Don’t Count on Title Company Searches in Taos Real Estate Market

Posted by Jim Kimmons, Broker/Owner • July 20, 2010 • Printer-friendly

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This post is about water rights, but I suppose the situation could crop up on any item, such as mineral rights, that the title companies will not insure in the Taos real estate market. It's not the fact that they will not insure these rights, as that's understood. However, a recently closed deal brought up a practice that flies in the face of what buyers assume they get for services from a title company.

The Taos Real Estate Title Search

When my buyer thought of a title search, he assumed that he would be provided with ALL documents related to the property that were found in the county records in the search. NOT THE CASE! Because they don't want to insure water rights, the title companies will file away a document and not give it to the buyer if it pertains to water rights. That's even if it is a recorded deed. This is not unique to the Taos real estate market, but you should be aware of this practice.

While it is suggested that buyers retain an attorney to transfer water rights, there was an expectation that any documents pertaining to those rights would be provided when they are found in the search. NOT THE CASE. Since the title company doesn't want to increase their risk, they simply don't provide the documents found. Since a great many taos real estate properties do not have recorded water rights documents, this forces them to spend extra money to hire an independent searcher or an attorney to make sure that documents aren't overlooked of filed away. Make sure you get all of the documents related to your Taos real estate market purchase.

So, don't assume that a title search is going to give you all documents recorded for the property's legal description. If there's a puddle there, and you want to know if you have rights to the puddle, you're going to have to hire an attorney, or at least an independent researcher in the taos real estate market.