South Australia was deeply unpopular among lawyers at the time of its introduction because it would reduce the amount of work, and therefore the amount of money that they could earn in the field of conveyancing. It has since become popular throughout the globe as it addresses two major problems identified with poverty in the third world by Hernando de Soto that of uncertainty surrounding land ownership and confusion around land transactions.
Strata titles are an enhancement of Torrens Title for apartment buildings.
Property law
