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Receipts and Lien Waivers

I live in Missouri and am selling my condo. I completed minor upgrades (painting, fixtures, new stove and frig). My Title company is requesting receipts and lien waivers for all work done in the past 12 months for the new smoke detector and anything over $250.00 Other Title companies only require receipts and lien waivers for capital improvements done by contractors and only within that last 6 months. Can my Title company request documents that other companies do not? Can I change Title companies before my condo sells? Thanks

1 reply

Apr 13, 2020

First, a title company is free to request whatever documentation they'd like. Really, that's up to them - and it isn't required or restricted by law, one way or the other. Certainly, though, it's a little odd for an owner to execute a lien waiver for their own property when they've done their own work. After all, owners generally aren't be able to file a mechanics lien against their own property - and it wouldn't make any sense for them to do that anyway (especially with a sale coming soon). Plus, as you hinted at above - the deadline to file a Missouri mechanics lien is 6 months after work was last performed. So, if the work was done more than 6 months ago, then a lien waiver may not be totally necessary. At the end of the day, though - this is probably just a symptom of the title company following their normal course of business. They likely have normal steps they follow and don't want to go outside of that standard business procedure - even if the steps don't make perfect sense here. At large, it's probably a good sign that the title company is being thorough and trying to collect any relevant lien waivers. But, I certainly understand the confusion and frustration. Finally, in terms of whether you can use a new title company, that will depend on whether you've already signed a contract with them and whether you've paid them. But, if not, then it's possible that you could seek out a different company.

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