Excel Title echoes the sentiments reflected in the linked blog. Recently we were assisting a buyer in purchasing a home from a seller who had previously purchased it from a “big” bank. The bank had purchased the property back out of foreclosure. Unfortunately, the title company or law firm assisting in the foreclosure utilized the wrong legal description. This inadvertently omitted some very important portions of the property (vacated alleys).
We suggested that the seller contact the title insurance company from which he had purchased title insurance. The title insurance company accepted responsibility, tracked down the title owners of the omitted parcels and obtained signatures on the required quitclaim deeds. The title insurance company promptly paid the recording cost, resulting in no additional expense to the seller. If the seller had simply relied on an attorney title report when he purchased the property, he would have most certainly incurred the costs of hiring an attorney to correct the problems. The attorney fees would have far exceeded the cost of the title insurance.
Our client did not underestimate the benefit of title insurance. No one should, especially when so much property is now transferring through foreclosure proceedings. Read this article for more about the importance of title insurance.