Key takeaways
- Title attorneys protect buyers by ensuring legal ownership is clear and accurate before a sale is complete, researching property histories, correcting defects and preparing legal documents so sellers convey full ownership.
- Ownership problems such as deed errors, missing heirs or disputed parcels often require a quiet title action, which can involve extensive legal work, including tracing family histories and resolving decades‑old records.
- Title attorneys do more than review paperwork, handling liens, missing mortgage records and deed errors while applying state-specific real estate and inheritance laws — and in some states, their involvement is required at closing.
Title attorneys protect your rights as a homeowner by ensuring that your home has a title that's properly documented and free of any claims or liens.
They research legal ownership, correct defects in a property’s history and prepare and file required legal documents. This helps ensure sellers convey full ownership to a buyer.
"Sometimes there might be something incorrect written on a deed that needs to be fixed, or it might have a wrong name on it,” said Daniel Stoner of Stoner Law Offices LLC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
What is quiet title action?
Fixing ownership discrepancies often requires what’s known as a quiet title action, Stoner said.
“A quiet title is when there’s a disparity between what the title says about the ownership of the property and the actual reality as to what’s going on,” Stoner says.
Such cases can involve properties with a long history of ownership or have been the center of a conflict that involves disputed ownership of a property, such as in a divorce. They also include inheritance issues, particularly if a property owner has died.
In some cases, title attorneys must research a property’s ownership history in depth — including tracing family trees — to identify rightful heirs and correct the record.
“I had a case once of a lady who got a property from her father,” Stoner says.
She later discovered the property consisted of two parcels, but only one — the house and backyard — was in her name.
“The last deed of record was from 1925, so we had to bring a quiet title action to fix that problem,” Stoner says. “It also involved doing some genealogy of his family, because we had to find the proper heirs to serve. That was an interesting one that involved a lot of research and work to get done.”
Beyond reviewing paperwork, a title attorney may handle legal issues such as:
- Resolving liens or claims against a property
- Filing legal complaints
- Locating missing mortgage satisfaction records
- Correcting errors in deeds or past filings
Because real estate and inheritance laws vary by state, title attorneys are also knowledgeable about local statutes that can affect ownership. Some states require title attorneys at closing.
Questions to ask a title attorney
When choosing a title attorney, buyers should ask about experience and specialization to ensure a good fit:
- What experience do you have with real estate transactions?
- Are you familiar with local real estate and inheritance laws?
- Do you have experience handling title disputes or quiet title actions?
- Do you focus on residential or commercial real estate?
- How do you handle negotiations and conflicts of interest?
- How often and by what method do you communicate with clients?
- Do you work independently or as part of a team?
- What are your fees, and what services are included?
- Do you carry malpractice insurance?
This story was updated on April 16.