What problems can a title search reveal?

Answer

A title search or examination will uncover any judgments, mortgages, taxes, assessments, charges, or other liens which may encumber or adversely affect the property's title. It follows the chain of title, to insure that the person or entity selling a property has the legal right to do so. It will also reveal any restrictions on the property as well as any recorded easements.

Answer

Many serious title defects can arise when land remains in one family for decades. Owners die and leave various heirs. They die and each leave spouses and children, and so on. You must be well acquainted with probate law to follow a title through a long line of probated estates, especially when some were not probated at all. Many times there are missing interests.

Many lawyers don't know that they need a court order - authority granted in a will or license from the court to sell real estate from an estate. They draft a deed from the estate fiduciary and later a good title examiner discovers the deed is not valid. Other errors are made by inexperienced lawyers and title searchers who don't know what happens to interest in real estate held in various types of co-ownership when people die.

Trusts can cause serious problems and often do. Many trusts are invalid and so the deeds from them are also invalid. You must know trust law to determine if a trust and deed are legal and effective. If a trust fails and the trustor dies then her estate must be probated. Sometimes an owner transfers property to a trust and the trust document doesn't contain the power for the trustee to sell the real estate. You need a court order in that case.

A title examiner may find the land has no legal access or a utility company has an unused 100 foot wide right-of-way that runs right through the house (the house has to be moved). A family may have bought a ten acre parcel not knowing a gas pipeline easement ran right under it near the road, where they were planning to build the house and barn. A buyer may have signed a Purchase and Sales Agreement for thirty acres on a river to start a flower farm. The title exam may then reveal there was only 10 acres because the seller didn't own the other twenty. The twenty acres was simply added to a deed about 75 years ago.

One owner thought he sold his house a couple of years ago. The title examination revealed that 17 years ago he thought that he purchased a double lot with a two family house on one lot. That's what he paid for. The title examiner for the new buyer determined that only the empty lot was described in his deed, not the lot with the house on it. The lawyer who drafted the deed has died. The grantor in the deed has died and his heirs want to be paid for the house. The owner thought he owned the house. He had paid off the mortgage and was going to move to Florida. He had even refinanced a few years ago. It will cost that man at least $15,000 to clear his title through a long court proceeding. He lost the sale, property prices have depreciated and the market is dead. He didn't have title insurance because it had been a cheap closing 17 years ago done by a non-practicing lawyer friend.

There are hundreds of potential problems that an inexperienced title searcher won't see, especially from a distance and online. Title defects that have been missed numerous times, over a period of years, are often found only by a professional title examiner. It's happening more and more frequently. Buyers hate to pay for a title examination. The quick turn-around title companies, in their inexperience, only do a cursory search, thinking that the title has already been "searched" many times in the past so it must be okay.

First answer by Mobilesettlements. Last edit by Savemoney101. Contributor trust: 96 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question]