Title Insurance Editing and Proofreading Services

The policy is described as insuring the buyer's title to the property. It runs to eleven pages, of which the important one is schedule B, and schedule B is a list of everything the policy does not cover. A buyer who reads only the promise has bought something quite different from what they think, and the difference is a right of way across the garden.

We edit what title insurers, agents and conveyancers produce — commitment and policy documents, schedules of exceptions and their explanations, requirements and clearance correspondence, search summaries and title reports for buyers and lenders, endorsement descriptions, claim notifications, and the material used to explain title cover to people buying property for the first time. Our editors work on a document whose substance is in its exclusions.

The schedule of exceptions is the whole of a title policy, and its failure is a list of recorded instruments that nobody has translated. A buyer cannot assess an exception described by its document number. We work through these so each exception is stated in terms of what it means for this buyer's use of this property — who may cross the land, what cannot be built, what somebody else may extract or maintain — since a reference to a 1954 instrument tells the buyer nothing and "the neighbour at number 14 has a right to drive across the north side of your garden to reach their garage" tells them everything; so the exceptions that would actually affect the buyer's stated plans are separated from the routine ones, given that a buyer intending an extension needs the building restriction pulled to the front; so anything that can be cleared before completion is identified with what would clear it and who must do it, because an exception that could have been removed is worth more than one that is explained; so the general exceptions are distinguished from those specific to this property; so the survey exception is explained with what it leaves the buyer exposed to and what a survey would cost; so the difference between the lender's policy and an owner's policy is stated where only one is being bought; so the endorsements available are described by the problem each solves; and so the buyer is told which exceptions they should ask their solicitor about. Documents written this way are understood before completion.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including title documents, search results and client information. We are editors rather than conveyancers, title examiners or lawyers, and we give no legal advice and no view on title, exceptions or any policy. What we can do is say what each exception means for this house.