Hey Pat,

I think I see the source of your confusion.  In Ohio, for instance, we have mostly Grantor/Grantee indices.  In order to find out if there is an open mortgage we have to run each previous owner by name.  We would have to run the Grantee Index to find out who they are, then check each of their names in Mortgagor Index.  Since our mortgages are valid for 21 years after the maturity date, a 30 year mortgage could be a valid lien for up to 51 years.

This is the reason I am so opposed to using a current owner search for insurance purposes.  If our clients ask us for a current owner, that is all we check.  The underwriters have assumed the risk for the previous liens, since we have no way to report the open mortgages on previous owners without searching beyond the current owner.

That is why this type of search, where the client requests all open mortgages without specifying a current owner, is such a problem for us.  There could be open mortgages from previous owners; thus, in order to be sure we aren't missing any mortgages from previous owners a full search would be required.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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