Title Company Representation
An area of our practice that is related to our real estate practice is our representation of title insurance companies. We understand the unique issues faced by title insurance companies and have developed the skills and expertise to deal with these issues.
We prepare and issue title insurance commitments, endorsements, and policies, and we are title agents. We perform title searches and title abstracting. We issue title certifications with or without a title insurance policy. We draft easement and restriction documents; we also analyze and evaluate the validity of existing easement and restriction documents.
A particularly specialized area of title insurance law that we work with is in issuing zoning opinions. In these cases, a contractor will propose to build something to be used in a particular way in a particular spot. Before issuing any loans, the lender wants us to give an opinion as to whether the proposed use conforms to local zoning or will be allowed through a variance. If a variance is required, the lender may want our opinion as to how long it will take to get the variance and its chances of success. We also may give an opinion as to whether the property itself conforms to the local zoning.
We also are often retained to review survey plans on commercial projects. In these cases, a survey will be done but it may not completely agree with what is on the deed. Any variations must be dealt with in the title insurance policy, so we will sift through the survey, make note of all the variations, and draft those variations into the title insurance policy.
We have enjoyed a long and successful run of helping title insurance companies with their legal work. Contact us to see what we can do with your legal issues.
