This document discusses recordation, abstracts, and title insurance. It explains that each county has a public recorder's office where documents affecting land titles are recorded, providing constructive notice. An abstract of title is a historical summary of all recorded documents affecting a property's title. Title insurance serves a similar purpose to other forms of insurance by protecting against losses from title defects, with policies purchased either through attorneys who research the abstract or directly from a title company.

1. Chapter 6: Recordation, Abstracts, and
Title Insurance
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2. Public Records
 Constructive Notice –
recording documents.
 Actual Notice – knowledge
based on what one has seen,
heard, read, or otherwise
observed.
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3. Provide for the recording of every
instrument by which an estate,
interest, or right in land is created,
transferred, or encumbered.
Within each state, each county has
a public recorder’s office, known
variously as the County Recorder’s
Office, County Clerk’s Office, Circuit
Court Clerk’s Office, County
Registrar’s Office, or Bureau of
Conveyances.
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RECORDING ACTS

4. The Recorder’s Role
The public recorder’s office serves as a central
information station for changes in rights, estates,
and interests in land.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

6. Abstract of Title
 A complete historical summary of all recorded documents affecting
the title of a property.
 It recites in chronological order all recorded grants, conveyances,
recorded easements, mortgages, wills, tax liens, judgments, pending
lawsuits, marriages, divorces, etc., that might affect title.
 The abstracter will summarize each document, note the book and
page (or other source) where it was found, and give the date it was
recorded or entered.
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7. Ownership Proof
 Abstract of Title
 Title Insurance
 Title commitment
 Policy premiums
 Lender’s policy
 Claims for losses
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8. Title Insurance
The basic principle of title insurance is similar to any form of insurance:
Many persons pay a small amount into an insurance pool that is then
available if any one of them should suffer a loss.
In some parts of the United States, it is customary to purchase the title
insurance policy through the attorney who reads and certifies the
abstract. Elsewhere it is the custom to purchase it from a title company
that combines the search and policy in one fee.
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Title Commitment

10. The Torrens System
A system of land title registration that starts with a
landowner’s application for registration and the preparation
of an abstract.
This is followed by a quiet title suit at which all parties
named in the abstract and anyone else claiming a right or
interest to the land in question may attend and be heard.
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11. Marketable Title
 Marketable title is one free from
reasonable doubt as to who the
owner is.
 Marketable Title Acts – stops claims
to rights or interest in land that have
been inactive for longer than the
required statutory period.
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12. Key Terms
 Abstract of title
 Acknowledgment
 Actual notice
 Chain of title
 Constructive notice
 Marketable title
 Public recorder’s office
 Quite title suit
 Title insurance
 Torrens system
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