When you invest in a home, your eyes are set on the future and the word “insurance” makes you think about purchasing home insurance to protect that future. But purchasing a home also means you need to protect the property against the past as well. That’s where title insurance comes in.
Each previous owner of your home brings the possibility of title challenges to the property. Title insurance protects you and your lender against hidden title risk challenges to rightful ownership of the property you are buying. Also, unlike other insurance you’re used to paying, title insurance is a one-time premium cost only for as long as you own the home.
How We Mitigate Your Title Risks
Counselors Title conducts a thorough search of the public records for any documents associated with your property. We then examine these documents in order to determine if any rights or claims exist that could have an impact on the property. Issues like unpaid taxes, judgments, and tax liens against the current or past property owners could exist and have an impact on title. If any title defects are found, we resolve them before closing.
How We Protect You Against Hidden Title Risks
“Hidden risks” are those rights or claims that are not shown by the public record, and, therefore, not discoverable by us during our extensive title search and examination. To protect you against forgeries, incompetence, and other unknown errors, we underwrite an insurance policy for you as an independent policy-issuing agent for First American/Fidelity Title.