Chicago Title & Friends go back to 1847
You would think a Fortune 500 company in the Title business since 1847 could figure out the correct recordation taxes and conduct settlement services without breaking any federal laws. You would be wrong. My loan settlement service provided by ServiceLink a division of Chicago Title featured a $966 overcharge in recordation tax which they had no intention of refunding until I discovered the error in the midst of a lender liability web site. The deed which was filed was not the deed that I signed. Preparers names were crossed out and information about the recordation taxes were added. The notary who conducted my settlement did not do his fiduciary duty and explain the documents to me. He barely said a word. From Captive Reinsurance to overcharges in recordation taxes how much money has been lost that borrowers deserve back - WITH INTEREST AND PENALTIES. The importance of these overcharges is monumental as they SHOULD have been included in the APR but were not due to the fact that they were SUPPOSED be paid to a government entity. So the federal law tolerances for mistakes for APR have been breached. To make matters even worse, in most loans today these fees are cheerfully financed into the loan which means those same borrowers will pay over and over again for 30 years. Interest on money they never needed to pay in the first place. I call that unconscionable.
Many title companies have been called on these issues before. Nothing changes they just go back to same old same old. You see when they get audited the state usually only examines a small number of sample files. Which I believe they provide for review???? If the regulator finds mistakes they are slapped with a "VERY SMALL" fine and everything is fine. This just isn't enough of an incentive to reform their practices. I found a State of Maryland Insurance review of Chicago Title and it showed many practices they were guilty of and you can review it and see if you think the fines fit the crimes.
http://www.mdinsurance.state.md.us/documents/ChicagoTitle04-04-2005.pdf
When they talk about doing business with unlicensed individual I believe most of them are mortgage broker/ lenders, etc selling title insurance when they are not licensed to.
General History of Chicago Title and the different names they operate under. I didn't even see the name Chicago Title until I filed my lawsuit. All my documents said ServiceLink. None had the name Chicago Title.
http://www.fnf.com/FNF/AboutFNF/History/
