Buyers: Find Your Title Insurance Certificate
Buyers who purchased a foreclosed property in the last three years should check their title insurance to make sure that it would cover them if there were a claim on the property from the former owner.

Former owners are likely to seek payment instead of reinstatement and those claims will go to the title insurer, attorneys say.

"If you're a bona fide purchaser with title insurance and no knowledge of any irregularities in the transaction, courts are going to be extremely loath to set aside the sale," says Diane Thompson, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center.

The situation isn’t as clear for buyers who paid cash and didn’t bother with title insurance. "Potentially, you face a legal battle in that situation." says Tim Dwyer, CEO of Entitle Direct Group, the holding company for EnTitle Insurance Co., an Ohio title insurer.

Source: Associated Press, Dave Carpenter (10/15/2010)