What does 'Title' mean when buying a property?
Find out what Title means when you are buying a property. 'What does Title mean?' plus over 150 other property related terms and jargon in plain English
Title
Title refers to who owns a property.
A solicitor might say "I need to check the title on the property" by which they mean they need to find out who owns it according to the legal records. Note this is not always the person who is selling, title may be held by the bank who gave the seller his mortgage or another creditor who has a debt secured on the property.
"Establishing Title" (finding out who owns the property) is essential because anyone can place a property on the market for sale. I can rent a house and then tell a local estate agent its mine and I'm selling ... they don't check!
Title is defined by whoever is named on the Title Deed - this is the official document of ownership.
To find out all the lingo you'll need to purchase a property the smart way pick up a copy of my ebook How to Really Buy a Property.