Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
When purchasing real estate, public records are searched to confirm who owns the parcel of property and if there are any liens or assessments on the property. This process is called a title search. Anyone can perform a title search, and when a title search is done by someone who is not an attorney, the recorded instruments identified that could affect the property’s ownership or use are listed in a title report. The best protection to be sure that the property has no use or ownership issues is title insurance.
In the midst of the sale of real estate or when real estate is used as collateral for a loan, the quality of the title (or ownership) of the real estate is examined. Nobody wants to buy property from someone who does not own the property in the first place.
The process of searching the public records to see who owns a parcel of property and whether that owner properly bought the property from someone else who, in turn, properly bought it from someone else is commonly called, a “title search.” Title searches also include identifying any liens or easements (rights-of-way) that affect the property.
Read more about title insurance, title searches and more regarding property’s ownership and use in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Do I need title insurance?
Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Do I need title insurance?” by Lee R. Schroeder, August 20, 2016