Teranet Manitoba issues province’s first bilingual Status of Title

February 18, 2020 (Winnipeg, MB) – English, French, or both? Manitobans will now have a third option when it comes to the official documentation that proves they own a piece of property in the province.

When someone needs to provide proof of property ownership they usually request a copy of their Status of Title document (called l’état de titre in French). That document lists the owner’s name(s), a legal description of the land owned, as well as any encumbrances or notes about the title. The Status of Titles is traditionally issued either all in English or all in French.

As a service provider for the Province of Manitoba, Teranet Manitoba’s land titles and personal property registry services are subject to the French-Language Services Policy.

“Manitobans have the choice of receiving their official land titles documentation in either French or English,” said Russell Davidson, Senior District Registrar for Teranet Manitoba. “What we’ve found unfortunately is that when a person chooses to have their title issued in French for personal reasons, they can run into situations where they need the land description to be in English. This can occur when they are dealing with their bank or another service in the business community. By creating a title with bilingual content, we’re going to be able to provide our customers with a guaranteed title that fully meets all of their needs.”

Teranet Manitoba, the Province’s exclusive service provider for the land titles and personal property registries, developed the first bilingual title in fall 2019. The majority of the Status of Title document is produced in the customer’s official language of choice, while the land description (used for mortgage applications, amongst other things) is issued in French and English on the bilingual title.

“A fully bilingual option for land titles is a service improvement that will benefit Manitobans,” said Lavonne Ross, Registrar-General of Manitoba. “It recognizes the importance of having essential legal land information available in both official languages.”

“We appreciate the innovation and collaboration shown by staff at Teranet in coming up with the solution of issuing bilingual titles,” said Antoine Hacault, a senior real estate lawyer with TDS Law. “This provides an effective solution to problems we encountered with bilingual titles.”

“We can generate a copy of a French title or an English title pretty quickly, but it’s a manual process to create the bilingual one,” said Davidson. “Manitobans who would like a bilingual title would file a request with their local Land Titles Office to convert an existing English or French title to a bilingual one.”

There is no additional charge to issue a bilingual title.

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Teranet Manitoba LP specializes in registry solutions and is part of the Teranet group of companies. The Province of Manitoba has designated Teranet Manitoba LP as its exclusive service provider to operate the Manitoba Land Titles Offices and the Personal Property Registry. Oversight of these services is provided by the Office of the Registrar-General of Manitoba.