Closings glossary
Cloud on title
Any claim or encumbrance that may impair the owner's title. New York owners resolve the serious ones through a quiet title action under RPAPL Article 15.
What is a cloud on title?
Quick Answer
The full definition
Any claim or encumbrance that may impair the owner's title. New York owners resolve the serious ones through a quiet title action under RPAPL Article 15.
Which related terms should you know?
These are the terms that come up alongside cloud on title in the same file.
- Marketable title
- Title a reasonable buyer would accept, free of defects that would expose that buyer to litigation. Most New York contracts require the seller to convey it at closing.
- Lis pendens
- A notice of pendency recorded against the property when litigation affecting title is filed. It warns the world and binds later purchasers to the result of the case.
- Satisfaction of mortgage
- The instrument that releases a paid mortgage from the record. Until it is recorded, the old mortgage still appears as a lien against the property.
- Curative work
- The clearance steps taken between commitment and closing to remove title requirements: releases, satisfactions, corrective deeds, estate paperwork and payoffs of stale liens.
- Title exception
- A matter the title policy does not insure against, listed on Schedule B. Some exceptions are removed before closing and others are simply accepted by the buyer.
Where does cloud on title come up in a New York City closing?
A Bronx property carries a 1989 mortgage with no recorded satisfaction, so the file stays clouded until payoff proof or a recorded satisfaction is produced.
What else should you read before closing?
Questions this raises
- What happens if the title search finds a problem before closing?Schedule B-I requirements are the punch list, not a dead deal. How New York closings clear old liens, missing satisfactions and name hits before th...
- What is curative title work?Curative work clears Schedule B-I before closing: payoffs, missing satisfactions, heirship affidavits, ACRIS indexing fixes and escrow holdbacks in...
Title issues
- Unsatisfied mortgage of recordA paid-off mortgage with no recorded satisfaction still reads as a live lien in ACRIS. Here is how it is found, how it is cleared, and who pays for...
- Judgment lien against the sellerA docketed money judgment attaches to New York real property the seller owns in that county. Here is how it surfaces, how it clears, and who pays it.
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Legal Disclaimer: This page is general information about New York practice. It is not legal advice, it does not account for the terms of any particular contract, building or transaction, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. This is attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.