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Bulletin information:

Issue Date: July 7, 1999
Legislation: Land Titles Act, Registry Act, Legal Aid Services Act, 1998

Bulletin content:

Effective April 1, 1999, legal aid liens will no longer be filed with the Sheriff.

New legislation, the Legal Aid Services Act, 1998 has been introduced which provides for the registration of both a lien and a charge against real property and deals with the enforceability of these liens and charges. The lien claimant and the charges will be Legal Aid Ontario (“the Corporation”.)

Charge

Subsection 47(2) provides that where an applicant who has been given legal aid services in any matter recovers property other than money, the corporation has a charge against the property so recovered for the amount of the costs of the legal services provided to the applicant and may enforce such charge.

Subsection 47(5) provides that if the recovered property is real property, the Corporation may register the charge against it in the proper land registry office and the Corporation may enforce the charge by the sale of the real property against which it is registered in the same manner as a sale to realize on a mortgage.

Lien

Subsection 48(1) provides that where a person who owns or has any interest in any land in Ontario has agreed to contribute towards the cost of legal aid services given to him or her or to a person for whom he or she is a person responsible, the Corporation may register a notice of lien for an amount equal to the amount that he or she agreed to contribute to against the person’s land in the proper land registry office.

Subsection 48(2) provides that if a person fails to pay the Corporation an amount he or she agreed to contribute, the Corporation may enforce a lien by sale of the real property against which it is registered in the same manner as a sale to realize on a mortgage.

Attached are examples of a completed lien by the Corporation. Depending upon the system in which the property is registered, the lien should be abstracted as set out in section 7 of the Registry System Abstracting Standards, section 9 of the Land Titles Abstracting Standards and section 5 of the POLARIS Automated Abstracting Guide.

Original signed by:

Ian Veitch, Director of Land Registration
Katherine M. Murray, Director of Titles

View original attachment in PDF.
Contact the Director of Titles for accessible versions of additional PDF attachments.