Curious to see if anyone here has taken this out when purchasing real estate and if they've ever had to use it to make a claim. Am investigating it at the moment to see if it's worthwhile in protecting the puchaser thoroughly from issues such as non council approval/compliance and boundary issues.
Hi Jacque I didn't know that this was available Any idea what it costs and does it cover auctions? My nephew bought a property in an auction he found the last minute and he didn't have time to research the property. He later found that the extension at the back of the house was all illegal and had to demolish it and build it from scratch at the additional cost of $150K He wasn't at all happy..... cheers
Hi Bill The two biggest title insurers, from what I've been told, are Stewart Title and First Title. Please find attached brochure for Stewart. Approx costs are $800 for a house around $1m. Best to speak to them in detail about what they do and don't cover, but the more I hear about it, the more I like the idea. It means you could proceed to a sale on a house without waiting for unnecessary holdups such as council records, surveys etc and then put a claim in based on any illegal work or survey encroachments.
I am looking at title insurance for a purchase. Has anyone done this recently? When is the best time to get this?
Have used it for some purchases, not others. It depends on the age of the property and whether there are any glaring additions or alterations. I lean towards recommending it as the price is relatively small for huge protections in the event something is discovered down the track. Main threats for older houses are encroached boundary lines or unapproved renovations/alterations. Lesser threats are zoning/planning laws or incorrectly calculated land tax or rates. Had a friends recently who bought a 3 year old house in north west Sydney and asked if I thought he needed it. A quick search determined only one owner since new and house the same as original. Of course, it doesn't mean zero risk in this case, but far less likely than a 30-40 year old house with multiple owners. Having said that, council still has to discover it which would usually be via a dispute of some sort - stay on good terms with neighbours! - Andrew
Thanks for the info. I did a quote and was surprised how reasonable the one off premium was for a 50+ year old house. I like what you say about staying on good terms with the neighbours. Most of what’s covered would likely be picked up by our solicitors searches but I was thinking of getting title insurance instead of a site visit by a surveyor. I have no reason to believe there will be any boundary issues but it is possible. Might get it for the sleep at night factor... I think I value our sleep more than the premium price
Just curious here. As insurance companies never like to payout money do they then go after the vendor for damages? Say house sells at auction with unapproved extensions that are picked up after settlement and title insurance is claimed, does the insurance company chase the the vendor for compensation?
From my understanding in QLD virtually all liability is passed on to the buyer at settlement. So unless there was something done maliciously I don’t think the insurance company would go after the vendor.
It is a wonder it is not a lot more expensive then??? or maybe there are loopholes in the insurance company paying out??? It just seems odd to expect that many older properties don't have encroachments or unapproved "something" about them..........
I'm afraid I can't answer this and would probably be better directed toward the insurance company themselves. My 'hunch' (and hunch only!) is that this wouldn't happen because the vendor could also have been unaware of any issues and lived with the property as breached by previous owners before them. Yes indeed. It's a very small price to pay IMO for plenty of backing should the worst happen and if 0.0something of a % of the purchase price is a concern for any property a buyer believes could possibly have any number of these issues in the future based on its history, then the price is probably outside the budget anyway! - Andrew
Hi Andrew out of interest which title insurance company did you go with and if I may ask why you went for said company? I too am interested in getting title insurance for a property purchase that is settling soon and can't find a lot of info about either companies. One thing I did read is that First Title has an Australian Financial Services license vs. Stewart which doesn't. However, curious to hear your thoughts.
Hi there, Have only ever used First Title, however have never had to personally claim or had anyone who has (fortunately!). The claims process is generally what defines an insurance company however from all accounts they are very good during this process based on my research. I would assume this comes down to the claim at hand of course. - Andrew
