Back in the day, title companies were sharp and really did a fine job. Today, it's a bit different.
I just got off the phone with a title company assistant about whether or not a company that quitclaimed thier rights to an easement 70 years ago should be listed in a subdivision guarantee.
The assistant told me that the title company just leaves old easement holders in like that because of the wording "successor or assigns" but he said 'successors or Ass A Knees"..
"successors or Ass A Knees"..
ROTFLMAO
The title companies have taken their fair share of kicks (not really). They may no longer require a survey on some sites because they know by adding the "Survey Exception" in schedule b they are safe.
Last I heard there were less than 1% of problems that included title companies as a listed defendant in a suit. They pay attention to these types of details so they can offer a package deal to a buyer less than their competitors.
I have on many occasions, with regards to doing Alta's, refused to include the language of "successors and assigns". I, at one time when they insisted, required their language to be submitted to my insurance company for their approval. If the language n't good enough to be insurable then it simply doesn't go on the survey. It's always nice for the carrier to be the bearer of the bad news....well bad news for the TC.
Title companies went down the tube when they were no longer required to keep and update Title Abstracts, now if they go back 50 years you are lucky, might be good enough in high turnover areas, but here some hold title to lands their families obtained the original patent on. The township I live in, the GLO work started in 1861, suspended and resumed in 1867. My family was there earlier catching and breaking wild horses, "3 rides to a stop, broke horse",. Family was able to get a section by homestead later and bought 3 from the RR. Tales of bunch grass that reached the belly of a horse is backed up by the GLO notes. When the plows hit the ground the grass and soil left, took years to recover. Anyway the title history is and was documented in the Title Abstracts of old and what passes for a title search without them is just pot luck.
jud
They sell insurance. They been doing it for so long and have issued multiple policies on the same parcel for years. They know the risk.
They have the cash and they know the claims rate. So why spend a bunch of time researching at all. Just issue the insurance and pay whatever claims, balance in the bank. Looks like they are very profitable to me.
My opinion is title insurance is mostly a waste of money. I wouldn't buy it at all unless some third party (lender) required it. If you read the fine print they don't really insure all that much, the list of exclusions is long.
If the US went to title registration, title insurance would be eliminated. That alone would pay for it. Probably the biggest reason title registration hasn't happened already. Without the mess there would be little need for insurance.
LR...yup,
They are a waste...until the time you need them. Lenders policies and owners policies are two different animals.
Did I just say animals...hmmmm...yeah I guess I did. Animals are a different breed. They seem to ravage when the chance is there....go figure.
A couple weeks ago, my brother came across an article (probably in the Wall Street Journal) basically stating that with the multitude of foreclosures, a number of title companies simply would not touch many of the now very messed up titles. Some might contend that with the foreclosure mess, title insurance could be more important than ever with the way the banks obviously don't do their job very well....
Every title policy I have seen has disclaimers for almost everything. One of the most often seen is the disclaimer for anything that a boundary survey might disclose. Do not use title reports for research, although you usually can find a bunch of easements which you would find tedious to put together while doing a deed search focused on boundary descriptions.
jud
Does title insurance actually "guarantee" title/ home ownership? (I believe I have title insurance which I have never read admittedly) If, as my brother read, title companies are not touching title insurance, could that be simply due to muddy ownership as opposed to easements or boundary issues?
All it guarnatees is that you might receive as much as the amount of the policy in the event that something bizarre comes up causing you to lose the property or at least be damaged incredibly by something they missed. That's about all. So if the property doubles in value, you only get the insured amount.