OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU:
Assured Title Agency, Inc. will deliver exceptional service from beginning to the end of your real estate transaction. At each stage of the process, highly skilled experienced experts will assist you - assuring prompt and accurate completion of your closing. Our attorneys and support staff are rich in knowledge and deeply committed to personal service. We believe in the value of lasting relationships based on trust and mutual understanding.
OUR JOB:
Assured Title Agency acts as the central clearinghouse for all parties involved in a real estate transaction. Our job is to collect necessary documents, processing your loan, ensuring adherence to your lender's title instructions, making arrangements for proper payment and distribution of funds, and providing protection from loss through title insurance. We are fully prepared to work with you from the beginning of your transaction all the way through to conclusion.
OUR PRODUCTS:
Title Insurance: We provide a complete line of residential and commercial title insurance products and services from the nation's leading insurance companies.
Settlement Services: We provide services as an agent for the closing of your real estate transaction, ensuring that funds are properly disbursed and legal documents are submitted to local government authorities for recording.
National Relocation: We provide the service and know-how to assist relocation management companies and corporate in-house purchase programs with their unique title and closing needs.
Title Examinations: We provide accurate and timely title examinations and opinions of title to help protect our clients investments.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TITLE INSURANCE:
Do I need Title Insurance?
Most definitely! Title insurance is a means of protecting yourself from financial loss in the event that problems develop regarding the rights to ownership of your property. There may be hidden title defects that even the most careful title search will not reveal. In addition to protection from financial loss, title insurance pays the cost of defending against any covered claim.
The following is a list of some title defects that frequently occur, but would not have been disclosed by even the most careful examination of the public records by an attorney:
- False personation of the true owner of the land.
- Forged deeds, releases, etc.
- Instruments executed under fabricated or expired power of attorney.
- Deeds delivered after death of grantor or grantee, or without consent of grantor.
- Deeds to or from defunct corporations.
- Undisclosed or missing heirs.
- Misinterpretation of wills.
- Deeds by persons of unsound mind.
- Deeds by minors.
- Deeds by aliens.
- Deeds by persons supposedly single but secretly married.
- Birth or adoption of children after date of will.
- Surviving children omitted from a will.
- Mistakes in recording legal documents.
- Want of jurisdiction of persons in judicial proceedings.
- Discovery of will of apparent intestate.
- Errors in indexing.
- Falsification of records.
- Capacity of foreign fiduciaries.
- Claims of creditors against property sold by heirs or devisees.
- Deeds in lieu of foreclosure given under duress.
- Ultra vires deed given under false corporate resolution.
- Deed of community property recited to be separate property.
- Errors in tax records. (For example, listing payment against wrong property.)
- Deed from a bigamous couple.
- Defective acknowledgements.
- Federal condemnation without filing of notice.
- Descriptions apparently, but not actually, adequate.
- Corporation franchise taxes, a lien on all corporate assets.
- Erroneous reports furnished by tax officials.
- Administration of estates of persons absent but not deceased.
- Undisclosed divorce of spouse who conveys as consort’s heir.
- Marital rights of spouse purportedly, but not legally, divorced.
- Duress in execution of instruments.
An Owner’s Policy of Title Insurance protects against these defects, which may not be discovered until years later resulting in the loss of your property or an expensive lawsuit, while an attorney title opinion alone does not.
My Lender requires Title Insurance. Won't that protect me?
Not necessarily. There are two types of title insurance. A Lender's Policy insures that your lender has a valid lien on the property. Most lenders require this type of insurance, and typically require the borrower to pay for it. An Owner's Policy, on the other hand, protects your interest in the property. Title troubles, such as improper estate proceedings or pending legal actions, could put your equity at serious risk. If a valid claim is filed, in addition to financial loss up to the face amount of the policy, your owner's title policy covers the cost of legal defense.
How much does Title Insurance cost?
The one-time premium is directly related to the value of your home and is set by state law. Typically, it is less expensive than your annual auto insurance premium, and a Lender's Title Insurance Policy can be obtained at a reduced rate when purchased in conjunction with the Owner's Title Insurance Policy. It is a one-time only expense, paid when you purchase your home. Yet it continues to provide coverage for as long as you own the property, and in some cases, even after you no longer own the property.