How to Check a TCT Online in the Philippines (LRA eSerbisyo)

There is no free public website where you type a title number and see who owns the land, and sellers who show you a screenshot of one are showing you something else. What you can do is check a TCT online the official way: order a Certified True Copy of the title from the Land Registration Authority through its eSerbisyo portal, pay by GCash or card, and have the government's own copy of the title delivered to your door in about a week. That copy is the document every other check is built on. This guide walks through the request step by step, the exact fees, the waiting times, and what to do with the copy when it arrives.

What "checking a title online" really means

The original of every title sits in the Registry of Deeds where the property is located, and the owner holds a duplicate. A Certified True Copy, or CTC, is the Registry's certified reproduction of its own original, with every annotation on the back pages: mortgages, adverse claims, notices of lis pendens, court orders. When a buyer "verifies" a title, this is the document they compare against the copy the seller is holding.

Until 2021 the only way to get one was to queue at the Registry. The LRA eSerbisyo portal moved the request online, for Transfer Certificates of Title, Original Certificates of Title and Condominium Certificates of Title alike; if you are unsure which one you are dealing with, our explainer on TCT versus CCT sorts it out. The portal does not display the title on screen. It takes your request and your payment and sends you the certified paper copy, which is the only form a bank, a lawyer or a court will accept anyway.

You do not need to be the owner to ask. Titles are public records, the portal only requires a registered account, and that is what makes the check useful to a buyer: you can order the copy yourself, without the seller in the loop, and see the same thing the Registry sees.

The request, step by step

Create an account on the portal with your email and log in. Choose the request for a Certified True Copy and fill in three things: the Registry of Deeds branch where the title is registered, the title type (OCT, TCT or CCT) and the title number, plus the number of copies you want. Some older titles carry what the LRA calls a repeating title number, and for those the form also asks for the plan, block and lot number, all of which are printed on the face of the seller's copy.

Take the details from a photo of the seller's title rather than from a message typed by an agent, because the portal is unforgiving about mistakes. The eSerbisyo FAQ is blunt about it: after payment is made, requests for correction, replacement and cancellation can no longer be accepted. A wrong digit means a second fee.

Then pay. The portal accepts Landbank, e-wallets including GCash, Maya and QR Ph, and debit or credit cards, and it gives you 30 minutes to complete the payment before the session expires. Once paid, the request appears under "My Request" with a transaction status you can follow, and the LRA helpdesk answers by email if it stalls. Double payments are refundable; everything else is final.

Fees and waiting times

The fee depends on the number of pages of the title, and the published schedule is exact: ₱644.97 (about $10 / €9) for a two page title, ₱683.16 (about $11 / €9.5) for three pages, ₱721.35 (about $11 / €10) for four, and ₱38.19 (about $0.61 / €0.53) for each additional page. The amounts include the LRA's IT service and network transmission fees and the shipping cost to any delivery address in the Philippines. Most residential titles run two to four pages, so budget about ₱650 to ₱750 (about $10 to $12 / €9 to €10) per property.

Delivery takes 3 to 5 working days after payment for addresses in Metro Manila and 5 to 7 working days elsewhere in the country. Titles that were issued manually and never digitized need an additional 5 to 7 working days, because the Registry has to validate its physical copy before certifying it. That delay is worth noting in itself: a title that turns out to be manually issued, in a city where the Registry computerized years ago, is one to read with extra care.

The portal delivers within the Philippines only. If you are buying from abroad, have the copy sent to a relative or to the person holding your Special Power of Attorney and ask for a scan of every page, front and back; our guide to the SPA for OFW buyers covers who can act for you and how.

What to do when the copy arrives

Compare it with the seller's copy line by line: the title number, the registered owner's name and civil status, the technical description and the area. Then turn to the back pages, where the encumbrances are. An annotated mortgage means a bank has a claim that must be released before or at the sale. An adverse claim or a lis pendens means someone is contesting the property, and the right response is to stop until a lawyer has read it. A clean back page, with the last entry being the seller's own acquisition, is what you hope to see. The full comparison, including how to spot a forged owner's duplicate, is in our seven step guide on how to verify a land title.

The CTC is a snapshot of the day it was issued. For a purchase, order it close to the signing, not months before, and order it again if the closing slips, because an annotation can be entered in between.

What the online copy does not tell you

A clean CTC proves the title is genuine and unencumbered on that date. It does not prove the person in front of you is the registered owner, that the lot on the ground matches the technical description, or that the real property tax is paid. Those are separate checks: identification and marital consent for the first, a geodetic engineer's relocation survey for the second, and the tax declaration and tax clearance from the city for the third. Land that is sold on a tax declaration alone has no title to order at all, which is a different and riskier purchase, explained in our piece on tax declaration versus land title.

For a pre selling condo there is no individual CCT yet, so the equivalent check is the project's registration and License to Sell; see how to verify a DHSUD License to Sell. And once the title checks out and the sale goes ahead, the same document is the first item in the transfer file that our guide on how to transfer a land title walks through.

When it is worth the ₱700

Always, before money changes hands. Order the CTC before you pay a reservation on a resale house or a lot, before you sign a Contract to Sell with an individual seller, before you lend against a property, and before you accept a property as an heir. For the lots and land listed on BalayHub and anywhere else, a seller who objects to a buyer ordering a government copy of a public record has told you what you needed to know.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Fees, payment channels and delivery times are those published by the LRA eSerbisyo portal and can change; check the portal before you order, and have a lawyer review the title for any purchase.

Dollar and euro figures are approximate conversions at ₱62.8 per US dollar and ₱72.0 per euro (ECB reference rates, 2026-09-18).