What is chain of title?

What is chain of title?

• A. The list of all parties who have ever owned real estate
• B. The bundle of rights linked to the recorded title to a parcel
• C. A chronology of successive owners of record of a parcel of real estate
• D. Involuntary conveyance of title by statutory rules of descent

Answer: (C)

Chain of title is the history of who has owned a parcel and how title passed from one owner to the next, shown in order. It records the successive owners of record and the deeds or instruments that transferred ownership, forming a continuous lineage from the present back through previous owners. This chronology is what a title search uses to verify that title has remained connected and to spot gaps or defects that could affect marketable title. It’s not a list of everyone who ever owned the property, nor the bundle of rights tied to ownership, nor a description of inheritance; those describe different concepts.

Chain of title is the history of who has owned a parcel and how title passed from one owner to the next, shown in order. It records the successive owners of record and the deeds or instruments that transferred ownership, forming a continuous lineage from the present back through previous owners. This chronology is what a title search uses to verify that title has remained connected and to spot gaps or defects that could affect marketable title. It’s not a list of everyone who ever owned the property, nor the bundle of rights tied to ownership, nor a description of inheritance; those describe different concepts.