Title Examination & Curative Work

Any competent search will tell you there is a problem. The difference between closing firms shows up in what happens next: whether the issue gets worked, or whether it gets emailed back to you with a note that says please advise.

What the search covers

We examine the chain of title through the county records, plus liens, judgments and anything else of record that could attach to the property. In Georgia that examination is the practice of law, which is why an attorney has to do it — and why the person reading the results should be someone who has seen the pattern before.

• Full chain-of-title search and examination
• Lien and judgment searches against all parties
• Open security deeds and missing cancellations
• Restrictive covenants, easements and plat review
• Tax status and outstanding assessments
• Bankruptcy and probate records where the chain requires it

Curative work handled here

Most title defects are solvable. Old security deeds that were paid but never cancelled, an estate that passed informally without ever being probated, a deed with a bad legal description, a contractor's lien that outlived its statutory period — these are routine, and they are ours to clear.

Where the defect is genuinely beyond curative work, we will tell you that early and discuss a quiet title action rather than let a closing date come and go.

• Cancellations and releases pursued with prior lenders
• Estate and heirship gaps resolved
• Scrivener's errors and corrective deeds
• Expired liens cleared from the record
• Quiet title referrals where curative work cannot reach

Why we run title in-house

When the searching firm, the closing firm and the disbursing firm are three different vendors, the gaps between them are where files die. One office doing all three means the person who found the problem is the person fixing it, and the closing date is one calendar rather than three.

Common questions

How long does a title search take in Georgia?

A standard residential search typically comes back within a few business days. Commercial and multi-parcel searches take longer, and a chain with estate or corporate gaps can take longer still — which is exactly why we order it the day the contract arrives.

What if the search turns up a lien?

We start curative work immediately. Many liens are already satisfied and simply never cancelled of record, which is a paperwork problem rather than a money problem. Where a lien is genuinely outstanding it is paid at closing out of the seller's proceeds, and we obtain the release.

Is a title search the same as title insurance?

No. The search establishes what the public record shows. Title insurance protects against what the record does not — forgery, undisclosed heirs, errors in prior recordings. You want both, and one is not a substitute for the other.