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Click on
the links below to learn more:
Peace of Mind on a Piece of Property
It's Expensive to be Totally Right
Personalized Homeland Security
Out with the Old, In with the New
PEACE OF MIND
ON A PIECE OF PROPERTY
Home ownership should be hassle-free. Once you close on
your house and get settled, you shouldn’t have to worry
about who owns your home. Doesn’t always work that way.
In our human world, errors occur … and sometimes
omissions … or undisclosed heirs. Sometimes a title
company (not mine I hope!) misses a document in public
records during a title search. And every now and then,
there’s a case of forgery. Any of these things can put
your home ownership in jeopardy.
Title Insurance can’t fix that. What it can do is pay
litigation costs should one of these events become an
event in your life.
Home ownership comes with responsibility. As a
homeowner, you are responsible to defend your ownership.
Title Insurance gives you peace of mind knowing that if
your ownership comes into question, the cost of legal
defense (an attorney and all court fees) is paid for
with your policy.
Home ownership is not hassle-free, but you can have
financial peace of mind over a piece of property with
Title Insurance.
IT’S
EXPENSIVE TO BE TOTALLY RIGHT
Question: How much does it cost to be totally right?
Answer: How much do you have?
When it comes to property disputes, you could be totally
right … and you could go totally broke. Your ownership
of real estate is only as strong as your ability to
defend that ownership should someone make a claim to it.
Without Title Insurance, if you don’t have the money for
a legal defense, you could lose what is rightfully
yours.
When you purchase a piece of property, a title company
does a title search to look for other claimants on that
land. The title search only shows obvious defects to
ownership, but it is insufficient — a title search
cannot disclose unrecorded risk that could exist.
Legal fees to defend your property ownership start in
the tens of thousands of dollars.
Even if the other party’s claim is completely bogus, you
could lose your land if not properly defended in a court
of law. Just because you have valid ownership doesn’t
mean you get to keep your property. Litigation fees can
be cost prohibitive. Your legal defense cost can exceed
the property value. You can lose your home to an invalid
title claim if you do not have Title Insurance to pay
for your defense.
It’s expensive to be totally right. With Title
Insurance, you can be totally right AND financially
protected.
PERSONALIZED
HOMELAND SECURITY
Owning a home without Title Insurance is like going to
war only armed with a pellet gun. You’re not going to do
very well if you try to stand your ground.
Home ownership is nothing like going to war, but it can
be a battleground of property disputes. Sure you get
your survey done and your title search, but those only
show the obvious landmines. You can’t see if there is an
ambush your ownership — errors and omissions in the
public records, undisclosed heirs, or even fraud and
forgery.
Defense spending starts in the tens of thousands of
dollars and escalates from there in legal fees — but not
if you have Title Insurance. Title insurance can’t
prevent an attack on your home ownership rights, but it
can shield you from the shock wave of court costs to
defend yourself. Title insurance provides and pays for
the legal defense of your property title. And should you
lose that battle, your Title Insurance policy will pay
out the amount insured.
Having someone challenge your home ownership is a bad
case scenario, but spending all of your own money on a
legal defense then losing your house anyway is a worst
case scenario. Get Title Insurance for personalized
homeland financial security.
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
You buy a brand
new house — a fresh start — an opportunity to get new
furniture and throw away that outdated stuff … don’t get
too hasty with old Title Insurance Policies — they’ve
still got a lot of financial cushion.
How about that home I sold seventeen years ago?
Keep the Title Insurance Policy.
What about the property I gave to my daughter?
Keep the Policy. By the way, did you give her Title
Insurance? If not, shame on you!
Even the Policy on my mother’s home that I sold when
she died?
Keep the Policy.
You may no longer be the owner of the property and you
may no longer have any liability for your ownership to
the property (so you think), but you retain risk because
you are liable for your link in the chain of ownership.
That’s right. Someone could come along in the future and
claim a discrepancy of the past and you could get named
in the lawsuit. Unless you want to pay the legal fees to
defend yourself, hang onto those old Title Insurance
Policies. Dust them off, but keep them in a place where
you can find them. No actually, don’t dust them off —
the best Title Insurance Policy is one that’s collected
a lot of dust.
I hope you live happily ever after in your new home, but
if a title claim arises, I hope you have a Title
Insurance Policy to handle it.
Congratulations on your move!
Read more about Title Insurance on
the Land Title of America
blog.
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