Title Insurance

Critical to protecting real estate transactions

Title insurance guarantees that title to a piece of real property (land, a home, a building, etc.) is properly and legally registered and that no unknown liens or claims exist on the property.

When a title insurance policy is issued, usually when you buy a piece of property, the title company searches all public records to make sure the chain of ownership has been properly recorded, and that there are no encumbrances hidden in the records.

Title insurance is issued to the new legal owner of the property and to the bank or mortgage company if there is a loan.

What happens if you buy a house then later find that an ex-wife of a previous owner never signed off on an agreement to sell the property and is claiming she still owns the place? If you bought Title insurance when you made your purchase, you would turn the matter over to the Title Insurance company. They would be responsible for defending the claim even if that means paying off the ex-wife

A common issue that also is covered by Title insurance is property access. In addition to insuring a policyholder's ownership of a piece of property, the title company also is insuring that the owner has proper legal access to the property.

In one case, when several land owners found that proper easements never were recorded giving them the legal right to pass through adjoining properties to get to their own land, the owners had to pay for the rights. Those with title insurance simply turned the matter over to the title insurance company, who had to negotiate and pay for the access rights. Those without title insurance had to pay thousands of dollars out of their pockets, all because one little detail failed to be recorded many years back.

Title insurance protects against errors that in most cases were committed years ago, but rear their ugly heads at inopportune moments. If you're doing any sort of real estate transaction, be sure to get title insurance or you could risk future surprises -- and even losing your property -- from ghosts of the past.

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