1. The document must stand on its own.
2. The parties to the debenture must be persons (i.e. natural people and/or corporate entities) and the document must set forth their full true and correct names.
3. A debenture should set forth a principal amount, however the district registrar does not require this. Where no principal amount has been set forth we will call to confirm this is the client’s intent.
4. The debenture must have a specific provision charging land unless the document is to be fiated as a mortgage amending agreement. In those cases, while charging language is not required, like all other amending agreements, the debenture must be signed by all parties to the original debenture, and not just the mortgagor.
5. The debenture must contain a complete legal description of the land charged.
6. The interest in land charged must be a titled interest in land. A debenture cannot charge a leasehold interest if there is no leasehold title. The title number of the charged land must be provided.
7. The debenture must list those prior encumbrances affecting the charged land that it is made subject to.
Land titles prefers the following order:
i. Title number;
ii. Legal description; and
iii. Encumbrances affecting the title.
8. To be a debenture, the document must charge more than just land in Manitoba. It must either charge personalty, be a floating debenture or charge land in a jurisdiction other than Manitoba. Where all that is charged is land in Manitoba, a mortgage using the form prescribed by The Real Property Act is to be registered and not a debenture.
9. Debentures will not be accepted where they only charge a future interest in land.
10.All debentures must contain an address for service for each of the mortgagees. These addresses do not have to be Manitoba addresses.
11.Debentures must be executed in accordance with the land titles rules concerning execution/corporate execution.
12.Debentures must contain Farmlands Ownership Act evidence. This evidence should come in the form of a statutory declaration. This requirement is waived where the mortgagee is a charter bank.
13.Where the debtors are natural people the document must contain Homesteads Act evidence. This evidence should come in the form of a statutory declaration.
14.All schedules must conform to land titles requirements for schedules. Specifically, they must contain a legend at the bottom in the same format as in the LTO prescribed schedule form (Form 16.1) and the legend is to be executed and dated. See Schedules for further information on the proper completion of schedules.
Notwithstanding the fact that the district registrar examines the debenture to ensure that it contains title numbers, legal descriptions and encumbrances at the time of fiating, they do not check to see if this information is correct. It is only when the document is ultimately registered that this information is verified by a document examiner