FindLaw | Find a Lawyer. Find Answers.
Are you a legal Professional?
ABA Family Legal Guide
Home Ownership
Property Rights and Restrictions
Safeguarding Property Rights: Title Insurance
What isn't covered by title insurance?
Title insurance policies are fairly standard. An owner's policy usually does not cover one or more of the following matters, often referred to as standard exceptions:
In most states, you can get extended coverage for these standard exceptions by paying an additional premium and furnishing additional evidence to the title company, so that these exceptions from coverage can be deleted or limited. Other common exclusions from coverage include
Exclusions need to be removed by special endorsements and probably will result in additional premiums. (In some states, exclusions for problems not shown in the public record cannot be removed.) Even in a policy "without exceptions," title insurers will also list as a special exception matters of record, such as subdivision restrictions, or anything they find that might turn into a claim, whether it is this year's property taxes or the power company's easement across the property. Check your current policy to see what's on the list, in case there's anything you should be concerned about.
Copyright © 2004 American Bar Association