Frequently Asked Questions
What is Title Insurance?
When you buy a home, you receive a title to the property, which generally means you receive full legal ownership. But, sometimes, there is a hidden defect in a prior deed, will, mortgage, etc., that may give someone else a valid legal claim against your property. Title insurance protects against loss if a covered defect is found in your title.
Why should I purchase title insurance?
Generally, a person thinks of insurance in terms of the payment of future loss due to the occurrence of some future event. Title insurance is a unique form of insurance. It provides coverage for future claims or future losses due to title defects, which are created by some past event. These risks are far less obvious than those protected by automobile insurance, but can be just as devastating.
Below are 10 reasons you need title insurance:
- A fire destroys only the house and improvements. The ground is left. A defective title may take away not only the house but also the land on which it stands. Title insurance protects you against such loss.
- A person under age may have signed a deed or mortgage.
- A deed or mortgage may be a forgery.
- An insane person may have made a deed or mortgage otherwise incompetent.
- A deed or mortgage may have been made under a power of attorney after its termination and would, therefore, be void.
- A person, other than the owner, but with the same name as the owner may have made a deed or mortgage.
- The testator of a will might have had a child born after the execution of the will, a fact that would entitle the child to claim his or her share of the property.
- A deed or mortgage may have been procured by fraud or duress.
- Title transferred by an heir may be subject to a federal estate tax lien.
- An heir or other person presumed dead may appear and recover the property or an interest therein.
