Posted by Ronda Roaring on 8/1/08 2:56pm
Msg #258186

talk with ALTA

Like a lot of people, I'm effected by this business with Mercury Companies and I'm worried about some other title companies that might be effected by the distruction of IndyMac as I've done IndyMac closings recently. Collecting what you're owed is a major problem, so I called the ALTA to get some advice. The fellow I talked with had three suggestions, which I will put forth here in case they are of help to someone.

1. If the title company is incorporated, they must file with their state and you can find out the name of the company's officers and other information by contacting the state.

2. Some states have insurance departments that license title companies and you can find out information about the company that way. (I had one title company that was located in NYS and appeared not to have be licensed. I also find it hard in NYS to get the right person in the insurance dept.)

3. File a claim with the insurer of the title company. There are 5 insurers:
a. Stewart Title (Houston, TX)
b. First American (Santa Ana, CA)
c. Fidelity National Finance (Jacksonville, FL)
d. LandAmerica (Richmond, VA)
e. Old Republic (Minneapolis, MN)

I had a title company go out of business that was insured by Stewart Title. I filed a claim with them and was told that, as a sub-contractor, I was not covered by Stewart Title's policy. So I'm not sure how helpful filing a claim with the other 4 would be. You need to file a claim with the specific insurer of the title company. You can find out which one that is by calling the 5 listed above.

Reply by Ocean Pacific Notary Services, Inc. on 8/1/08 3:48pm
Msg #258193

ART in Rocklin - their insurance underwriter is First American, which I believe is the U/W for all Mercury Companies. The are the ones that called in the credit line, so you want to contact them. Many of us are just flat out any monies and no way to recoup.

The sad thing is the monies that are owed notaries are in trust accounts and again, title has a fiduciary responsibility to pay all the monies out of that account for that particular transaction. They are acting as a bank, wire comes in for that transactions, disbursements made, end of story. Really that account should balance out to zero with incoming wire/outgoing disbursements. That has been our experience when we worked with a national lender (we had our own in house escrow team)

Perhaps, someone with more experience can enlighten us - all my checks are disbursed from trust accounts, not general accounts.