Is title insurance recommended for a 9 year old home that I have been the only owner of?
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Is title insurance recommended for a 9 year old home that I have been the only owner of?
This is in Middlesex County in MA. In 2010 I bought a brand new single family house from the builder along with title insurance as required by the bank. If my brother is buying my house for all cash no mortgage, should he buy title insurance? I have been the only owner of the house so far and my lawyer/title insurance company already ran all the checks when I bought the house, is there still a risk of title issues? Is there a way to
Asked on August 10, 2019 under Real Estate Law, Massachusetts
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
Title insurance cannot be passed on and only protects the person who bought it, so your brother would be unprotected. Is it likely that there is a title problem, given that the checks showed clean title when you bought it? No. It is possible, however? Yes--your own checks could have missed something--they are not infallible. Or if someone may have, even in errror (e.g. thinking you owed them money, when you did not), filed a lien against your home. So the issue for your brother is whether the cost of title insurance is worth protecting against a low probability, but not impossible risk, or whether he'd rather take a small chance and save the money.
As for whether there'd be a discount: we have no way of answering that. Some companies or attorneys may offer a discount, some would not. There is certainly no harm in asking.
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