Title Didn't Relay Water Meter Install Requirement at Closing

[Mindy Jensen]

A friend recently purchased a house. The water company told the title company prior to closing that there is no water meter, and one would need to be installed within 90 days of closing. Water company asked title to relay this information to buyer.

Title did NOT relay this to the friend (an agent, acting as his own representative) and he just received a notice on his door.

Water meter install is $1,000 prepaid. 

If title would have shared at closing he would have had it come out of seller proceeds or walked away from the deal. 

Does he have any recourse against the title company? Seller is long gone.

@Tom Gimer? 

[Tom Gimer]

@Mindy Jensen I don't think this is a title claim... the loss doesn't fit neatly within any of the covered risks of an owners policy (unless the $1000 became a lien prior to recording the deed). However, depending on local law, there may be a viable claim. You could argue that once they were made aware of the meter issue, the title company had a duty to inform the buyer; they did not, and that is the cause of the buyer's $1000 problem. The damage here is 100% economic so it would take some research to figure out how to get around that ... under negligence, quasi-contract, constructive fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, something like that.