Why won't the title company insure my title?

Because the county record does not prove clean ownership. On inherited property the usual reasons are a dead person still on the deed, heirs who were never accounted for, probate that was never finished, an old loan nobody cancelled, a judgment against a past owner, or a legal description that does not match the survey. They are being asked to bet their own money that nobody shows up later with a claim, and an unclear record is a bet they will not take.

Can you still sell a house if the title company won't insure it?

Yes, but not to a buyer who needs a mortgage, because their lender requires a policy. You can sell to a cash buyer who intends to cure the title themselves. You can also fix what was flagged and go back to the open market, which pays more if the fix is small.

What is a title exception?

An exception is an item the policy specifically does not cover. It is not a fix. The sale can still close with the item listed as an exception, but the problem stays on the property and lands on the next owner. Ask your closing attorney whether your exception is harmless or whether it will kill the next sale too.

Will a title company insure over an old lien?

Sometimes. Title companies can agree to cover a risk they consider small, occasionally with an indemnity or a bond. It is worth asking on old, weak, or likely-expired claims. It is not realistic on missing heirs, because that risk is a real person who can appear later and claim a share.

How long does it take to fix a title the company rejected?

A corrective deed or a lien payoff can be days to weeks. Getting an old lender to record a cancellation can take months, mostly spent finding who holds the loan now. A quiet title action takes months and sometimes a year, because Georgia refers the case to a special master to examine the title before the judge rules.

Can I sell my share instead of fixing the title?

Yes. Your share is yours whether or not the record has caught up, and you can sell it without the other heirs agreeing or signing. That is what we buy. You get cash without clearing the exception first, and we take the title work on afterward.

Heir Buyouts. Georgia.

The title company won’t insure the title. Now what?

Your closing just stopped. The title company found something in the record and will not write a policy, so the buyer’s lender will not fund. You have four ways forward: fix what they flagged, get them to insure around it, take it to a judge, or sell to a buyer who does not need their blessing.

Who this is for

Maybe you were eight days from closing. Then an email came with the word “exception” in it and everything froze.

Maybe your agent called and said the deal is dead, and could not really explain why.

Maybe this is the second buyer you have lost on the same house, for the same reason, and nobody has told you how to end it.

If any of this sounds like you, this page is for you. It explains what they actually found, what each fix costs, and how to stop losing buyers.

What just happened, in plain words

Before a normal sale closes, a title company reads the county records on your house. They are deciding whether to promise the new owner that the title is good. That promise is title insurance.

They write up what they find in two lists. One list is things you must fix before closing. The other is things they refuse to cover at all.

When people say the title company will not insure, they usually mean one of two things. Either the fix list has something on it nobody can fix in time. Or the refuse list has something so big the lender will not lend against it.

The title company is not being difficult. They are being asked to bet their own money that no one shows up later with a claim. When the record is unclear, they will not take that bet.

The reasons we see most in Georgia

A dead person on the deed. They cannot confirm who owns the house today. This is the single most common one on inherited property.

Heirs who were never accounted for. If four of eleven heirs never signed anything, four people can still come back later. No insurer wants that.

Probate that never happened, or is not finished. Nobody has court authority to sign for the whole house yet. You can still sell your share before probate is finished.

An old loan that was never marked paid. Georgia uses a security deed, where the lender holds title until the loan is paid. If nobody cancelled it in the record, the record still shows a lender with a claim.

A judgment against a past owner. Recorded, attached to the house, still sitting there.

A bad legal description. The deed describes land that does not match the survey, or matches the lot next door.

We cover the money ones in more detail on old liens on inherited property, and the whole category on selling a house with a cloud on title.

Your four real options

Fix what they flagged. Best outcome when the fix is small. A corrective deed for a typo. A payoff letter for a lien. A release from a lender. Days to weeks, and a few hundred dollars, if the right people are alive and willing.

Ask them to insure over it. Title companies can agree to cover a risk they think is small, sometimes with an indemnity or a bond. It costs money and they do not have to say yes. Worth asking on old, weak claims. Not worth hoping for on missing heirs.

Take it to a judge. A quiet title action gets a court order that says who owns the house. That order is what the title company wants when nothing else will do. It is the strongest fix and the slowest. Months, sometimes a year, and thousands of dollars up front. See quiet title for heir property.

Sell to a buyer who does not need title insurance. A cash buyer who plans to cure the title themselves does not need a policy on day one. That is what we do. You trade some price for certainty and speed.

A thing worth knowing about exceptions

If the title company offers to close with the problem listed as an exception, read that carefully.

An exception is not a fix. It means the policy simply does not cover that item. The sale can still close. The problem is still there, and it lands on the next owner.

Sometimes that is fine and everyone knows what they are getting. Sometimes it means the same issue kills the sale after that. Ask your closing attorney which one you have.

What this does to your timeline

Here is the part nobody says out loud. Every week the title sits unresolved, your position gets a little worse.

Buyers move on. Their loan rate locks expire. If there are back taxes, the tax clock keeps running the whole time. And if another owner dies while this drags, the list of people who must sign gets longer.

That is not a scare tactic. It is just how these get harder.

What we do

We buy one heir’s share of an inherited house in Georgia, with the title problem still on it.

You do not have to clear the exception first. You do not have to win the argument with the title company. You do not have to find the bank that made a loan in 1994. We buy your share and take that work on afterward.

You will get less than a clean sale would bring. That is the honest trade, and it is the whole reason we can move when others cannot.

Why we are safe to call

We buy property. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice. If your fix is small and cheap, we will tell you to go do it and keep the difference.

Bring the title commitment to the call if you have it. The list of exceptions tells us in about five minutes whether this is a two-week problem or a two-year one. Most people leave that call knowing more than they did, whether or not they sell to us.