Skip to main content

Standard v. Enhanced: Building permits

Part 3 of a series

So you’ve just completed the purchase and closing on your new “fixer-upper” home. Now it’s time to hire an architect and spend countless hours planning for a new addition to the family room.

You submit an application for your building permit. After a few weeks, your permit is denied based on a prior violation of landscaping rules established by the homeowner’s association.

As it turns out, your seller had constructed the $50,000 Arcadia-style garden in your backyard, complete with granite cascade and espalier fruit trees – and in violation of your homeowner’s association rules.

You are now faced with the expensive prospect of removing the fine landscaping to become compliant so that you can obtain your building permit. Or, you must decide to hire an attorney to argue your case to the homeowner’s association.

Few homebuyers in this situation would think about the possibility of their owner’s title insurance policy covering this sort of matter.

For the homebuyer who selected the enhanced owner’s title insurance coverage, the title insurance company will cover the homebuyer for loss.

Unfortunately, for the homebuyer who chose the standard title insurance coverage, the problem will remain that of the homebuyer without coverage for his or her loss.

compare, enhanced, First American, homebuyers, Homeowners, owners, Standard, Standard vs Enhanced, title insurance