Good title

Clear title, free from present litigation, obvious defects, and grave doubts concerning its validity or merchantability. Such title is marketable to a reasonable purchaser or mortgaged as security for a loan of money to a person of reasonable prudence.

A title free from present litigation, obvious defects and grave doubts concerning its validity or merchantability, 227 P. 476, 477; a title valid in fact which is marketable and which can be sold to a reasonable purchaser or mortgaged to a person of reasonable prudence as security for a loan of money. In a contract to convey "good title," the term also means there are no incumbrances on the land. 244 P. 424, 425. The term is often said to be synonymous with marketable title (174 S.W. 2d 830, 831) and clear title (96 S.W. 2d 808). See recording acts; warranty deed.

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

Good title is a concept in property law.

For a valid transaction to take place, the previous owner must have an indefeasible title to the property and must transfer it to the new owner. Proof of this may be difficult, since it involves proving a negative: first there must not be anyone with better title than the previous owner, and second the previous owner must not have already transferred title to anyone else. Possible solutions include land registration where the state certifies the quality of titles and claims to property, or (friendly) litigation after the transaction where a court rules on the quality of the transferred title.

See also

Title (property)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)