Title insurance protects investment
Part 2 of Home stagin enchances curb appeal
HONOLULU ADVERTISER September 11, 2005
BY LISA SCONTRAS
Custom Publishing Group
TInsurance — when it comes to protecting your home — generally refers to risk associated with fire, hurricanes and damage due to future events. Title insurance, however, is intended to protect you from damages due to any problems that may arise from the past.
According to information provided by the Honolulu Board of Realtors, defects in title can take the form of forged documents, confusion from similarity of names, signatures of minors or mentally incompetent people, undisclosed or missing heirs, fraud, invalid divorces, misrepresentation of marital status, unpaid taxes or simply clerical errors in public records. For some reason, these problems are not always uncovered during the normal title search.
Experts say these types of concerns have made title insurance a necessity, both legally and for personal peace of mind. If a flaw is discovered, or a previous owner comes forward, title insurance protects you against these historical claims and neither you nor your lender can be held liable.
If a claim is made against your property, title insurance will provide an automatic defense for you and will pay court costs and related fees. And if the claim eventually proves valid, the policy will, in accordance with its terms, reimburse the loss up to the face amount on the policy.
It’s important — since you’re the one paying for it — that you check the terms of your title insurance policy carefully.
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