What is a title plant?
Also known as "abstract plant". "An abstract plant used as the basis for issuance of title insurance policies in the State of Texas shall consist of fully indexed records showing all instruments of record affecting lands within the county for a period of at least 25 years immediately prior to the date of search. The indices pertaining to land shall be arranged in geographic order (i.e.: Lot and Block for subdivided lands, and by Survey or Section Number for acreage tracts). Miscellaneous alphabetical indices shall be maintained according to name. Said indices, land and miscellaneous, may be stored in a computer, and as to land, be subject to retrieval by reference to description of the property under search. The records of the abstract plant shall be maintained to current date, and shall include, but not be limited to, plat or map records, deeds, deeds of trust, mortgages, lis pendens, abstracts of judgment, federal tax liens, mechanic's liens, attachment liens, divorce actions, wherein real property is involved; probate records; chattel mortgages, attached to realty and financing statements relating to items which are, or are to become, attached to realty, if available for indexing from the office of the County Clerk of the county which is covered by said plant. b. Leased Abstract Plants: A lessee is not necessarily excluded from the phrase "owning and operating an abstract plant" as used in Article 9.30 of the Texas Title Insurance Act - 1967, but will be so excluded unless in actual, exclusive, physical possession and control of an abstract plant meeting the requirements of paragraph "a" above, operating it under the terms of a bona fide lease agreement, which places the lessee in exclusive possession and control of such abstract plant facilities for a determinable period and for a fixed rental. c. Joint Abstract Plants: Two or more Companies may combine their operation into a single abstract plant for the purpose of increasing the efficiency and speed of producing title evidence for examination purposes. In such event, if the base plants owned or leased by the individual participants are not merged into a single plant, then the base plants and the joint abstract plant, when considered as one, must meet all of the requirements of an abstract plant as set forth under paragraph "a" above. Ownership of such joint abstract plant may be by corporate ownership, joint venture or partnership agreement, but ownership must rest with the Company participants." ( http://www.tlta.com/publications/basicmanual/sectioniv.asp#P-12 ) |
