South Philly Review

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Forgo coverage only if you can stomach 'random' risks

Benny Kass
Inman News®

DEAR BENNY: We are getting ready to close on a home and there is a settlement fee of $685 for lender's title insurance and $683 for owner's title insurance. Must we pay both fees? --Phyllis

DEAR PHYLLIS: This is a question that has plagued homeowners for many years: "Why do I need to purchase owner's title insurance, especially when I know that my seller has owned and lived in the house I am about to buy for more than 25 years?"

I am sympathetic to this issue, especially because many years ago I was successful in winning a class action on behalf of a couple who were required by their lender to purchase the owner's coverage in addition to the lender's title insurance.

First, you have to understand that if you want to get a mortgage from a commercial lender, you will have to obtain lender's title insurance. However, in many states, the prevailing custom may require the seller -- and not the buyer -- to pick up this cost.

Additionally, many builders will agree to pick up the cost of the title insurance if you, as buyer, agree to use the builder's preferred lender and the preferred settlement (escrow) attorney or company.

But owner's insurance is (or should always be) optional.

Oversimplified, title insurance insures a homebuyer -- and a mortgage lender -- against loss resulting from title defects, whether these defects are known or unknown at the time of the sale or the refinance. In the language of the title industry, the insurance covers both "on record" and "off record" problems.

For example:

• A person in bankruptcy who has no authority to sign the deed conveys property to a third party.
• A grandson forges his grandmother's name to a deed and conveys her property to a third party, or to himself.
• A mortgage (deed of trust) is properly recorded on the land records, but there is no legal description identifying the property that is subject to the mortgage. As a result, creditors are not put on notice of the existence of this mortgage lien, and may make another loan, which will not have first-trust priority.
• A deed (or other legal document) is improperly recorded with the wrong legal description.

The list, unfortunately, can go on and on. There are numerous instances where title to real estate has been found to be defective -- either based on substantive grounds or technical, legal procedural reasons (such as improper indexing, misfiling or failure to comply with local recording requirements).

It should also be understood that title insurance is quite different from, say, your homeowners or auto insurance policy. With the latter, they cover future incidents -- a fire in your home or an accident in your car.

But with title insurance, the coverage is limited to risks (defects) that are already in existence at the time the policy is issued.

Thus, when your seller purchased the house several years ago, his title insurance policy covered him -- and his lender -- for all risks (defects) that existed at time he took title; the policy did not cover future defects.

Several years have now passed. You and the seller believe that title is clear, subject only to any mortgage that will be paid off at settlement. However, are you really sure there are no title problems affecting title? Did a mechanic place a mechanic's lien against the property?

Did a creditor obtain a judgment against the seller and have that judgment recorded? Did the home get sold at a tax sale, without the seller's knowledge? Did someone forge the seller's name to a deed and sell the property to a third party?

Or did someone accidentally place a lien against your property (Lot 657) when they really meant to place the lien on Lot 567?

Strange as it may sound, these things do happen. Your lender wants assurances that should you not be able to make the monthly mortgage payment, and the lender has to foreclose on your property, that you have clear title.