The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
Performing a title search on a property before you make an offer on it reveals if anyone else has any claims to the property. Neglecting to ensure that the title is free and clear could cause problems for you later. In effect, any claims against the property that were the responsibility of the former owner will be transferred to you.
This is a huge risk to be assuming as a new property owner, and one that is wholly unnecessary, as well. Real estate professionals make it simple to perform a thorough title search before the settlement, so there is simply no reason to forgo a title search.
Establishing that the property is free and clear of any liens or title disputes might be more complicated than it seems. It’s not necessarily the case that the former owner is “pulling one over” on the new property buyer. In fact, the previous owner might be completely unaware of any liens against the property.
Liens against the property can include current taxes as well as delinquent past taxes, strata fees, utility bills such as sewer and water bills, and outstanding interest, just to name a few. And these liens can go back several owners, so it might be be possible that the current owner has no idea that there are any liens on the property.
Nearly one-third of all title searches reveal some type of problem that needs to be resolved. Things as simple as unpaid bills to contractors and repairmen can crop up during these title searches and it’s important to reveal them before you have committed to purchasing the property.
The potential problems with the title might not even be as malicious as the current owner trying to skip out on a contractor bill, either. Problems with the title could be as simple as errors in the previous deeds or undetected forgery from the past.
This is why conducting a title search on a property isn’t just recommended, it’s essential. If you’re using a real estate practitioner to complete your settlement, they will almost certainly insist on performing a title search beforehand.
This leaves them free of any liability and provides you with the peace of mind you should have when purchasing a new property. If you’re going to invest in a new piece of real estate, it just makes sense to perform a simple routine title check It’s a small expense that can prevent a huge liability later.
The great news is that real estate practitioners are excellent at doing property title searches. Not only do they know what to look for and where to look, many companies provide search services that make it simple for the real estate professionals to do their jobs quickly and efficiently. With one simple click of a button, they can order many land title searches at once, meaning that it’s possible to verify the title on many properties at the same time. With a process this simple that can save you so much hassle later, why not be safe rather than sorry?
