Sign Hold Harmless (Indemnity) Agreement

How to eSign a document: what is a hold harmless agreement form

our hold harmless agreements ethical we're going to talk about that on this episode of title Tuesday's everybody welcome back to another fantastic episode of title Tuesday's my name's Kevin caption of the founder and CEO here at independence title also known as your title king today we're talking about that famous hold harmless agreement I talked about this agreement at a lot of the investor clubs and you need to be careful of them you need to realize when you're signing a hold harmless agreement why are you signing it what are the contents of this agreement so here I want to tell you at independence settle we use a hold harmless agreement for various reasons but it's usually disclosed to the party as to why when you're closing at some of these other title companies I've seen general hold harmless agreements that basically state if anything goes wrong don't hold us harmless deal with it yourself they're passing blame to you and they're saying it's your responsibility to make sure everything was done properly and I disagree with that I've even seen title companies to have a hold harmless agreement for a lien search saying we've ordered a lien search as a courtesy to you buyer but we're not giving you any coverage for it that to me is unethical that is bad business if I've ordered a title search and I've ordered a lien search you better bet I'm giving you the coverage that you pay for so you need to watch the documents you're signing at closing so many times people come in and they're just signing documents signing documents they don't ever read the documents and they don't understand what they're reading ask the closer to explain the documents to ask them what is this hold harmless for so a hold harmless to give you a brief overview basically means that you are holding the title company and the underwriter harmless from any issues that arise from that issue so what are some of the common hold harmless is that we are going to have you sign the first one on a cash deal a lot of times or a conventional lender if they do not require a turn ride inspection we will have you have a sign to hold harmless talking about termite inspection that it was not done so if there were termites in the house we are not responsible so that would be your job to get that done within your inspection period the second thing we talked about our surveys surveys are a big one surveys are if you're buying a cash deal or you're getting a private loan if you choose not to order a survey which as you all know is the boundary lines of the property that's what gives you the boundary line of your property if you choose not to get a survey it's okay but you need to sign a hold harmless for it that so if any issues come up from survey matters you would not have survey coverage what could come up neighbors could be encroaching on to your property us neighbors fence and neighbors swimming pool a sidewalk there are many different things that can happen usually if it's a lot and a block a square lot you're usually okay but sometimes these pie shaped Lots have a lot of weird things in and we know plenty of investors that choose not to order surveys and we know plenty of investors that have had surveying issues that they've had to deal with so it's very very important I feel to get a survey and a lot of times if you're gonna buy it fix it and then sell it you can then get that survey recertified over to your buyer and then you can save on the cost for it what else do we have you sign a hold harmless for homeowners insurance if you're buying a property I like to make sure you get homeowners insurance if you're not buying insurance for your property property and casualty insurance you would sign a hold harmless to make sure that if anything comes up that pertains to property and casualty insurance you would not have coverage from the title company so we just disclose this to you that this is an additional coverage you can buy you can order a termite inspection you can order and and buy a property survey and you can get a quote and purchase and bind your homeowners insurance policy those are the common ones what are some of the uncommon permit issues a lot of times there are old permit issues may be expired permit issues that the title company decides to just throw under your nose if you are signing something for a permitting issue or governmental issue you need to make sure you're aware of what the issue is because they will slide that paper under your nose and ask you to sign it and you would not have coverage for those issues so it's very very important to see what you're signing some of the bigger things that we see hold harmless is for a lot of times a code enforcement violation we just had one for a roof issue a code enforcement violation of 1.9 million dollars now that investor knows they are going to buy that property cash from the homeowner and they're going to go to the city and do what's called a mitigation a lien mitigation or a lien reduction hearing in order to get the city to take that 1.9 million dollars that they know they'd never collect it would be foreclosed on before they would be able to collect they're gonna reduce it down to administrative costs the new homeowner or investor that's buying that property will take care of those issues but they do not have coverage from the title company so they know when the hold harmless comes into play you are buying it subject to those issues another big one that we see are sometimes you're taking its subject to a mortgage maybe you're taking over the seller's mortgage on the house because they're in foreclosure and sale by your house and take over your mortgage that would then you would sign a hold harmless and it would be an exception to your title policy so those are a lot of the basic things when it comes to hold harmless the reason for producing this video is to make sure you are aware what is a hold harmless agreement when is it good when is it bad but read your closing documents and if you have any questions you can always give our office a call but the moral of the story do not do not say with me do not sign a blanket hold harmless agreement you refuse to sign it you tell them unless you have something specific that I'm signing it for I refuse to sign that whole arm agreement so thanks for watching title Tuesdays give me a thumbs up if you learn something new about hold harmless agreements and when they should be used maybe share this on social media give me a comment below of a future video you'd love to see us produce so thanks for watching title Tuesdays my name is Kevin tatra signing off and I look forward to seeing you at the closing table Music