Title insurance is broken into two categories: Lender’s and Owner’s. Commercial Lenders require Purchasers to buy Lender coverage, while Owner’s coverage is optional.
There are two different types of Owner’s Title Insurance: the Standard Owner’s Policy and the Owner’s Enhanced Policy.
The Standard Owner’s Policy protects both items that would be discovered by a title search and those that would not. Claims include, but are not limited to: frauds, forgeries, mis-indexed items, missing heirs, mechanics liens, unreleased Deeds of Trust, judgements, etc.
The Owner’s Enhanced Policy protects the owner against all that is included in a Standard Policy but with additional coverage. Some of the additions of an Enhanced Policy include:
- Appreciation Protection with coverage increasing up to 150% of the sales price.
- Past policy matters, such as the neighbor building on the property.
- Lack of building permits.
- Transfers to or from revocable trusts.