Title search
A title search is an examination of the public records for one parcel, tracing its chain of title and looking for defects, liens, encumbrances, real property taxes and mortgage liens. A title company, title agency, title abstractor or attorney performs it, and it is a separate piece of work from a boundary survey.
One parcel, followed backward through the clerk's index
Every circuit court clerk in Virginia keeps general indexes to the deed books, the lien records, the will books and the judgment dockets, and each recorded instrument is indexed under every party it names as grantor, as grantee, or as both. That double entry is what lets a searcher walk a parcel back through time.
Start with the current owner
Find the deed into the present owner by looking up that owner's name as grantee, and read who granted it.
Step back one owner at a time
Look up that grantor as a grantee in turn, find the deed into them, and repeat. Each deed found is one more link in the chain of title.
Check each name against the other indexes
The lien records and the judgment dockets are indexed by name as well, so every owner in the chain is a name to run through them.
Note where the pattern breaks
Land that passed by inheritance may have an owner who was never a grantee in any deed. The indexing statute covers part of that gap: a deed by devisees or coparceners is also indexed under the former record owner named in its first clause.
None of this is locked away. Except as otherwise provided by law, records kept by circuit court clerks are open to inspection in the clerk's office by any person, and the clerk furnishes copies on request for a fee. What a title search adds is a reader who knows which instruments to pull and what each one does to the title. Putting a name to the current owner is a much shorter job, and it is laid out in how to find out who owns a piece of land.
The chain, the liens, the encumbrances, and the delinquent tax liens kept by the treasurer
The State Corporation Commission's title insurance guide is plain about who does this work.
A title search is conducted by a title company, title agency, title abstractor, or attorney who performs a detailed inspection of the historical public records concerning the property.
State Corporation Commission, Virginia Title Insurance Guide
By the same guide's account, a search sets out to locate the matters that affect the property: its chain of title and any defects, liens and encumbrances, along with real property taxes and mortgage liens. Which findings leave a title in doubt, and what clears them, is the subject of what a cloud on title is.
Taxes need a second stop. Va. Code 58.1-3930 has delinquent real estate tax liens recorded in the treasurer's office, so a search confined to the clerk's deed books has not yet looked where the statute sends those liens.
A search reports what the records show; it insures nothing. Insurance against loss from liens, encumbrances and title defects is a separate product with its own entry under title insurance, and the search, the owner's and lender's policies and their written limits are taken together in title insurance explained.
Where the lines run is the surveyor's question; what is recorded against the land is not
A boundary survey also begins in the land records, which is why people assume one covers the other. The regulation that sets Virginia's minimum standards for land boundary surveys says it does not.
It is not the intent of this regulation to require the professional to research the question of title or encumbrances on the land involved.
18VAC10-20-370, Virginia Administrative Code
The surveyor must search the land records for the description of the land being surveyed and for the descriptions of adjoining land along the common lines. That is a search for where the lines run. Who holds the land inside those lines, and what liens or encumbrances are recorded against it, is the title search's question, and the two answers come from different professionals.
The deed at closing connects to the search as well. A seller who conveys with general warranty covenants to warrant and defend the property against the claims of all persons; the search is how a buyer sees, before closing, which claims are already of record. The covenant itself is defined under general warranty deed.
Buying a tract and not sure what its title search will need to cover?
Send the address or tax map number and what you know about the deed, and Lowell will talk through where the title search fits in the purchase and who performs it before closing. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Does a boundary survey include a title search?
No. Virginia's minimum standards for land boundary surveys send the surveyor to the land records for the descriptions of the tract and its adjoiners, and state that the regulation does not intend to require research into title or encumbrances. The plat must say whether a current title report was furnished to the surveyor, which shows whether title information was in hand when the lines were drawn.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Virginia Title Insurance Guide State Corporation Commission, Bureau of Insurance
- Va. Code 17.1-249: general indexes to deed books, liens, will books and judgment dockets Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 17.1-208: records of circuit court clerks open to inspection Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 58.1-3930: recording of delinquent real estate tax liens Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 38.2-123: title insurance defined Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-354: covenant of general warranty Code of Virginia
- 18VAC10-20-370: minimum standards and procedures for land boundary surveying practice Virginia Administrative Code