For many people, the purchase of a home is the largest single investment that they will make, so it makes sense to protect it. Your owner’s title insurance policy protects your ownership rights as long as you or your heirs have an interest in the home.
Just like your homeowner’s policy will protect against loss from theft or fire and wind damage, your owner’s title insurance will protect you from hidden title hazards that threaten your financial investment in your home. Title insurance is unusual in that it protects you from losses caused by errors that may have occurred in the past, including these common title mistakes:
- Filing Errors – Even simple clerical errors on a public record, such as misfiling taxes or missing names on a deed, can lead to discrepancies on a deed or property survey. For the homeowner, correcting these public records errors can become a financial burden and one of the most complicated title mistakes to amend.
- Forgotten Encumbrances – Encumbrances give a third party some sort of claim to your property, whether it has to do with property usage or financial considerations. Sometimes, it can be an old, hidden mortgage that was lost to time or a covenant, which restricts your property from being used in a certain way.
- Hidden Liens – If a bank or the government put a lien on a home due to an unpaid loan or taxes, the judgment transfers when the house is sold. Therefore, if a seller doesn’t know there’s a lien on his or her home or deliberately hides it, you could end up having to foot the bill.
- Mystery Heirs – While the idea of a mysterious person claiming a right to your home sounds like something out of a soap opera, it happens more frequently than you might imagine. If a person dies and leaves their home to an heir, but that person is not able to be located and the home is sold, your property rights can be in jeopardy if they step forward in the future and make a claim.
- An Undiscovered Will – When a property owner dies with no apparent will or heir, the state may sell his or her assets, including the home. When you purchase such a home, you assume your rights as owner, but even years later, the deceased owner’s will may come to light and your rights to the property may be seriously jeopardized.
- Forgery – Sometimes forged or fabricated documents that affect property ownership are filed within public records, obscuring the rightful ownership of the property. Once these forgeries come to light, these title mistakes can put your rights to your home in jeopardy.
- Unknown Easements – You may own your new home and its surrounding land, but an unknown easement may prohibit you from using it as you’d like or could allow government agencies, businesses, or other parties to access all or portions of your property. While usually non-financial issues, easements can still affect your right to enjoy your property.
- Border Wars – A survey of your property may exist that show differing boundaries from the survey you saw during the homebuying process. As a result, a neighbor or other party may be able to claim ownership to a portion of your property.
- Illegal Deeds – The property records may appear legitimate at first glance, but further investigations find there was an illegal deed at one point in the chain of ownership. This happens when a previous owner was an illegal immigrant, someone who signed the deed fraudulently, someone who wasn’t of sound mind, or something similar. Regardless of the reason, an illegal deed in the past can come back to haunt present owners.
Title insurance protects homeowners from discrepancies related to the purchase and ownership of their home because real estate is too big of an investment to leave the validity of your ownership to chance.
At Ohio Real Title, we provide calm where sometimes it doesn’t exist. We have a relaxed culture with an open door policy. We love what we do, and we’re really good at it, and we think it’s important—because everyone deserves an easy, successful transaction during a stressful time. This is who we are. Contact us today.