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I am paying cash for my property. Do I need a survey and title insurance? | Freilich Law | Michael Freilich | freilichlaw.com | (410) 321-0040

Yes. Surveys come in basically two types. The location survey where they uniquely identify this particular house and this particular land on this particular planet earth with the documents in the land records of the courthouse which controls the jurisdiction where the land is located. The second one is a field survey where they go out with transoms, they find marks on the actual surface of the earth and they draw what the ground looks like. You can use the field survey to locate a pool or a fence or a boundary. You can not use a location survey for that. Title insurance is indemnity insurance. It looks backwards in time. So, for example, 50 years ago, Mr. Smith brought a presumed woman Mrs. Smith to the settlement who signed the deed as Mrs. Smith.

It’s now 50 years later and Mrs. Smith’s children are saying, “That’s not my mother’s signature. She never signed this away. My father disappeared so there’s a challenge to the title.” Your [inaudible 00:01:02] insurance would kick in and protect you against a fraud. It would also protect you against many many other items in the chain of title which could affect your ownership.