Businesses that order SERVICES from another company or individual are expected to PAY for those services unless otherwise mutually agreed, IN WRITING, by BOTH parties.

I do not have to wait for a company to get paid in order for me to get paid.  Once my service is completed, I expect to be paid.  I did what I was contracted for.

Any company that does not pay their vendors, for whatEVER reason, is a scumbag business.

Moral of the story: Don't do business with scumbags. 

Be picky.  Ask for retainers.  Get PayPal'd up front.  Picket the business if they don't pay you.  (I have actually done this - you have GOT to love the Free Speech amendment!)  And, last resort, send your invoices made out to the title agency AND the lender client, demanding (in a nice way) payment. 

Afterall, by LAW (remember RESAP and INDUCEMENTS?), a title agency is REQUIRED to bill for all services, even if the deal doesn't close. 

So, if you didn't get paid for a search and the title agency says, hey, I didn't get paid cos it didn't close (which really isn't YOUR problem), the agency is supposed to bill. 

Any gift or thing of value over $10 is a violation of RESPA (and yes you can go to JAIL for RESPA violations) and "forgiving" a title bill for non-closing is an INDUCEMENT, cos most searches cost over $10. (However if anyone can give me a GOOD A$10 search, I'll take it and even PayPal it to you.)

<sup>This was NOT a rant....ok ok, it was

Oh yeah, my POINT was, it is ok to bad-mouth scumbag businesses who don't pay their vendors.</sup>