2020 Georgia Code
Title 33 - Insurance
Chapter 7 - Kinds of Insurance; Limits of Risks; Reinsurance
§ 33-7-8. Title Insurance
Title insurance is insurance of owners of real or personal property or others having an interest in such real or personal property, or liens or encumbrances on such real or personal property, against loss by encumbrance, defective titles, invalidity, adverse claim to title, or unmarketability of title by reason of encumbrance or defects not excepted in the insurance contract, which contract shall be written only upon evidence or opinion of title obtained and preserved by the insurer.
(Code 1933, § 56-410, enacted by Ga. L. 1960, p. 289, § 1; Ga. L. 2019, p. 901, § 1/SB 202.)
The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, inserted "or personal" in three places in this Code section.
Cross references.- Effect on title insurance companies of laws relating to regulation of practice of law, §§ 15-19-52,15-19-53.
Recordation and registration of deeds and other instruments, T. 44, C. 2.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Defects of survey as covered by title insurance.
- Defects of survey such as shortage of area may be sufficiently related to the standard notions of title defect or encumbrance so as to be a risk allowed coverage by title insurance. U.S. Life Title Ins. Co. v. Hutsell, 164 Ga. App. 443, 296 S.E.2d 760 (1982).
Cited in White v. Lawyers Title Ins. Corp., 197 Ga. App. 780, 399 S.E.2d 526 (1990).
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Mobile homes as real property.
- Mobile homes deemed by parties to sales transaction to be a part of real property upon which they are located may be the subjects of title insurance. 1982 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 82-52.
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 44 Am. Jur. 2d, Insurance, § 518.
Proof of Title Insurance Claims, 38 POF3d 389.
C.J.S.- 46 C.J.S., Insurance, § 1742 et seq.
ALR.- Measure, extent, or amount of recovery on policy of title insurance, 60 A.L.R.2d 972, 19 A.L.R.5th 786.
Title insurance: exclusion of liability for defects, liens, or encumbrances created, suffered, assumed, or agreed to by the insured, 87 A.L.R.3d 515.
What constitutes a charge, encumbrance, or lien within contemplation of title insurance policy, 87 A.L.R.3d 764.
Construction of clause in title insurance policy excepting defects resulting from the rights of parties in possession, 94 A.L.R.3d 1188.
Defect in, or condition of, adjacent land or way as within coverage of title insurance policy, 8 A.L.R.4th 1246.
Defects affecting marketability of title within meaning of title insurance policy, 18 A.L.R.4th 1311.
Title insurer's negligent failure to discover and disclose defect as basis for liability in tort, 19 A.L.R.5th 786.
Handling Title Insurance Claims, 15 Am. Jur. Trials 467.
