User:TitleExaminer13/Title examiner

A Title Insurance Examiner has different function in different parts of the county and in different states and it also describes a title examiner for vehicles or mining claims and a host of other businesses that require an title to be examined. For my purposes here I will describe the function of a Title Insurance Examiner to designate that type of Title Examiner that is being discussed.

In the State of Michigan, a Title Examiner can be a lay person or an attorney, they can be described as an Abstractor, Researcher, Title Officer or a Title Examiner. The exact duties that are performed vary according the to the company that hires an Examiner and the company more specifically defines their position and what skills are required to perform the job of a Title Examiner.

A primary function of a Title Examiner is to research the current status of a piece of real property as it appears on the public record. This is what has been recorded with the Register of Deeds in the County where the property is located. A tremendous amount of information can be found in the public domain about a piece of property but title insurance only insures what is found on the public record. The difference is huge. As you walk past a piece of property you may notice that a huge tree has fallen onto the structure and crushed one side of structure and in its present state it is uninhabitable, the structure remains but no one can live there safely (no was inside the structure at the time the tree fell). Two weeks later you inquire about a title commitment (in anticipation of a title policy to purchase the property of course)and there is no mention of the fallen tree. Why?

Title Examiners do not physically go out to the property to examine the property. Their property research is primary done in the Register of Deeds office. The state of the structure is not a title issue unless the house has been demolished. A title Examiners job is to determine who owns the property that the house sits on (and therefore the structure too so long as the structure is properly and permanently attached to the property) and who has an interest in that property and what is that interest.

A Title Examiner follows the chain of title from a defined and accurate point. It may be from last policy of title insurance written or from a specific point in time say when the Map of the subdivision was created. Then the chain ownership is established (sometimes called the chain of title)from one owner to the other. This is done by reading through the years and years of documents of that have recorded in the Register of Deeds office that affect the property being researched. The examiner must know the affect of all the documents recorded and how they impact the property. Deeds, Mortgages, easements, agreements, restrictions, releases, liens, resolutions and host of others that must be read, understand and the impact accurately determined and if need excepted from coverage on ta title policy.

A Title Examiner must know how to read a legal description. A legal description describes a portion of land known as real property. This not the street address. It can be as simple a Lot and Subdivision name with a book and Page for the map or a long and complex metes and bounds description that refers to the Section, Township and Range or perhaps a Private Claim that was defined in many cases hundreds of year ago.

References: https://www.fntic.com/wordsphrases.asp?letter=E