Homeowner says home is "worthless" after discovering easement 14 years after purchase

This guy did everything correctly. The Insurance company needs to pay him market value and then sue who they want to recover it

the point of the insurance is so the homeowner does not have to deal with problems. the insurance needs to pay out, and then go after the city.

it's title company problem. The easement was recorded in 1954, almost 70 years ago. Title company is paid to find such things. If they did not find, they are responsible for not providing a clean title.

It’s a damn shame how regular citizens that work hard, no criminal record and pay taxes get treated. The local govt & insurance companies in this case are getting away with murder just because they can.

It seems to me that the title insurance company should pay for it and if they feel the city or county is responsible go after them in court to be reimbursed. The only party that is absolutely 100% not responsible is the home owner and he's the one paying the price for someone else's incompetency!

This is where a State Rep should get involved and ensure the citizen is not abused.

The entire point of title insurance is to cover unknown easements or claims on the title. This is one of the handful of situations that title insurance is supposed to cover. It's the reason everyone has to buy title insurance even though an incredibly small number of claims are ever made.

The title company did not do it's job. They guaranteed the property based on their research. If their research consisted at looking at a few deeds drawn up by the city, and they chose to use that to write the policy, then they need to own their mistake. If they believe the city made a mistake they still need to pay out on their policy then go after the city.

I’m a title examiner. It doesn’t matter if the easement wasn’t originally recorder correctly, if it was corrected at some point... which it was over 65 years ago. The title company missed the easement, and is responsible for paying out the insurance claim.

This poor guy. He lost his wife a few years ago and now discovers his home is worthless. I hope he gets legal help and gets his life back. He shouldn’t lose everything because of this.

The title company owes him the full former market price of the property. That's why it's called insurance.

I used to live in Texas where i bought a home with 2 plat maps for the property. I was able to get back all easement rights back . Then i resurveyed the properties into one plat. The easement line ran through the wall of 2 of the rooms of my home. Took me about 3 months to do all this and luckly nothing was ever placed underneath the house. I had to go through all the agencies and companies involved to do this but i no longer have to worry about anyone trying to install and pipe or run lines under or over that house.

wait....Wait....WAIT....This means in 1982 someone built that house right on top of an existing water main....and no one noticed? No one discovered the pipes when marking the ground for footings? Or digging to run water and sewer lines? How many levels of incompetence went into this debacle?

Once again, the people responsible(both the title company, and the city) and who’ve been paid to do a job, mess it up and leave someone in the lurch. They get paid to do a job, and when it’s found out they messed up…”Sorry, not my fault.” So infuriating

All affected homeowners should band together and hire a high profile lawyer and sue the city and title insurance companies collectively. Move this to Tallahassee courts and get the state legislatures attention.

A year from now: "no one knows why he built an armored bulldozer and trashed the city..."

I can't understand how we let insurance companies off the hook like this? They ambitiously take everyone's payment but the second it comes time to file a claim, they are on the hunt for loopholes to get themselves out of the responsibility.

This is exactly what title insurance is for. This is disgraceful.

Part of the site is unusable swampland, and those pipes have been there for 96 years. Beyond the easement itself, probably worth checking maps of the area from around 1925. If the area wasn't swampland back then, the water main probably is leaking... 🌊🏠⚠ Also: I know we don't have the clearest understanding of US law in the UK...But doesn't US law give the homeowner a right to defend their property against all forms of intrusion? Given my copy of the title had no mention of the easement at all, I'd be considering liens against the utility provider and forcing them to re-route it away from my property (As well as rectifying the swamp, if historical info suggests their pipes have caused it.)

25,000$ for a 1,000,000$ home is an incredible insult