Why is it so difficult to get an accurate title commitment.
Is this just a local problem? How are things in your neighborhood?
I have pretty much avoided "title commitment(s)" over the years (nature of my work), but the last few years I have consulted on several projects involving ALTA Title Commitments. I have yet to see one that was?ÿ"accurate." Some are better than others, but there are ALWAYS a few "items" that fall through the cracks (some pretty BIG too). In all fairness, SOME of the problems are due to poorly written or incomplete conveyance documents, but others are simply a failure on the part of the Title Company to perform reasonably complete research, or to understand what some of the documents actually "SAY and/or MEAN".
Just my 2-bits, and?ÿmileage may vary.
Loyal
Title companies only supply the title commitment to the person or entity that orders them.
Locally and I believe across Texas, the surveyor must get a copy thru their client's request that their surveyor have a copy, usually asking their bank or financing establishment to send the surveyor a copy and in the most desire cases have it pass thru the client.
Some projects I will not begin any part of the survey, research or recon until the title commitment is in hand so I can see what version of the properties description is being used and to search for the encumberances listed and see if they exist on the ground.
Many of them will mention something that affected the parent tract and has nothing to do with the subject tract.
Local title companies are training new people so often, it is a wonder that they get any real work done.
Today I am having to put up with picky things with a title examiner such as me calling the now "Offical Public Records" that were named "Digital Records" last year. Then they were insisting that a Deed of Trust had a Grantee involved where the word Grantee is never mentioned in the document.
My main clamor is that how can they be "Official" when there are no hard copies in the records office.
When the computer system is down, there is no finding anything before 2005.
Title Commitments are simply a guide, and hopefully in the right direction and nothing is final until they issue the policy.
Be thankful you can still get a copy, Title Underwriters are trying to keep them out of your hands when possible, yet, nobody wants to pay the surveyor for what research we must accomplish to make a proper survey.
I have had many client, title company, banker, realtor and other parties to demand that I survey only what description that they provide me and noting else.
Yeah, like I ever just gonna do that................
0.02
as an RPLS in the title business (for just a scant time longer)...?ÿ
it runs akin to the same issue we all gripe about regarding good field help.?ÿ or, say, the trajectory of the expertise and knowledge of your average home depot employee vis-a-vis the old coot at the hardware store on the square who could tell you not only what size fitting you needed, but how long and how hot you need to sweat it for a proper bond.
in other words:?ÿ automation and efficiency are driving the boat in an industry that is moving more toward a risk management (and profit maximization) operation model than a research/risk elimination model.?ÿ couple that with the underwriter consolidation well underway ( https://seekingalpha.com/news/3340118-fidelity-national-buys-stewart-information-1_2b )... it's easy to see where the industry is headed.
for instance, we (probably best- but not exactly- qualified as a "boutique" title company) sub a good bit of our distant work out to local title agencies.?ÿ basically we are asking them to wholesale abstract the subject tract, give us everything, and we do the exam based upon what we are given.?ÿ many times this will include a prior title policy insured by the local agency themselves.?ÿ THIS WEEK i have two different jobs in entirely different large metropolitan areas of the state where each local title agency completely missed MAJOR items (i.e.: a 20' waterline esmt. that basically bisects a local strip center.?ÿ two previous title surveys [and the appurtenant title commitments] have no reference whatsoever.).?ÿ call and ask the examiner there how come nobody ever uncovered that and get the response along the lines of?ÿ ? .
from what i can tell, title abstractors and examiners are increasingly underpaid (that syntax seems oxymoronic, but i can't think of a better way to say it) and asked to handle higher volumes of work (sounds like a common complaint from myriad different industries, no?).?ÿ so what then suffers??ÿ training, knowledge, experience.?ÿ sounds just like the whole "field guys ain't nothing but button pushers anymore" refrain you could find in any given thread on here.
it is a bit alarming.?ÿ like i alluded to- i'm getting out.?ÿ i'm ridiculously well paid here, but it's not near enough.?ÿ i work with examiners who are the best around, most of them at this company have been at it and in it for decades.?ÿ and on a daily basis i'll do, say, or produce something during a survey review that reinforces the apparent sentiment that i am some sort of omniscient wizard.
i guess what i'm saying is: keep doing what you do and do it well (AND CHARGE FOR IT).?ÿ you (i'm happy to say i'll be able to say "we" again soon) are the ones holding this whole thing together.?ÿ i'm not kidding the least bit when i say that.
I am turning the corner on my 40th year of doing this. Once, a title company thanked me for exposing a liability to them. Usually its crickets.?ÿ
Over the course of 45 years I have observed a steady decline in the quality of "Title Reports."?ÿ Long ago, the local firms all had people who visited the courthouse every afternoon and recorded all the info for the documents recorded that day and added this info to their local "Title Plant." Today, all three of the companies in my city subscribe to the same system headquartered in Malaysia. They simply enter a parcel number and the Malaysian firm generates a "Title Report." Often every document in the Section in which the parcel is located is included in Schedule B, whether it affects the parcel or not. no one examines Schedule B, they just print it and hand it out. I recently reviewed one in which 80% of the cited documents were irrelevant. I keep remembering that they are in the insurance business, so including everything probably gives them a heightened sense of safety.?ÿ
I find "Title Reports" to be of constantly diminishing value due to the new procedures, and to the fact that they now only look back 30 years.
Jim in AZ,
That is pretty much the frustration that caused this thread.
?ÿI keep remembering that they are in the insurance business, so including everything probably gives them a heightened sense of safety.
I think that sums it up.
These reports are not made for us, they are just the proposed boilerplate for a title policy... to satisfy the Lender.
"back in the day" insurance underwriters were conservative and competitive... so the reports were carefully prepared and we trusted them. Today the business model has changed, they go on volume, and carefully crafted terms to avoid payment... and the Lenders suck it in. (Not to worry, the gubbermint will bail them out.)
Today I use them as a outline for beginning the real research.
