It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, which can't be good for my Google rankings. Nevertheless, here I am, writing away once again. This is the first post of 2008 which oddly comes in the middle of February. Now I know how The Simpsons felt when their Halloween specials get pre-empted for Major League Baseball. Now onto more serious matters.

Today I met with one of my title insurance reps who told me that her company is now one of three that offers additional solicitor coverage on their policies. To consumers, this means that the title insurance companies can now also cover the work of the lawyer as well.

On one hand, I'm glad to see the title insurance companies becoming more competitive and improving their product. At the same time, some problems still exist for insurers, which I won't get into, since I maintain relations with each company. I've already expressed these issues to the representatives, and I hope that they will consider making changes to those areas.

Another concern I have about this shift in the business is that it makes real estate conveyancing (i.e. purchase and sale transactions) overly simple. While simple is better than complicated, it opens the door to casual practioners who may not keep up-to-date in developments in real estate law and simply act as "paper pushers". In the end, although the client still gets the same level of coverage and protection, he or she may not full understand the consequences and obligations of purchasing or disposing or real estate, and thus, a greater dislike for lawyers on a whole.

Recently, I acted on the sale of a property that was originally acquired in the 1970s but had instruments registered against it dating back to 1911. When the other solicitor attempted to pull information relating to that instrument, we discovered that the Land Registry Office had scanned the wrong document into the system. The client, fortunately, still had the original report from his purchase which gave a solicitor's opinion as to the title to the lands and concluded that everything was fine. In my discussions with the other solicitor on this matter, he stated that he felt that prior to title insurance, real estate lawyers were forced to do more thorough work. To some extent, I agree.

If you are thinking about purchasing real estate, it would be best to make inquiries about what options you have for title insurance and to go over what issues you may have on the property long before the closing date so that the requisite searches can be conducted.

 

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