2012 New York Consolidated Laws
RPP - Real Property
Article 12 - (370 - 436) REGISTERING TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY
378 - What owners may apply; what titles may be registered.

 
    § 378. What owners may apply; what titles may be registered.  Petition
  for registration of title may be made by the following persons:
    First. The person or persons who claim, singly or collectively, to own
  in  fee  simple  the  legal  estate in land, or in some right in or over
  land, and who hold and possess such land or such right.
    Second. The person or persons who claim, singly  or  collectively,  to
  own  a  contract  for  the purchase in fee simple of the legal estate in
  land, or in some  right  in  or  over  land,  from  the  owner  thereof.
  Registration  in  the  name  of  the holder of the contract shall not be
  made, except on the production of a proper transfer of title  under  and
  pursuant to the contract from a transferor in possession, or the consent
  in  writing, duly acknowledged, of the proposed vendor in possession and
  named in the contract and his wife, if he be married. Such  transfer  or
  consent   may  be  made  after  the  commencement  of  the  registration
  proceeding.
    Third. The person or persons who claim singly or collectively, to have
  the power of appointing or disposing in fee simple of the  legal  estate
  in land, or in some right in or over land.
    No  title to a mortgage, lien, trust, charge or estate less than a fee
  simple shall be registered, unless the title to the legal estate in  fee
  simple in the same property is first registered.
    When  the petition is made by the holder of a contract to purchase, it
  shall refer to the ownership of the proposed vendor, and to the contract
  of purchase and sale.
    It shall not be an objection to  bringing  real  property  under  this
  article  that the estate or interest of the petitioner is subject to any
  outstanding lesser estate, mortgage, trust, charge,  or  other  lien  or
  right.  But  any  such  lesser estate, mortgage, trust, charge, or other
  lien or right shall be duly noted  on  the  certificate  of  title  when
  issued.