I teach a class about liens in Ohio and a new article in the Suburban Life newspaper helps underscore one of several problems with liens in Ohio.

The article explains that most liens in Ohio are filed against a name, not against a property, which makes it difficult or impossible to know if the lien affects your property.

In this article the lien is against one of the current owner's names. These can be easily fixed if debtor on the lien is not our owner. We simply have our owner sign an affidavit stating it is not them, and therefore, not attached to their property.

The tougher problem we run into occurs when the lien is against a prior owner, and we cannot track that person down, or we find them and they refuse, to sign this affidavit. We have to assume the lien is against our property and cannot proceed until the lien is dealt with.

Here is the link to Howard Ain's article.

Click Here for Howard Ain's Article

Check out this Link explaining the need for Owner's Title Insurance!

http://www.designingspaces.tv/show_segment.php?id=1025

On a current closing, a former owner of the property (3 owners prior) had a common name with a common name lien.

His name is Bobby, and the lien is filed against a Robert. It is a Worker's Compensation affidavit of lien and the amount is not listed. It could be for $5.00 or $50,000, we don't know.

We cannot find the original Bobby to determine if this is him or is not, so the closing was ready to be postponed or canceled. Fortunately, the current owner has an owner's policy, and we are able to use that to close. NO DELAY.

The lesson: even if the previous title agencies miss a lien or ignore it due to an abbreviated title exam, if the buyer does not get the owner's policy, the buyer takes on the risk.  The title agency is only going to be liable if the buyer gets the owner's policy.

It was a good thing they bought the Owner's policy.

Nick

In an effort to give a full understanding of the title and closing process we wanted to start a series of articles on the true definition of terms, as well as the features and benefits of various types of title insurance.

First we will look at Title Insurance.  Title insurance is usually required by the lender to protect the lender against loss resulting from claims by others against your new home.  In some states, attorneys offer title insurance as part of their services in examining title and providing title opinion.  The attorney's fee may include the title insurance premium.  In other states, a title insurance company or title agent directly provides the title insurance. 

Next time we will cover the benefits of an Owner's Policy