Expert: Russel Ray - 2/26/2011

Question
Hello, we r buying a bank owned home. Closing is set for Monday. About 10 days ago, i asked a question to title company lady that if she is related to this man who his name was in HOA covenants. She ignored me with a twisted answer. I got suspicious and asked again. She did not answer me for a while. I asked again and she said "yes, Robert is my husband but has nothing to do with this transaction". So i asked her again same question and said "well, his name is in HOA covenants, is he HOA member or anything to do with this subdivision or" She ignored me a few more times and gave me phone number for HOA to ask any questions I have. But i kept asking her why her husbands name is in HOA covenants and just a few hours ago she dropped the bomb and said that "yes, my husband is in HOA and HOA member, he is also one of the 3 subdivision builders". Well, after her honest answer after 10 days and after our four e-mails made us suspicious about this title company because we wonder why did not she disclose this relationship in the beginning to us and when we asked, she answered us with twisted answers and she finally answered us after so many times we asked and finally she answered us just the weekend before the closing. We do not feel good with them and would like to close this transaction with different title company but do we have a chance to do it right two days before the closing specially it is weekend? If we dont close with this title company, can they still charge us? Thank you.
PS: We also asked her a question about the survey charge and her answer was "you signed for it, you responsible for it!" which we felt so rude answer. Thank you for the help.

Answer
Hey, Hakan.

At this point it's probably too late to change title companies, but the title company normally isn't subject to disclosures like real estate agents and sellers are. It's not unusual at all for various people to be related to various other people in real estate transactions, but I've always been one who believes in full disclosure, whether required by law or not.

Usually the title company is specified in your purchase offer contract, but if it's not, you might be able to change, but you probably still will have to pay this title company.

Hope that helps.

Russel