That dream property looks perfect on paper. The inspection came back clean. Financing is approved. Everything points toward a smooth closing. But buried somewhere in decades of ownership records, a problem waits to surface at the worst possible moment.
Attorney Marc Rovner has watched buyers celebrate closings only to face devastating claims months or years later. Understanding the specific threats lurking in property histories helps explain why cutting corners on title protection creates unnecessary risk.
Liens That Nobody Mentioned
Previous owners accumulate debts. Contractors file claims for unpaid work. Tax authorities place holds on properties. These financial obligations attach to real estate and survive ownership transfers.
A thorough title search catches most liens before closing. But some slip through. Municipal assessments recorded incorrectly. Mechanic’s liens filed after initial searches but before closing dates. Federal tax liens that appear in unexpected jurisdictions.
Marc Rovner points out that lien-related claims represent some of the most common title issues buyers encounter. The previous owner’s financial troubles become your legal problem unless proper protection exists.
Boundary Lines That Shift on Paper
Your fence sits exactly where it has stood for twenty years. Your neighbor’s survey shows it encroaches three feet onto their property. Suddenly that peaceful backyard barbecue spot belongs to someone else.
Boundary disputes emerge from surveying errors, outdated legal descriptions, and informal agreements between previous owners that never got documented properly. Attorney Marc Rovner has seen neighbors who coexisted peacefully for decades suddenly clash when one party decides to enforce technical property lines.
These conflicts rarely resolve quickly or cheaply. Legal fees accumulate. Relationships deteriorate. Property values suffer while disputes drag through courts or mediation.
Signatures That Never Happened
Forged deeds represent a particularly insidious threat. Someone signs a previous owner’s name on transfer documents. The forgery enters public records and gets passed along through subsequent transactions. Everyone assumes the chain of ownership is valid until the real owner or their heirs appear with proof.
Fraudulent documents can lurk undetected for generations. Inheritance complications add another layer of risk. Unknown heirs emerge claiming rights to property their relatives never legally transferred. Estate proceedings conducted improperly leave ownership questions unanswered.
Marc Rovner notes that these historical fraud and inheritance issues prove nearly impossible to detect through standard searches. The documents themselves appear legitimate. Only title insurance provides financial protection when such claims surface unexpectedly.
Clerical Errors With Expensive Consequences
Public records contain mistakes. Names get misspelled. Property descriptions contain typos. Recording clerks file documents incorrectly. These seemingly minor errors create clouds on title that complicate future transactions or raise questions about ownership validity.
Correcting recording errors requires legal action, court filings, and professional fees that accumulate quickly. Problems that should have been caught and fixed decades ago become your responsibility to resolve.
The cumulative weight of these potential threats explains why skipping title protection represents false economy. One-time premiums provide permanent security against historical problems that no amount of careful inspection can fully uncover.