50+ Ways to Lose Your Property.
Why Title Search & Insurance Are So Critical?
Title search in combination with owner’s (title) insurance policy protects you against potential defects such as:
- Deed from purported trustee, unauthorized under trust agreement
- Deed to or from a “corporation” before incorporation, or after loss of corporate charter
- Deed from a legal nonentity (styled, for example, as a church, charity, or club)
- Deed by person in a foreign country, vulnerable to challenge as incompetent, unauthorized, or defective under foreign laws
- Claims resulting from use of “alias” or fictitious name style by a predecessor in title
- Deed challenged as being given under fraud, undue influence, or duress
- Deed following nonjudicial foreclosure, where required procedure was not followed
- Deed affecting land in judicial proceedings (bankruptcy, receivership, probate, conservatorship, dissolution of marriage) unauthorized by court
- Deed following judicial proceedings subject to appeal or further court order
- Deed following judicial proceedings where all necessary parties were not joined
- Lack of jurisdiction over persons or property in judicial proceedings
- Deed signed by mistake (grantor did not know what was signed)
- Deed executed under falsified power of attorney
- Deed executed under expired power of attorney (death, disability, or insanity of principal)
- Deed apparently valid, but actually delivered after death of grantor or grantee, or without consent of grantor
- Deed affecting property purported to be separate property of grantor, which is in fact community or jointly owned property
- Undisclosed divorce of one who conveys as sole heir of a deceased former spouse
- Deed affecting property of deceased person, not joining all heirs
- Deed following administration of estate of missing person who later reappears
- Conveyance by heir or survivor of a joint estate who murdered the decedent
- Conveyances and proceedings affecting the rights of service member protected by the Service-Members Civil Relief Act
- Conveyance void as in violation of public policy (payment of gambling debt, payment for contract to commit crime, or conveyance made in restraint of trade)
- Deed to land including “wetlands” subject to public trust (vesting title in government to protect public interest in navigation, commerce, fishing, and recreation)
- Deed from government entity, vulnerable to challenge as unauthorized or unlawful
- Ineffective release of prior satisfied mortgage due to acquisition of note by bona-fide purchaser (without notice of satisfaction)
- Ineffective release of prior satisfied mortgage due to bankruptcy of creditor prior to recording of release (avoiding powers in bankruptcy)
- Ineffective release of prior mortgage or lien, as fraudulently obtained by predecessor in title
- Disputed release of prior mortgage or lien, as given under mistake or misunderstanding
- Ineffective subordination agreement causing junior interest to be reinstated to priority
- Deed recorded but not properly indexed so as to be locatable in the land records
- Undisclosed but recorded federal or state tax lien
- Undisclosed but recorded judgment or spousal/child support lien
- Undisclosed but recorded prior mortgage
- Undisclosed but recorded notice of pending lawsuit affecting land
- Undisclosed but recorded environmental lien
- Undisclosed but recorded option, or right of first refusal, to purchase property
- Undisclosed but recorded covenants or restrictions, with (or without) rights of reverter
- Undisclosed but recorded easements (for access, utilities, drainage, airspace, views) benefiting neighboring land
- Undisclosed but recorded boundary, party wall, or setback agreements
- Errors in tax record (mailing tax bill to wrong party resulting in tax sale, or crediting payment to wrong property)
- Erroneous release of tax or assessment liens, which are later reinstated to the tax rolls
- Erroneous reports furnished by tax officials (not binding local government
- Special assessments which become liens upon passage of a law or ordinance, but before recorded notice or commencement of improvements of which assessment is made
- Adverse claim of vendor’s lien
- Adverse claim of equitable lien
- Ambiguous covenants or restrictions in ancient documents
- Misinterpretation of wills, deeds, and other instruments
- Discovery of will of supposed intestate individual, after probate
- Discovery of later will after probate of first will
- Erroneous or inadequate legal description
- Deed to land without a right of access to a public street or road
- Deed to land with legal access subject to undisclosed but recorded conditions or restrictions
- Right of access wiped out by foreclosure on neighboring land
- Patent defects in recorded instruments (for example, failure to attach notarial acknowledgment or a legal description)
- Defective acknowledgment due to lack of authority of notary (acknowledgment taken before commission or after expiration of commission)
- Forged notarization or witness acknowledgment
- Deed not properly recorded (wrong county, missing pages or other contents, or without required payment)
- Deed from grantor who is claimed to have acquired title through fraud upon creditors of a prior owner
Also, an extended coverage may be requested to protect against such additional issues as:
Deed to a purchaser from one who has previously sold or leased the same land to a third party under an unrecorded contract, where the third party is in possession of the premises
Claimed prescriptive rights, not of record and not discl