Florida Title Insurance 101

Florida Title Insurance 101

If you are purchasing a home in the State of Florida for the first time in your life, you will need to take many crucial steps and go through several stages in the process. One of these crucial steps is acquiring a Title Insurance policy on the property you are buying. Obtaining Title Insurance is vital because it will not only protect you in the event legal issues with your title arise in the future, but it is also a requirement of the majority of mortgage lenders. Title Insurance will protect you if someone claims to have ownership rights to your property, which happens more often than most people think. It will also cover the legal fees involved, and if the title is found to be rightfully theirs, your Title Insurance policy will compensate both you and your lender. Reach out to Marina Title for more information about our services.

What is Title Insurance?

In essence, Title Insurance is a form of indemnity insurance that insures against defects in the title to real property. Generally, Title Insurance policies defend against a lawsuit targeting the title or may reimburse the insured for the monetary loss incurred up to the amount of insurance provided by each specific policy. In short, Title Insurance will protect you in case there is a challenge to your ownership of the property you are purchasing.

Title Insurance is different from other types of insurance policies in that it ensures against claims for past occurrences, whereas other types of insurance policies protect against future occurrences. Another difference is that Title Insurance usually only requires a one-time payment instead of monthly payments.

There are two types of Title Insurance: Lender’s Policies and Owner’s Policies. In Florida, it is up to the homebuyer to choose to purchase Title Insurance to protect his or her investment in the property or not; however, when it comes to lenders, most of them will require you to purchase a Lender’s Title Insurance policy. In Florida, the mortgagor usually has to pay for the Lender’s Title Insurance. Lenders, however, will only have Title Insurance as long as there is a mortgage in existence. Once the mortgage is finally paid off, the lender’s coverage will expire. When a mortgage is refinanced, the new lender will typically require their own Title Insurance policy.

What Does Title Insurance Cover?

Usually, Title Insurance covers:

• Errors in the public record.
• Claims from unknown heirs.
• Undiscovered liens.

A title examiner from your title company will look through public records to make sure that the property was passed to the correct or intended person through either a sale, a will, or perhaps even as a gift. Essentially, the examiner’s job is to confirm that the property has changed owners legally. Additionally, your title company will conduct a thorough search in order to ensure that there are no legal claims against the property, including encumbrances such as mortgages, liens, or anything that stands on the way of the property transfer.

Title Insurance policies are specifically designed to protect the small number of people who have a problem with the title to their property or are faced with a legal dispute regarding ownership rights after closing. Having Title Insurance can be incredibly beneficial because there is simply no better way to defend oneself against these kinds of problems.

In the real estate world, Title Insurance policies may cover different categories of risks depending on the type of property you are purchasing.

Why You Must Obtain Title Insurance

Skilled title professionals can predict most problems associated with any property you intend to purchase based on their knowledge and their experience. Usually, these problems come in the form of filing errors, unknown heirs of previous owners, or even forgeries. A Title Insurance policy protects you if some of these issues arise after you have closed on the property. A strong Title Insurance policy issued by a reliable title company like Marina Title will defend you against any litigation that challenges the legality and validity of you as the new property owner. Once you purchase your policy, you will be protected for as long as you own the property. Your policy will never expire!

To schedule an initial consultation with one of our title experts, call us today at (305) 901-5628 or send us an email to info@marinatitle.com.