There are three types of Title Guarantees. They are:
Full Title Guarantee: Full Title Guarantee is usually given if the seller owns the entire property fully and has complete legal and equitable interest in the same and, has sold the same as the ‘beneficial owner’ before July 1995.
Limited Guarantee Title: Limited Title Guarantee is given when the legal owner or the seller is a personal representative or a trustee holding on trust for others. Prior to July 1995, such a seller would have sold the property as a ‘personal representative’ or ‘trustee’.
No Title Guarantee: In this case, the seller has the choice of giving No Title Guarantee and this is usually done in cases where the seller has little or no knowledge of the property or the title history or if the disposition is by way of a gift. A mortgagee exercising power of sale might offer a No Title Guarantee but the purchaser’s attorney must be suspicious of accepting this, especially when the solicitor is also acting for the purchaser’s mortgagee. As a purchaser’s solicitor, he must always insist on a Title Guarantee. While selling a possessory title, a seller might try and refrain from offering any title guarantee. The solicitor’s of some sellers not only disagree to give any title guarantee but draft a special condition wherein it is only stated that the seller has neither sold the property in question to any one in the past and the property is free from all encumbrances. However it is totally the discretion of the solicitor for the purchaser to agree or disagree to such a contract and also to ask for a full or limited title guarantee. If a seller decides to give a title guarantee to a purchaser, he shall have to do the same at his own cost. However, an efficient seller might always make the purchaser pay all the cost that is spent for giving a title guarantee as it is the purchaser’s headache to search thoroughly and find out whether the property that he is purchasing is free from all encumbrances.
