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What is Color of Title?

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Color of title is a situation where someone appears to own a piece of property, but the documentation proving ownership is invalid. It is possible to possess property in this way, sometimes for generations, but to encounter problems when attempting to transfer it or when defending the title against a rival claim for ownership. In some cases, it is possible for someone in this position to obtain full legal title to the property by complying with certain regulations.

The “color” in this phrase is reference to another legal term, “color of law,” meaning “appearance of law.” Someone with color of title has documentation that is designed to prove ownership of a piece of property, but this documentation is flawed in some way. For example, a deed may show conveyance from someone who never legally owned the property, some of the documentation may be forged, or there may be other problems.

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Woman holding a book

Title insurance generally does not cover this problem. When people buy property and acquire title insurance, they are expected to do a search to see if there are any problems with the property title, such as liens or other issues. The title insurance company may specifically exclude color of title and certain other situations from its policy. This means that, if the documentation becomes a problem, the property owner will get no help from the insurance.

Color of title can be turned into legal possession in certain situations. Adverse possession is an excellent example: if people occupy a property, make improvements, and pay property taxes for a set period of time, they can file to have the title to the property legally transferred to their names. In the event that there is a challenge before the time period is up, however, the possessors can be removed from the property by the legal owner, who also benefits from any improvements made.

Sometimes, problems with a property title go unnoticed. Especially if a title has been in the same family for an extended period of time, people may not be aware that the documentation is flawed until they attempt to sell the property to someone outside the family. Problems can also emerge when people are making substantial improvements and looking for financing to assist with the costs. When people encounter problems with a property title, they may need to consult a lawyer to get assistance with the process of clearing the matter up.

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a MyLawQuestions researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a MyLawQuestions researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

jholcomb

@robbie21 - I think the classic example of title insurance is fraud. Like if a man brought his mistress to the closing and passed her off as his wife to sell the houes out from under the wife, title insurance would cover that. I suppose it would also cover the situation you're describing, but it seems like that would be a pretty obvious situation that the mortgage lender would easily discover and present the deal from going forward.

robbie21

What *does* title insurance cover, if not this? What about situations where someone does own the property, but doesn't legally have the ability to sell it? (Maybe there's a co-owner, for instance.)

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