Bill > H1368

This bill, titled the Landowner's Title Protection Act, aims to simplify and clarify land ownership by establishing a "sufficiency period" of fifty years, or seventy-five years if no title transactions have occurred in the preceding fifty years, during which a person with an unbroken chain of title is presumed to have good and marketable title to their land. This means that after this period, most older claims or encumbrances on the property, except for specific exceptions outlined in the bill, will be considered void. Important terms defined include "decree" (court orders affecting land), "deed" (any instrument transferring ownership, with some exceptions), "land" (including buildings and improvements), "origin of title" (the most recent title transaction that forms the basis of current ownership), and "recorded" (filed in the appropriate registry of deeds or probate). The bill also specifies certain interests that will remain valid even after the sufficiency period, such as those created within the chain of title after the origin of title, specific prior interests clearly identified in later documents, easements for private ways and public utilities, governmental interests, rights from adverse possession, and conservation restrictions. Additionally, it provides a grace period, extending any expiring sufficiency periods to January 1, 2012, and clarifies that the act applies to instruments executed both before and after its passage, without altering statutes of limitations or recording requirements.