A registered owner is usually the person or entity that is on the government records as being the legal owner of certain property, such as

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

or a

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of people or cargo. The ...

, as well as ships. The registration of shares in a company is usually required to be managed by the company. The registered owner of a property in question is normally presumed, sometimes conclusively, to be the legal owner of the property and is said to “hold the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

” or is “registered on the title”. Ownership of property usually implies a right of possession, as opposed to the party that has

right of property Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

. The party that has the right of property is referred to as a lienholder, and in the event the registered owner fails to pay off the lien according to the agreed-to terms, the lienholder has the right to invoke

repossession Repossession, colloquially repo, is a "self-help" type of action, mainly in the United States, in which the party having right of ownership of the property in question takes the property back from the party having right of possession without inv ...

of the property. In jurisdictions that have adopted the

Torrens system Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence (termed " indefeasibility") of title of the person recorded on the registe ...

land registration Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

and title, the register of land holdings provides

conclusive evidence Incontrovertible evidence, or conclusive evidence, is a colloquial term for evidence introduced to prove a fact that is supposed to be so conclusive that there can be no other truth to the matter; evidence so strong it overpowers contrary evidence ...

(termed " indefeasibility") of

of the person recorded on the register as the proprietor (owner), and of all other interests recorded on the register.

Ownership in equity

Though the registration of ownership of certain property usually confers a statutory recognised legal title to the property, courts may nevertheless recognise

equitable right An equitable right is a legal right guaranteed by equity as opposed to a legal right which derives authority from a legal source. An example of an equitable right could be seen in Land law, where mention is made of a beneficial interest i.e. vest ...

s and interests of others in relation to that property. For example, a person who buys and pays for a parcel of land would be the equitable owner of the land though the transfer may not yet have been registered, and the registered owner would continue to be the registered owner until the registration of transfer but hold it subject to the interests of the purchaser, such as the right of possession or in relation to receipt of rent from a tenant should the property be rented.

References

Property law {{Law-stub

Ownership in equity

See also

References