The Need for Pennsylvania Title Insurance

Protecting Your Most Valuable Investment

For most people, buying real estate – like a home or a piece of land to build a home on is the single largest financial investment someone can make. When you purchase a home in Pennsylvania, or any state for that matter, you will purchase several types of insurance coverage to protect your home and personal property. Flood insurance protects against rising water and floods. Homeowner‘s insurance protects against loss from theft, fire or wind damage. And a title insurance policy protects against hidden problems with your deed (and who owned your deed in the past) that may threaten your financial investment in your home.

When purchasing a home or land, you are buying a piece of earth that has been owned by others before you. With over hundreds of types of “title defects”, you will want to make sure you have 100% ownership of the property you are buying. It is also important that all potential claims and liens are cleared by a PA Title Company prior to settlement. This is unlike automobile, health, fire or life insurance which protect you from future events, PA title insurance will protect you from any events that have occurred in the past.

“How can a title failure occur?”

Ways the Chain of Title can be broken:

• Documents executed under false, revoked or expired powers of attorney;
• Deeds by minors;
• Prescriptive rights in another not appearing of record and not disclosed by survey;
• Improperly recorded legal documents;
• Undisclosed heirs;
• Defective acknowledgements due to improper or expired notarization;
• Corporate franchise taxes as liens on corporate real estate assets;
• Gaps in the chain of title;
• Deeds which appear absolute, but which are held to be equitable mortgages;
• Forged deeds, mortgages, wills, releases of mortgages and other instruments;
• False impersonations of the true property owner;
• Mistakes and omissions resulting in improper abstracting;
• Inadequate legal descriptions;
• Errors in tax records;