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Brent Said:

Purchasing Title Insurance for New Construction?

We Answered:

title insurance would be for full price of the property, Title company will not do otherwise.. They are insuring the property is free and clear, not the loan. You might be thinking property insurance, At one time you could insure just the mortgage amount, but today some insurers require you to be insured to a high percentage of the rebuild cost.

Sylvia Said:

Do I need to purchase title insurance on my condo?

We Answered:

Yes, all bank require title insurance.

Title insurance guards against claims to title (eg. other liens against a property, proper chain of title) This is done to ensure that the bank is in first position (set by recording date a lien is filed, oldest first).

Therefore, should something happen, and the bank need to foreclose, the property value would not be diminished by someone's lien being paid off before theirs.

Title insurance covers the lender in the event of an error, and another claim to title affects their collateral. (the title insurance for a lender is only for the loan amount).

Yvonne Said:

How can I obtain a clear title for my property to purchase title insurance?

We Answered:

You need to hire a real estate attorney and FAST. Sounds like your dad bought it from 3 people and only 1 signed the deed, so I don't think the sale was legal. Since it was willed to 3 people, all 3 had to sign the deed giving the property to your father. You are going to have to find the other 2 people and let the attorney you hire figure the rest of this out. If you don't clear this up now, you aren't going to be able to do anything with the property. The attorney or title company that did the closing when your father bought it should have caught this during the title search. Good luck, you are going to need it.

Since the other owners are deceased, all of their heirs will have to sign off on the deed. You are not going to be able to get clear title to this property until this is done. Like I said earlier, you need a real estate attorney to clear this up. This is what happens when people think that they can do it themselves and they don't need title insurance or attorneys. Lawyers have a bad rap until they are needed to clear up a mess that someone made by DIY legal forms and websites.

Kelly Said:

Is it advisable to purchase title insurance on a house worth $15,000?

We Answered:

If the abstract is clean, I'd say no. YOu don't have much risk in a neighborhood of an easement or access issue; if the property isn't inside building set back lines or sitting on utility easements and there are no outstanding judgement or lien issues on the abstract and there is a reasonably recent survey you should be good.