Our Austin Title team issues Commitment Documents and Title Insurance Policies as part of your attorney’s closing documents for buying and refinancing residential and commercial real estate. Our fee is regulated by the Department of Insurance.

• Protection from financial loss due to covered claims against your title, up to the face amount of the policy.
• Payment of your legal costs if the title insurance company is required to defend your title against covered claim.
• Payment of successful claims against your title, up to the face amount of the policy.

Title insurance does not protect you from problems you create or problems unrelated to your or the lender’s property interests. It also does not cover losses listed under your policy’s exclusions or exceptions. Discuss these exceptions with an attorney before closing any real estate purchase. Some non-covered items may include:

• An unrecorded title defect you knew about.
• Condemned land.
• Violations of building and zoning ordinances.
• Payment, except for your legal right of access to your land, because your deed failed to give you the rights to adjacent land you did not buy; streets; alleys; or waterways.
• Conveyance of title irregularities arising from a dead person’s estate, a bankruptcy estate or a trust.
• Restrictive covenants limiting how you may use the property.
• Discrepancies, conflicts or shortages in area, boundary lines, encroachments, protrusions or overlapping of improvements
• Claims from other people who may have certain rights if your property is on or near the shores of a body of water or has a river or stream flowing through it.
• Losses resulting from rights claimed by “parties in possession” like renters or adverse claimants who occupy the land.