What is Title Insurance?

It’s important to remember that title insurance is not property insurance. Title insurance is purchased once and the policy lasts for as long as you own your home. It is an important product that protects the legal interest in title to your property.

This type of insurance protects from a variety of situations that might impact your ownership interest in the title to your property. Some examples are:

  • Existing liens against the title
  • Violations of municipal zoning by-laws
  • Encroachments onto an adjoining property (other than fences and boundary walls)
  • Setback violations
  • Realty tax arrears
  • Outstanding municipal utility charges, provided such charges form a lien on title
  • Existing work orders
  • Lack of legal access to the property
  • Unmarketability of the land due to adverse matters that would have been revealed by an up-to-date survey / RPR/ Building Location Certificate
  • Fraud, forgery and false impersonation to the extent they affect the validity of title; etc.

While many property purchases have unique circumstances, the Strike & Phillips LLP Real Estate Lawyers typically recommend that buyers obtain a title insurance policy when they buy or refinance a property. Having this policy often pays for itself when compared to the information and work that would be needed without it, such as off title searches and up to date surveys.

Strike & Phillips LLP has been serving the community of Clarington including our home town of Bowmanville and surrounding areas including Oshawa, Whitby, Peterborough, Cobourg, Ajax, Pickering and the Greater Durham Region since 1925.

Call us at 905.623.5791 or try our email form on our Contact Us page.