What is chain of title?
The recorded history of who has owned a property, and how ownership passed from one owner to the next.
Chain of title is the sequence of recorded documents — usually deeds — that transfers ownership of a piece of real estate from one owner to the next, back through time. Each link in the chain is a conveyance: the grantee (buyer) on one deed should be the grantor (seller) on the next.
How a chain of title is built
When property changes hands, the deed is recorded with the county recorder, clerk or register of deeds. Those records are indexed by the names of the parties (grantor–grantee indexes) and, in some counties, by the parcel (tract indexes). Tracing the chain means following those names, deed by deed.
What can break a chain
- Gaps: a transfer that was never recorded, so the next seller appears to have had no title.
- Name mismatches: a grantee named one way and a later grantor named differently (marriage, misspelling, an LLC renamed).
- Inconsistent legal descriptions: a later deed describes the land differently from the deed before it.
- Transfers on death: an owner died and the property passed by will, trust or probate without a clear recorded transfer.
- Unreleased liens: a mortgage or judgment recorded against an earlier owner that was never released.
Full chain search vs. current owner report
A full chain of title search follows every conveyance back decades and is normally done by a title company or abstracter as part of issuing title insurance. A current owner & encumbrance (O&E) report focuses on the present: the current vesting deed (and prior conveyances where relevant), open mortgages, recorded liens and judgments, and taxes. For screening a property before you make an offer, an O&E report is usually the faster, cheaper first step.
When you need more than a report
If you are buying, selling, lending or closing, get a title commitment and title insurance policy from a licensed title agency or insurer, or have a real estate attorney examine title. An informational report — including ours — is not title insurance.
Frequently asked questions
What is chain of title?
Chain of title is the recorded sequence of deeds and other documents that transferred ownership of a property from one owner to the next over time.
Does a TitleReport.org report include the full chain of title?
No. Our report is a current owner & encumbrance (O&E) report: it shows the current vesting deed and prior conveyances where relevant, plus open mortgages, liens, judgments and taxes. It is not a full multi-decade chain of title search or an abstract.
What causes a break in the chain of title?
Common causes are unrecorded transfers, name mismatches between deeds, inconsistent legal descriptions, transfers on death without a recorded deed, and liens that were never released.