This is the sub-practice where title problems are created quietly and discovered years later — at a refinance or a sale, when the fix is far more expensive than it would have been during the divorce.
Everything below describes title practice and underwriter requirements. None of it is legal advice, and we are not your client's lawyer.
Texas homestead protections generally require both spouses to join in a conveyance of the homestead regardless of which of them appears on the deed. A conveyance signed by only the record-title spouse is a recurring source of later title failure.
A decree that awards the house is evidence of the award. Moving record title off the other spouse ordinarily requires a properly executed and recorded conveyance in addition to the decree being of record. Files where that second step never happened surface constantly, usually a decade later.
An owelty of partition is the mechanism that allows one spouse to encumber the homestead to buy out the other, and it depends on specific decree language and a properly created lien. When it is not set up correctly, the buyout refinance fails — and by then the divorce is final.
Closing a sale before the decree is signed, or while a temporary order restrains transfers, raises questions the underwriter will ask. Tell us where the case actually stands.
When an ex-spouse dies before the conveyance contemplated by the decree was ever completed, the file becomes part probate. These are solvable and slow.
WG Title is a title and escrow company, not a law firm. WG Law is a separate, independently operated company. We do not advise your client and we do not take your client.
We will tell you what our underwriter has been able to work with and what has caused problems in past files. That is title practice, not drafting advice, and the drafting remains yours.
Very common. What is required depends on the decree's language and whether the other spouse is available and cooperative. Send it and we will tell you what our underwriter needs.
Sometimes, depending on the orders in place and who signs. It is a question to raise before the property is under contract rather than during the option period.
Usually because the decree language and the lien documents do not line up with what a later lender and title underwriter need to see. It is a paperwork failure, not a legal impossibility, and it is preventable at the time.
Identical at every Texas title company: the basic title insurance premium and the promulgated endorsement charges. These are set by the Texas Department of Insurance. No company can discount them, and any company implying it can is describing something that is not legally possible.
Set by each company: the escrow or settlement fee, and the incidental charges around it. These are not promulgated, they do vary, and they are the fair thing to compare.
We would rather tell you which is which than let you assume we are cheaper on something nobody can be cheaper on.
Muniment of title, an affidavit of heirship and a full independent administration produce very different title positions, and the underwriter treats them very differently. Tell us the path early and we will tell you what will be required to close on it.
What that requires →A commitment without the instruments it references is not reviewable. The most useful thing a title company does for real estate counsel is deliver a complete, legible exception package promptly and then answer questions about it.
What that requires →FIRPTA withholding, exchange sequencing and rollback exposure all resolve at the closing table. A title company that understands what it is being asked to do is worth more here than almost anywhere else.
What that requires →The stay following an order approving a sale is the most common reason a bankruptcy closing misses its date — not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the calendar was set as though the order were immediately effective.
What that requires →Send the matter type and where it stands. We will tell you what our underwriter will want before you order a commitment.
