Home buyers are often introduced to new words when they’re buying a property. At first, these sound quite unfamiliar and confusing. For instance, Real Property Reports and Title Insurance are confused with each other a lot, and more often than not, assumed to be a substitute for each other. This isn’t true.
Both these documents are different and it’s important to understand what they are and why you need each of them. In this article, we’ll take a look at these documents and understand the difference between them.
Understanding Real Property Reports and Title Insurance
Real Property Reports
A Real Property Report provides the necessary details about a property, especially concerning the boundary and location of the property. This document will act as legal proof in any matter concerning the buying or selling of the property, developmental projects and resolving any border-related disputes.
Title Insurance
Title insurance is quite different from an RPR as it provides you with protection against any structure that doesn’t comply with the required bylaws. Title insurance is taken when you just assume that a given property is compliant with the bylaws of the state, and don’t take the RPR under consideration. Because of this, you keep yourself vary of any non-compliant improvements over the property.
Say you purchase a property and one of the structures is non-compliant. Now, naturally, you will be required to take it down. But this won’t come cheap. And this is where title insurance comes to the rescue. Ideally, title insurance should cover any costs required to bring your property up to code.
Untangling The Confusion
As it must be clear by now, an RPR and title insurance are two completely different things, although they deal with the same matters. An RPR provides you with all the information you need to know about the layout of the property, while title insurance protects you with coverage but gives you no prior information about the property.
What to Opt For?
Naturally, the most obvious question you may now have is what should I opt for. Do I need an RPR or Title Insurance? Or Do I need both? Well, let’s address those questions as well.
If you’re planning to own a property, remember that getting an RPR takes time. Not all homeowners have an RPR and although they can provide one if requested, you could lose the property to someone who’s ready to buy without demanding an RPR.
On the other hand, title insurance is quick to get. Either of the parties involved can pay for a policy and close the deal once you receive it. This is much quicker than getting an RPR, and also provides you with the coverage for any issues that will be highlighted in the RPR later on.
Plus, even if you have an RPR, it’s always better to have title insurance. As the RPR may not be updated, any changes made on the property recently may not be reflected in the document. This can be misleading and might cost you in the future if you aren’t insured.
With title insurance, you can have peace of mind while you’re making a significant investment in purchasing a property.
Core Geomatics is a surveying company in Calgary, and 8 other locations, ready to help you with all your surveying needs and more. Contact them today to initiate your home buying process.
