The process of obtaining Letters Patent for one’s property

Hello Everyone

Below is a letter to the Editor of the Ontario Farmer, of which was a response to someone else’ letter. I took their name out as it is not pertinent to the information, although this person thought the letters patent were merely a “license” to use the land. This explains the process of obtaining Letters Patent for one’s property, and explains, what I feel, is the property definition of them. Hopefully the Editor will print this, as it is around 800 words. I hope you find it of interest.

Dear Editor:

It is virtually impossible to explain the force and effect of the Letters Patent in 700 to 800 words, in conjunction with the various constitutional documents.

Letters Patent granting the land is the alienation of the Crown territorial domain, which can only be done by means of the Crown granting land, patenting the land, these documents being sealed under the Great Seal open to everyone to see, and being registered in a land registry. They are a contract between the patentee, the patentee’s heirs and assigns forever, with the Sovereign, depending on the wording of the patent. These documents are created under the instruction of the Sovereign. Government is restricted by a statutory novation and as all authority stems from the Crown, of which to violate these documents is to dishonour the Crown. Supportive of the Nullum Tempus Act, placing a common law restriction on the Crown of 60 years, there is Section 3 of the Real Properties Limitations Act, which states:

Limitation where the Crown interested

3. (1) No entry, distress, or action shall be made or brought on behalf of Her Majesty against any person for the recovery of or respecting any land or rent, or of land or for or concerning any revenues, rents, issues or profits, but within sixty years next after the right to make such entry or distress or to bring such action has first accrued to Her Majesty. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.15, s. 3 (1).

The alienation of the Crown domain, means that the Queen in right of Ontario hasn’t any right, title or interest in or to the lands described. This is stated in 1994, Ontario (Attorney General) v. Rowntree Beach Assn

In Privy Council Appeal of 1934, The Attorney General of Manitoba and others v. The Attorney General of Canada, the process is explained.

“British subjects or intending British subjects were empowered to make application for entry for a homestead; if the application were accepted on payment of the prescribed fee, the receipt given by the local agent of the Government was to be a “certificate of entry,” entitling the recipient to take, occupy, use and cultivate the land entered for, and to hold possession thereof to the exclusion of any other person, and to bring and maintain actions for trespass committed on the land. These rights, however, were subject to the proviso that occupancy, use and possession of land should by subject to the provisions of the Act or of any other Act affecting it, or of any regulations made thereunder (section 11 (2)). By section 11 (6) it was provided that any entry for a homestead should be for the sole us and benefit of the entrant, failing which the Minister should have a discretion to cancel the entry. An entrant was bound to perfect his entry by taking up possession of the land and beginning residence thereon within six months from the date of the certificate, failing which the entry was liable to be cancelled; it might also be cancelled if the entrant in any year failed to fulfil the requirements of the Act. …. At the end of three years, the entrant might be granted letters patent for the land, which thereupon vested in the entrant in fee simple. Before, however, letters patent could be issued the entrant was required to have fulfilled certain conditions, and in particular to have erected a habitable house on the plot and to have cultivated such an area of land in each years as to satisfy the Minister…But until the letters patent are granted the freehold is in the Crown;…”

The definition of “Freehold tenure is without any incidents or obligations for the benefit of the Crown. All lands granted by the Crown in fee simple are granted in free and common socage – freehold tenure. A fee simple may be transferred without licence or fine and the new owner holds from the Crown in the same manner as the previous tenant held from the Crown.” (Ownership and Title to Real Property, http://lawstudies.wikidot.com/laws3112-lecture-3).

I hope this allows for better clarification in regards to some other in depth research into the Letters Patent. Suffice it to say, they are not a license, they are the root of title and the removal of the Crown domain. Private property is private property, or there wouldn’t be a need for an Expropriations Act, or restrictions set down by the Supreme Court, on government and the Crown. According to the Supreme Court of Canada, the private property owner can do with their property as he/ she or it sees fit, but not to the detriment of their neighbor. This is common courtesy and is the common law.

Elizabeth Marshall
Researcher for the OLA