What Is Title Insurance in Florida All About?
Why Buy a Florida Title Insurance Policy?
Most Florida homeowners choose to protect their investment and intertest in a real property by the issuance of a Florida Owner’s title insurance policy. This insurance policy protects the new Florida homeowner from loss due to a failure or defect in the property’s title or deed. Title insurance in Florida is unlike other forms of insurance in that it is a one-time premium paid at closing that protects the new homeowner against a future loss due to something that occurred in the past. Often the risk to a homeowner is simply the unknown – it was not available in public records.
Before an owner’s title insurance policy can be issued, New Frontier Title will search all public records pertaining to the subject property – thoroughly searching for liens against the property, liens and judgments against the current owners, open permits, code violations resulting in liens, CCR (Community Covenants and Restrictions) and how they can affect future assessment liabilities, current assessments. A new or prior property survey has been carefully reviewed by underwriting and attested to by the prior owner that no new improvements have been made on the property that could affect setbacks, violate local building codes or impair title. Finally the current deed is assessed for ownership and conveyance.
The reason for buying title insurance in Florida is to protect against claims that can happen in the future that are often impossible to anticipate. Title claims can be from unknown heirs, unknown easements, fraudulent transfers of deed, conflicting wills, unknown judgments, language in the CCR (Covenants and Restrictions) that is open ended or extends liability onto the new owners, unpaid liens, back taxes, legal description errors, recording errors, scrivener’s errors, or mistakes make by the closing agent – such as failure to record the deed.