I wanted to point out that I didn't create this video, but I agree the number one cause of Title Search errors is use of online records.
The video report was created by Dave Pelligrinelli with AFX TitleSearch.com based on their study of errors found in reports submitted to them by in-house and independent abstractors nationwide and believe based on Mr. Pelligrinelli's testimony as an expert witness in county, state and federal courts.
Online records are not the same as the official records found only at the courthouse. The most important difference is that online records are not official. The disclaimers on these sites clearly point out the differences.
Barry County for example states in their diclaimer, "All index information should be verified with officially recorded land and real estate documents" and "Barry County makes no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding errors or omissions and assumes no liability or responsibility for improper or incorrect information or data described and/or contained within this website". https://internal.barrycounty.org:8443/recorder/web/ The Saint Clair County Michigan site warns. ""Register of Deeds does not certify the authenticity of the information contained herein". http://publicdeeds.stclaircounty.org/ Hillsdale County has a similar disclaimer but adds, "Where an official printed document differs from text which may be provided at this site, the official printed document takes precedence". http://www.co.hillsdale.mi.us/index.php/site-legal-disclaimerMuskegon County Michigan disclaimer says,"We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the accuracy or reliability of the content on this site or other sites to which we are linked", ". . . and should not be relied upon in making any decision or determination regarding the underlying document."https://www.muskegonrecords.com/recorder/web/I've used examples from Michigan County sites for these examples but the same disclaimer language can be found in just about any county site in the country. Third-party sites are even less reliable as they, by definition, can never be official and are derived by mass purchase of copies from the county (for a fraction of what citizens pay) and additional records are added weekly, monthly or sometimes even less frequently. They can miss any corrections the county may make to older records or indices as they do not repurchase records they have previously bought. How we use online sites safely.At Davick Services we occasionally use online for preliminary work when the courthouse is closed. However, every search is completed at the courthouse with a careful examination of the official documents and indices. We often find discrepancies between records online and the official records at the courthouse. We do not rely on online records when our experience and the counties themselves are telling us online searches are unreliable, not authentic and not identical to records held at the courthouse.
David Bloys
Davick Services
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