If you’ve ever dealt in real estate, you would have had to buy title insurance at some point or the other.
if you haven’t, it simply is a deed (also known as the Warranty deed) that the seller gives to the buyer and which indicates that the title is good, and there will be no challenge of integrity to the title.
But there’s a process that needs to be carried out in order to get to this step. For starters, a title search is conducted by a title attorney or company for ownership of the property by looking up public records.
What the searcher also does is make sure that previously recorded mortgages and liens have also been released and based on which, the title company or attorney will prepare a title insurance commitment.
The title insurance policy itself, and unlike other insurance policies, covers only past events. If for example, the daughter of a previous owner says that her father sold the property while not being in sound mental condition, the policy then pays for any damages, which is usually the value of the property itself.
Alternatively, the policy will not cover events after the property is made or if no disclosure of such a possible claim is made to the title company itself.
In the case where you are selling the property, ensure that you check for a “Re-issue” rate or even try an ‘open-hold’ policy if you are planning to sell your property in a short period of time.