Doesn't the Owners Title Policy cover items such as Mechanics Liens?

After the creation of the 2010 HUD Settlement Statement, it became clear that Owners Title Insurance Policies are not provided by sellers in many places in this country, but in Washington State, they are.

The NWMLS Purchase & Sale Agreement includes a provision that sellers will provide owners title coverage to the buyers at closing.

At the present time, the default policy is the Homeowners policy and an addendum allows for this to be changed to either standard or extended.

The homeowners policy does include coverage for:

• Mechanics liens
• Forced removal of structures
• Unrecorded HOA liens
• Unrecorded easements
• Building permit violations
• Restrictive covenant violations
• Post policy forgery
• Post policy encroachments
• Post policy damage from extraction of minerals or water

And many other items that the standard owners title policy does not cover. 

Always check with your title insurance company to review the specifics of their coverage.

Thanks for reading!

Julie