Before any money changes hands on a registered property, someone has to look at the official register, and the title search fee is what the National Land Agency (NLA) charges for that look. The fee is small; skipping the search to save it is one of the costliest shortcuts a buyer can take.
A search can be done over the counter at the Land Titles Division, by post, or through eLandJamaica, the NLA’s online service. At the counter, the NLA’s published price list puts a title search at J$500. Online, looking up a title reference is free; the charge applies when you open the scanned image of the certificate of title, caveat card or registered instrument, which is also listed at J$500 per image and paid through a prepaid account. Certified copies and searches of plans are priced separately.
In practice, the buyer’s attorney usually orders the search and passes the cost on as a disbursement. Most attorneys search more than once: at the start, to confirm who owns the land and what mortgages, caveats or easements affect it, and again just before lodging the transfer, to catch anything registered in between. A duplicate title held by the seller may not show recent entries, so the register itself is the only safe reference. In the UK and Canada the equivalent is a land registry search; in the US, the job is usually done by a title company and bundled into closing costs.
Related terms: Title search, eLandJamaica, Certificate of title, Certified Copy of Title, Plan Search, The National Land Agency.
Accurate as at October 2026. Fees are reviewed periodically.
