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A Certificate of Title (CT) is a record of who owns or has an interest in land .There are four main categories in relation to land:
1- Freehold (types are: fee simple, life estate or stratum estate).
2- Leasehold (you can also have a stratum estate in leasehold).
3- Unit title or cross lease (the ownership flat situation).
4- Company lease or licence (note that a licence is not a title, but a right to enter land).

Regardless of the type of interest Anyone can get a copy of a CT by having the correct Land District and the title number. Or you can get someone else to do the search for you. There are many search agents available. Look in the Yellow Pages under Real Estate Agents, Property Management, Land Information, Resource Management, Document Services, Legal Agents, Lawyers, and Surveyors.

If you are doing the search yourself, To find the CT number, you can either go to your local council with the street address and ask for help to find the legal description off the rating records,You will need the legal description of the property, for example, Lot 1 DP 1234, which you can get off rating records.

Once you have a number, you can either order a copy of the CT from aprocessing centre or online through the service website or you can post or fax in a request. A small fee is payable. You should get a copy of the CT within 36 hours.

The CT will give you the size and general shape of the site, who owns it and whether there are mortgages, leases, right of ways or other interests registered against the title.

When you complete the purchase of your section or property, you become the registered proprietor. However, this does not protect you from problems that do not appear on the title such as:
1- Your neighbour encroaching part of your land.
2- Misplaced fences and rights of way.
3- Drainage and access problems.
4- Matters omitted from the LIM such as sacred Maori sites.

These could mean additional building costs or may even prevent you from building.
You could simply take out the cover and not bother to do the leg-work of checking the LIM, the council records and running it past your lawyer. However, it is sensible to do this work to satisfy yourself that the section is going to be suitable and nothing will prevent you building your house on it. But consider insurance to cover those things that may have escaped the most diligent search of you and your lawyer.

The cover is for as long as you own the land and it's not necessary to prove anyone was at fault to make a claim.?