Perhaps you are an investor, a title insurance issuer, an attorney providing opinions on title, or you simply would like to purchase a new home. In these situations, you will want to gather as much information as possible about particular pieces of property. This certainly will include the full record of mortgages and conveyances that a property has been subject to.
Having knowledge of this information will keep you from purchasing a home with an existing lien or unresolved mortgage. That said, home buyers may purchase title insurance so they will not be liable for liens that existed prior to their ownership, but those that sell such title insurance will require a title search upfront, anyway. The title search, or abstraction, as it is referred to in Louisiana, will also give one insight into rights-of-way and easements and other data that is crucial with regard to the property.
In Louisiana, each parish’s clerk of the clerk serves as the official register of conveyances and recorder of deeds and mortgages. They also serve to record any other paperwork announcing any legal changes involving “immovable,” or real, property. Aside from transfers and mortgages, these can include liens, judgments, interest transfers, and documents relative to gas and oil leases. The office also cancels mortgages, judgments, and liens when presented with release documentation that is notarized and properly executed.
For these reasons, in Louisiana, your parish clerk of the court is the place where a title searcher should first visit when performing an abstraction. Abstracting is an important skill that anyone can use to learn as much as you can about a building or a piece of property. However, for the average attorney, or those in the real estate and mortgage industries, abstracting has become a bit of a chore. It can be time-consuming to visit the clerk of the court building, stand in line, fill out all the necessary paperwork, and get the invaluable information that one needs to complete a transaction.
Louisiana also has unique property rules due to its beginnings as a French territory that depended upon Napoleonic Code to determine local laws. That means that title abstraction is not only tedious, it is also quite complicated. The state has a whole glossary of terms that are unlike those used in any other U. S. state or territory. That means you would have to be an actual title abstraction expert to be sure you did the job correctly and completely every time.
However, if you want to save time and ensure that the title search is completed in an expertly manner, you can always enlist Lafayette Process Servers to take care of this tricky job for you. We handle title abstractions thoroughly and with ease. You will never have to worry about missing any information or missing appointments or court dates while being stuck waiting for your documents. Whether you are a realtor, home buyer, attorney, mortgagor, or anyone else in need of a title search, Scott Frank and his team will help you get the documentation you need. Call us or drop by to learn more about what we can do for you.
Donna Lee Hellmann is a New Orleans-area copywriter. The foregoing article has simply been presented for informational purposes only. She, and those at Lafayette Process Servers, are not attorneys. If you seek further information about this topic, contact an attorney in your local area.
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