Definition
Requisitions on title are formal written questions or objections raised by a purchaser's solicitor (or, in American practice, the purchaser's counsel) directed to the vendor after reviewing the abstract of title in a real property transaction. They are the purchaser's instrument for demanding clarification, additional evidence, or remediation of defects, gaps, encumbrances, or ambiguities discovered in the vendor's paper title. The vendor is expected to respond to each requisition in turn, either satisfying the objection with documentary proof, offering an explanation, or acknowledging that the matter cannot be resolved — in which case the purchaser must decide whether to proceed, negotiate an abatement in price, or withdraw.
The process operates in sequence: contract of sale is executed, the vendor delivers the abstract of title, the purchaser examines it, and requisitions are then raised within a time period commonly fixed by the contract or by conveyancing practice. Failure to raise requisitions in time may waive the purchaser's right to object on particular grounds.
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Common Confusion
"Requisitions on title" is sometimes loosely equated with the title search itself, or with the abstract of title. These are distinct steps. The abstract is the vendor's compiled narrative of title instruments and encumbrances. The title search is the investigative act of examining records. Requisitions on title are the purchaser's responsive, adversarial step — the formal questioning that follows examination of the abstract. Conflating them causes researchers to misread conveyancing correspondence and transaction records, particularly in older English and Anglo-American practice materials where the terms appear in close proximity.
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Why It Matters in Research
Structural pattern: historical evolution with jurisdictional divergence.
This term belongs primarily to English conveyancing practice and carries significant weight in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British real property law. Its footprint in American legal literature is uneven and has contracted considerably over time, which creates two distinct research traps.
First, American materials. In U.S. practice, the function of requisitions on title was largely absorbed into the title examination process itself, conducted by attorneys or title companies, with objections typically communicated informally or formalized through title commitment exceptions and curative requirements. American legal dictionaries and treatises rarely carry a dedicated entry for "requisitions on title" as a formal term of art, though the concept persists under different vocabulary — "title objections," "title defects," "curative requirements," and "title commitment conditions." Researchers mining American sources for this term may find it sparse or absent even in comprehensive works, and should search the functional equivalents instead.
Second, English and Commonwealth sources. In English practice, requisitions on title were a structured, ritualized component of the conveyancing transaction governed by the National Conditions of Sale and later the Standard Conditions of Sale. Time limits for delivering requisitions, rules about waiver, and the legal consequences of unsatisfactory answers generated a substantial body of case law and solicitor practice guides. Researchers working with pre-1980s English conveyancing materials will encounter the term frequently and should understand it as a term of procedural art with real legal consequences attached.
Third, the corpus connection. The Law Mind real estate and property encyclopedias treat title examination, chain of title, and marketable title acts in depth. Requisitions on title sit at the intersection of these topics: they are the mechanism by which chain-of-title defects surface and are either cured or accepted during the transaction. Researchers tracing how defects were historically identified and addressed in real property transactions should treat requisitions on title as the active, communicative phase of what the encyclopedia entries describe as the title examination process.
Fourth, timing and waiver. A recurring research issue is the question of what objections are waived by delayed or absent requisitions. Contract provisions and court decisions on this point are more easily found in English than American sources. When researching waiver of title defects in transactional materials, the requisition timeline is often the key procedural fact.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is unfortunately corrupt in the digitized source provided — the text breaks mid-sentence into an unrelated entry (REPUTED THIEVES), suggesting either a scanning error or a typesetting artifact in the original. The opening clause — "When a contract for the sale of real property has been entered into in England, and the vendor has delivered the abstract of title to the purchaser" — is precisely correct as a description of the procedural trigger for requisitions on title, and aligns with standard nineteenth-century conveyancing practice as described in works such as Dart's Vendors and Purchasers and Wolstenholme's Conveyancing Acts. The truncation means Rapalje & Lawrence cannot be relied upon as a complete source for this term.
Standard historical conveyancing authorities confirm that requisitions on title were expected to be exhaustive at first delivery — the purchaser was generally not permitted to raise additional requisitions after the initial exchange without good cause, a rule designed to protect the vendor from harassment and delay. This exhaustion principle is not always obvious to modern researchers accustomed to iterative title commitment processes.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term "requisitions on title" as a formal term of art is predominantly English and Commonwealth in origin and usage. In Australia, Canada, and other common-law jurisdictions with British conveyancing roots, the term remains in active use in real property practice. In the United States, the concept exists functionally but the vocabulary has diverged; researchers should not assume that an absence of the phrase in American sources reflects an absence of the practice.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia: realestate_11 (Title Examination — Chain of Title, Abstracts, and the Title Search Process)
The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia: property_41 (Real Estate Transactions — Title Search and Chain of Title)
The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia: realestate_17 (Marketable Title Acts — Statutory Simplification of Title Chains)
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