I keep hearing rumors about Title Companies that are willing to provide their Schedule B to the Surveyor before the survey is complete. I say rumors because I have never had a Title Company offer that and the few times I asked, they said it wasn't ready. Almost all my work is construction but I am working on a tract that I really need to look at the Schedule B because any easements or abandoned pipelines may affect the use of the land by the buyer. This Title Company is refusing to finish the Schedule B until I have provided them with my survey.
I have called in to 811 for a locate but some of the oilfield collector lines don't show up on those. There is a well on the neighbor,?ÿ 467' from the property line and there was a dry well drilled on my parent tract but not the 8 acre corner that is being sold.
My question: do any of the Title Companies actually provide a Schedule B to the Surveyor or is that just a nasty rumor to get my hopes up for nothing. This is in Texas.
James
I don't think I have ever received a title Commitment that didn't have a schedule B attached.
We order informational title all the time for the express purpose of getting schedule B information. I wouldn't think things are any different in Texas.
Someone involved in the process always gets me a full copy of the title commitment or I don't start.?ÿ Period.
That must be peculiar to that particular Title Co. office and their title attorney. I've never had that happen in Texas. They should have no problem giving it to you. Of course, what perhaps the title company rep (who is most likely the problem) is not understanding, is that the title commitment is only a commitment to provide a title policy, contingent on matters that the survey will disclose, and once the closing has happened. Therefore, they should provide it to you. Once they've reviewed your survey, they may add or remove certain encumbrances from Schedule B and finalize the Commitment, and also adding a new date to it. The title company rep must be forgetting that is the chain of events/order of how this works.
Almost always working from a "Preliminary Commitment" that includes a Schedule B and links to the documents contained therein.?ÿ Just yesterday though, I was reviewing a temporary construction agreement linked in a Schedule B and noticed that a page from the document was missing.?ÿ I obtained an image from the County and the missing page not only had the width and location of the easement but the termination date.?ÿ The date was for sometime last fall but I noted that fencing, scaffolding and other construction debris remain; something a lender might want to know.?ÿ
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This Title Company is refusing to finish the Schedule B until I have provided them with my survey.
That title company must not be a very good one.
Around here (and actually, when I worked in TX too now that I think about it) the typical workflow is that the title company provides a commitment with all schedules, whether it is preliminary or not.
We then produce a preliminary survey with Schedule B exception notes, showing plottable exceptions, noting blanket and/or non-plottable exceptions, and explicitly noting if an exception is either unable to be located with certainty, requires more information, or is simply not survey-related.
The title company attorneys then review the survey and come back with questions and comments. We might revise the survey to make certain things more clear, or tweak a note or two. Then they issue a revised title commitment, often with some Schedule B items adjusted or deleted. Once they and we are happy that the survey and commitment are in harmony with each other, we finalize the survey based upon the updated commitment.
It's a pretty simple process if they are competent and we all communicate clearly with each other. I always reproduce the Schedule B notes on the survey, verbatim, with a bold survey note after each exception that makes it very clear whether it is plottable, blanket, not survey-related, etc. I also place unique blocks with their respective exception numbers on the survey itself for the plottable exceptions so the attorneys can match them up with the existing commitment note number.
Just checked a couple of Preliminary Title Reports I've worked from recently to confirm my recollection - Schedule "B" in both case is boiler plate general exception of no special interest.
I won??t even give a proposal/fee estimate without seeing a sched B first. This is in Texas.
@norman-oklahoma Perhaps its a title company specific thing. The First American document I am using has several sections to Schedule B. Requirements, General Exceptions, Informational Notes and Special Exceptions are the four listed. The Special Exceptions has specific issues with the described property.
That has been my experience as well. Sometimes they need a swift kick along with a blunt explanation of their duties, since they are being paid to produce a viable commitment and not a placeholder document.
Considering the vast majority of title companies don't really do research any more, just search their internal database for a parcel ID and pull all associated documents, it's not like this is a hard bar to clear. Many times they miss documents - we always do our own research as well just to make sure.
Interesting. I've only ever seen Schedule A which lists the effective date of the commitment, insured amount, proposed insured, current fee ownership & legal description of insured property. Schedule B-1 which is a list of requirements that must be satisfied for the Title Company to close the transaction. Schedule B-2 which is a list of potential encumbrances they found in their initial search of the County records and won't insure against. Then the same iterative process Rover83 described takes place. I've never seen "Special Exceptions". It's curious to hear about the differences regionally.
Once I have my hands on their list of easements, etc.?ÿ I do my own research to evaluate the current status of each of those plus others I frequently discover that they have not found.?ÿ Today, title companies are gamblers.?ÿ They do not research all the way back like surveyors are in the habit of doing.?ÿ ?ÿIf something is more than X number of years old, they aren't going to find it.?ÿ I have had to correct title company work so frequently it is second nature to assume they are not adequate.
In one case a bit more than 20 years ago we were doing an ALTA for an existing elderly care home.?ÿ There must have been 30 items listed.?ÿ Over half of those did not apply whatsoever as they were for a tract in an entirely different subdivision with a very similar name but a half mile distant.?ÿ I can't remember the subdivision names but one was something like Smith's Lakeview Subdivision and the other was Smythe's Central City Subdivision.?ÿ They were in separate sections and had never had common ownership.?ÿ It was a case of stupid people doing stupid things.?ÿ This was not the only case I encountered with that particular title company through the years.?ÿ The geezer who owned it is now deceased.?ÿ That terminated that problem, for me, anyhow.
Here is something from a local Oregon Title Company. See the flip book. The sample Title Report doesn't title anything Schedule A or Schedule B. But the table of contents of the flip book identifies the preliminary and legal description sections as "Schedule A", and the special and general exceptions section as "Schedule B". Huh.
I can't see any purpose in a title report without the exceptions that I can't get from the vesting deed. Most of the time at least. I don't recall ever seeing a TR without an exceptions section.?ÿ ?ÿ
The title companys around here will send me a thing they call a "trio" on request at no charge. That consists of a snippet of the tax assessors map, the vesting deed, and a title page that summarizes basic information about the title - most of the stuff that would be in "Schedule A" per above. Maybe something like this is what the OP is getting.?ÿ
Any chance the parcels you looked at don't have any encumbrances? Listing all the encumbrances is standard on all the Oklahoma Schedule Bs I have seen.
I think that you misunderstand. Those title reports have plenty of exceptions listed. Just not under "Schedule B".
Most mortgage companies order a Title Commitment to discover any existing debts or lines against the property and any prior claims of ownership like the seller actually own100%. Some gamble.
For several years a surveyor has to have the client or mortgage company to have the commitment be sent to them.
Then again, it depends upon the Title company whether they have the time or give an effort to provide one. The requests fall on deaf ears when it is too difficult for them to do the work on some random new property that they have no prior info in their in house records.
There is one around here that will not close without hard copies and cares less about digital certified products and will not continue until the surveyor provides them with a file that fits their word processing format.
When they keep asking for a quick return of my survey I let them know that it's not going to happen until I get a copy of the Title Commitment and poof one appears in my inbox.
Some institutions consider them priorpatory data and practically refuse to allow the surveyor to be in the loop and demand us to do all their work for them at discount prices.
With or without one, I always an extensive search and get a copy of the actual record and read to see if it actually affects what I am surveying or not and still some Title Companies insist upon boiler plate their policy anyway.
I have found that when a Title company can't keep the same personal or workers that you know are excellent at their job that there is a problem wit how the owner runs their business.
Many want that quickie survey and care less about qquality. They simply want something certified by a surveyor one day and will accept a 1935 survey drawing the next. Then the day comes that one company has adopted one surveyor as the Holy grail and all others are out. Mortgage can act the same insisting that their guy does the survey or there is no deal going to happen.
good luck
Sometimes I have to send a preliminary survey to get schedule B list. If this particular title company will not provide schedule B list. Note on survey survey performed without benefit of title commitment & adjust certification accordingly.
Someone involved in the process always gets me a full copy of the title commitment or I don't start.?ÿ Period.
That is the ONLY way to start. You cannot release a certifiable survey unless you have the complete title policy that is going to be used at closing. If you don't you are placing yourself in jeopardy. And you can bet if something is missed it will show up during construction.
@holy-cow I've been through stages where one in four title reports has an error. I've grown accustomed to not trust them completely but nevertheless, I agree they are playing the odds. Have you ever got someone to thank you for spotting an error? I did once. It was about 1990 I think. Remember the examiners name (Frank Kelly at Chicago) clearly because he was the best.