Title insurance is a type of insurance policy designed to protect both homeowner and lenders from potential financial losses that could arise from covered defects in the title to real estate.
The following is a quick overview of how it benefits both homeowners and lenders alike, and why it’s worth including as part of your
Title insurance is a rapidly growing field in the United States. More people purchasing homes and other real estate properties are choosing title insurance. If you’re anticipating a real estate transaction in your future, you should do some research into how title insurance could benefit you. It is estimated that over $9 billion of title
Residential real estate buyers and sellers often wonder what a real estate closing attorney does other than conduct the actual closing. There is much more than you may think. There may be as many as three or four attorneys at the closing representing the buyer, the seller, the lender and the title company.
Usually, the attorney’s office receives a copy of the contact of sale and a “title order” from the lender which provides additional information concerning the loan including the lender contact and the proposed closing date. The attorney then opens a file, enters into an engagement agreement with the client and conducts a title examination on the subject property.
A title examination involves examining the records at the Recorder of Deeds for forty to sixty years or more and is performed to determine the status of title and any encumbrances and liens on the property so that the attorney can arrive at a “title opinion.” The title opinion is used as the bases for the issuance of a title insurance commitment to the lender. Receipt of the title insurance commitment allows the lender to move forward with processing its closing documents. If there are title issues that result in an exception to title insurance in the commitment, those must be resolved before closing and the closing attorney will take appropriate steps.Continue Reading Exactly What Do Those Real Estate Attorneys Do at a Closing?
One of the many ways to efficiently grow your business is to acquire other companies, taking over their intellectual properties and customer bases. Of course, there is a lot of planning and hard work that goes into an acquisition, and the process of actually finding a company worth acquiring isn’t always easy.
Continue Reading How to Find a Sensible Acquisition Target
Purchasing a commercial property can be a great investment, with the potential to earn you a sustained income now and in the years ahead. However, there are some key legal and financial issues to consider before moving ahead with your purchase. The following are four of these issues:
1. Determining the property’s value
First and
In January, the FBI arrested Rosemary Sauter-Frett, also known as Rosemary Sauter, a realtor accused of fleeing the U.S. Virgin Islands to escape prosecution for embezzlement. She had been on the run for nearly four years.
Now 62 years old, Sauter allegedly fled the Virgin Islands in February 2010 after checks began to bounce in
A “statute of limitations” is a law that places a time limit on when a claim can be brought. These time limits are designed to prevent fraudulent and stale claims from arising after the passage of time or the defective memory, death, or disappearance of witnesses. The statute of limitations is a defense that is ordinarily asserted by the defendant to defeat an action brought against him after the appropriate time has elapsed. In Gunn v. First American Financial Corporation, fraud was involved, which tolled the clock and gave the plaintiff more time to amend his complaint. Continue Reading You Can’t Wait Six Years to File a Lawsuit or Can You?
This case stemmed from the tax sale of property known as “No. 5 Estate Sans Souci and Guinea Gut, No. 9 & 10 Cruz Bay Quarter, St. John, United States Virgin Islands.” (the "St. John Property”) in which Chief Justice Curtis V. Gomez of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, was asked to grant a motion to dismiss.Continue Reading Indispensable Parties, Joinder, and Unidentified Heirs
In the case of Modern Construction, Inc. v. Carty, 2013 WL 2996549 (V.I.Super. June 13, 2013), the plaintiffs argued that they didn’t enter into a valid contract for the sale of land and that there was no agreement. Even if there was a binding contract, they stated that it was oral and in violation of the Virgin Islands Statute of Frauds which provides that any interest in property that is orally created, transferred, or assigned for a period more than a year is void and unenforceable.Continue Reading Handshake Not Enough to Buy Land in the U.S. Virgin Islands
James S. Carroll III, Judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands was asked to settle a real estate dispute that originated in 2002. The Defendant Basil Bryan agreed to sell Parcel No. 17–5C, Estate St. Peter on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to the Plaintiff, Nancy Anderson. The parties also agreed that Ms. Anderson would receive an easement and Mr. Bryan would pave the roadway on the easement within 90 days of closing. Continue Reading Continuing Violations Doctrine Limits Legal Action