What Can Make A Title Defective?

Video: What Can Make A Title Defective?

FAQ’s With Roy Oppenheim

Full Transcript: You know, one of the interesting questions that people ask is what can make a title defective. And I think we saw that big time during the foreclosure crisis. What we found was that in many cases, people had bought a piece of property, and they thought that the prior mortgages had been paid off when they bought the property, and for whatever reason, either because the banks didn’t properly credit the money, because maybe there was a crooked title agent involved, or maybe there was just a mistake involved.

Is The Mortgage Paid Off?

Many mortgages were not paid off. And so when you go off to try and refinance your home, or try and sell your home, you realize there’s still a mortgage on the property. That’s a defect in title. Other defects in title is when the legal description was wrong, and maybe you were in a condominium, and you thought you were buying unit 10-J, but you really ended up with 8-K, and so that’s a title defect.

Are There Liens?

Another title defect is with their municipal liens that haven’t been cured. Open permits could possibly be a title issue. Other problems that you have are IRS liens or prior real estate property taxes that were not paid. You could have someone’s fence that encroaches on your property. You could have someone who is trespassing because they claim that there’s a road on your property and they’ve been using it for a long time.

That could be a problem. They could be someone literally living in your property after you buy the home and you say, “Wait a minute.I bought this property to be unoccupied.” That could be an issue because you’re supposed to get possession. That one gets a little bit tricky. But there are tons of issues that can come up. And you always see new situations come up that could be a title defect. There’s sometimes new ones that pop up that you’d never seen before, and so maybe someone reserved mineral rights for themselves and you didn’t know it, your title company didn’t know it, and the next thing you know is they’re building an oil well in your backyard.

That has happened and so that becomes a title issue. These are all the kinds of issues that you have to be concerned about when you’re buying real estate, and that is what potentially a title defect could be. It’s always good to hire an attorney and to purchase title insurance.

Weston Title & Escrow | Fort Lauderdale Title Company
2500 Weston Rd #404
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33331
954-384-6168

Weston Title & Escrow is a trusted South Florida title company, serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties as well as the entire State of Florida since 1994.  

Owned and operated by attorneys Roy Oppenheim and Ellen Pilelsky, the founding partners of Oppenheim Law, Weston Title provides highly personalized services in the areas of real estate closings, title insurance, title searches and escrow services.