Title Company Responsibilities: City or County? (for sale, real estate, insurance)

[haladalvon]

Can anyone in the residential real estate or legal professions tell me if it's true that a title company's search and insurance responsibilities end at the County level?

My husband and I became aware of City code violations on our home, which had been on the city books for years and years (much longer than we have owned the home), and the title company is refusing to pay on our claim, saying that they are only responsible for county-level issues.

It has cost us thousands of dollars in construction, permits and fees to get the code violations rectified with the city. We think the title company should have discovered this as part of the prep for issuing the title insurance policy.

[DMenscha]

I would be totally surprised that any code violations would show up on a title report. I've never seen any unless the code violation was recorded against the property. If you read your title insurance policy carefully, you may discover that they really are insuring against items of public record (that is things that are recorded at the county recorders office).

As a routine part of listing properties for sale, we check with the building agency to see if there are the proper permits issued for the property and that there are no code violations lurking in the weeds. As part of your due diligence in purchasing a property, you or your representative should have checked with the building agency.