Title Searching 101
Searching the public records provides a basis for title insurance and usually includes visits to the offices of recorders or registers of deeds, clerks of courts, and other officials. Title searchers look in the records for mortgages, judgments, street and sewer system assessments, special taxes and levies, and numerous other matters.
Searches may be performed directly from the public records or from a "title plant". In many jurisdictions, information about a piece of property and any against it may be filed in different ways. They can be filed under the seller's name, the owner's name, by lot number, or by street address. This can make searching cumbersome. In order to make searching easier, many title companies create title plants, which contain virtually the same information as the county records; however they are indexed the same way (i.e., by name or lot number) so that title searches may be performed more quickly and accurately than through direct searching in public offices. In major metropolitan areas the title can be searched and title insurance issued in 24 to 48 hours.
The Impact of Title Searches
The following shows why it is a good idea to involve the title company in the early stages of land transfer.
A title search revealed that two acres of land being purchased were once part of a five acre tract. A prior deed to the five acres restricted use of the property to "a single family dwelling and the usual outbuildings." The other three acres from the original tract already contained the single family dwelling, and there was a serious question as to whether the purchaser could build a home on his two acres. With assistance from the title company, releases were obtained from the appropriate parties to remove the problem and allow the house to be built.
Occasionally, title problems may be so serious that the most prudent course is not to proceed with a transaction. For example, a buyer was about to close his purchase when the title search revealed pipeline, utility, flood, and road easements across the property that would have severely limited his use of the real estate. When those findings become known, the buyer decided not to continue with the transaction. Only a title search would uncover those problems.
*Copyright ALTA (American Land Title Association)
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