METHOD OF DEDUCING TITLE IN A SALE OF LAND TRANSACTION

The vendor can deduce his title by production of his abstract or epitome of title. 

Both documents are the title of the vendor. 

 

ABSTRACT OF TITLE

An abstract of title is a written chronological summary of the history or account of how the property under consideration has moved from one person to another beginning with a root of title up to the present vendor who now wants to sell.

In the past when photocopying machines were not reality available, the abstract was typed on a brief paper divided into 6 COLUMNS shown below.    

 

Date of	Nature of	Parties	Whether Abstract or	Number of	Whether original
Document	Event		Photocopy	Documents	Handed over
1902	Settlement		Abstract	Nil	Nil

 

 

EPITOME OF TITLE

​An epitome of title is a schedule of documents and events which constitute title to the property accompanied by photocopies f the said components.

​Generally, while abstract of title deals with the original set of the document of title, the epitome of title deals with the photocopies of the documents of the title.

BOTH CONTAIN dates; parties;trannsactions.

 

NB: ORIGIN: Abstract originated as a result of difficulties of delivering documents and deeds of title to the purchaser for verification hence the use of abstract. But the advent of photocopying and scanning machines have reduced the importance of abstract. 

 

Date of  Document	Nature of  Event	Parties	Whether Abstract or  Photocopy	Number of  Documents	Whether original document to be  Handed over on completion
10/03/89	Grant	Military Govt & Mr. Ade	Photocopy	1	Yes
9/6/2000	Mortgage	Mr. Ade and  First Bank PLC	Photocopy	1	Yes
16/01/2013		FBN PLC  And chief Amachi	Photocopy	1	Yes