Video Transcript:
Can liens against another person affect your property? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com. When a title search is conducted by a certified title examiner, they may discover liens or judgments against another party with the same name as the property owner and put them on that title report. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that they encumber the title, but it will be something that has to get cleared up before title is transferred. The reason why is because some judgments or even liens may not have information which determines one John Smith from a different John Smith. So unless that can be determined very clearly, that is supposed to go on the title search. It's a matter of casting a wide net and finding everything that could possibly affect title and then have those removed at a later date. It's not up to the title examiner to find out, Well, this John Smith is a different person because from the title records, there may It's not going to be able to be determined if it's the same person as the property owner. If there's a John Smith that has a lien against him or a judgment against him, and the title search on a property owned by John Smith shows it, then typically the buyer or the escrow firm or an attorney would determine which is which, or maybe even get some type of an estoppel letter from the creditor to clear that off the title. So it's good to get all the possible encumbrances on a title search. It's not good to have those filtered off as a title search consumer or a title search client. You want to know everything that could possibly, maybe, even, possibly affect that title. You don't want to take any chances and have something left off. You want to have every possibility put on that search. And then narrow it down later to make sure it's clearly not going to affect your title as a buyer or an investor. If you have questions about running a title search on real estate, you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.