Title Insurance Protects Your Investment

Buying a home may be the biggest investment you make in your lifetime. So before you close, you need to be sure that that no one else has a claim to the property.

Determining that your rights and interests to the property are clear is the business of a title insurance company.

You pay the title insurance company a single premium which includes the cost of verifying clear title and covers you in case some fault is later discovered in the title.

The title insurance company searches the title history of the property. The title insurance company can usually find any title problems and clear up these problems before you close on the property.

Real Estate law is extraordinarily complicated. Title companies make sure that all the T's are crossed and all the I's are dotted so you don't end up with a clouded title and legal problems. Your title insurance owner's policy will describe the property and outline the limitations on your ownership. It will also cover what the title company is responsible for. Title insurance usually covers:

• Contested title — This usually happens when someone who owned or even lived in the home before you claims to still hold an interest. In this case, the title company will defend your title at no expense to you.
• Defective title — This is a general term for a legal problem with the title that cannot be corrected and includes "contested title" above. Other examples of title defects include problems with legal access to the property, easements that make the property less usable, unusable, or unsaleable. Any number of other complex problems define "Defective title" or "Clouded Title." The title company will discover these problems, or should they miss them, insure your loss up to the amount of the policy.