need title insurance if house has had a warranty deed?

[Jill Curran]

Newbie here. I'm looking at a bank-owned house for auction on auction.com. I can see in county records that the last owner got a warranty deed in March of 2017, and then it went back to US Bank with a mortgagee's deed in November 2018. Here are my questions--doesn't the fact that he could get a warranty deed mean the title was clear up until then? Since it just went back to the bank after him, is it not still clear and therefore no need for me to purchase title insurance?

Thank you for any help!

Jill

[Wayne Brooks]

Absolutely not.....a “Warranty” deed just means the seller in the transaction will supposedly cure any problems found later...that doesn’t help you.  You absolutely want title insurance and you want to use Your title co to issue it, not the selling lender’s.

A number of things can pop up....some heir from the past had their signature forged, the foreclosing bank missed something in their foreclosure, some legal description error occurred somewhere, etc.