Of everything in a closing file, the title commitment is the document most often signed past and least often read — and it is the one that previews the entire deal: who the title company believes owns the home, what claims and rules travel with it, and what must be cleared before the buyer’s title can be insured. This page is what a title commitment is, how its schedules divide the work, and how to read it while reading it can still change something.
A title commitment is issued after the title search and before closing. The title company has traced the chain of title and examined the recorded record; the commitment is where it reports back — as a conditional promise to issue the title policy at closing, on the facts, exceptions and requirements it lists. It is addressed to the proposed insureds, the buyer and the buyer’s lender, and everything in it is dated: it speaks as of its effective date, and it is updated if the closing moves or new matters are recorded.
Schedule A is the deal as the title company has it: the commitment’s effective date, the type and amount of each policy to be issued, who record title to the land is currently vested in, the proposed insured buyer and lender, and the legal description of the property. Its job is verification. Names should match the contract and the parties’ identification exactly, the vesting should match how the seller actually holds title, the amounts should match the price and the loan, and the legal description should describe the property being sold — a wrong name, amount or description caught here is a correction; the same error uncaught follows into the deed and the policy.
Schedule B lists what the policy will not cover. Some exceptions are standard — matters a records search cannot settle, like unrecorded easements or boundary questions a survey would answer, and taxes for the current and later years. Others are specific to this property: recorded easements, subdivision covenants and restrictions, mineral or water reservations, existing leases. Exceptions are not cured; they are accepted, and they stay with the property after the buyer owns it. That is why Schedule B is the read-every-line schedule: anything on it that you do not understand is a question for the title company or your attorney before closing, while the contract’s title terms can still act on the answer.
Schedule C is the to-do list the policy waits on: the requirements that must be satisfied before or at closing. The routine residents are the seller’s mortgage payoff and the release of any other liens the search found. Behind them sit the authority and identity items a particular transfer needs — trust or company documents when the seller is an entity, probate or heirship papers when an owner has died, spousal signatures where state law requires them. (Some state forms add a Schedule D disclosing the title company, its agents and the premium split.) When every Schedule C item is satisfied and the deal has closed and recorded, the commitment is fulfilled and the policy issues.
A commitment is a snapshot and a promise on conditions — not a finding that title is clean, and not insurance. It reports the recorded record as of its effective date; a matter recorded afterward, or a defect no proper search could have found, is outside what it can tell you. That residual risk is what the policy itself exists for, and the separate title-insurance guide on this site covers it. The commitment’s value is narrower and very real: it puts every known obstacle and every accepted exception in writing, in front of both parties, while the contract still gives them time and remedies to deal with each one.
Homeowner HQ is the homeowner’s side of the record before a sale is ever on the table: your own agent’s monthly home-value updates keep your picture of your home current, and the fix-my-facts route keeps the facts behind that picture — the ones a future buyer’s title and appraisal work will test — corrected while there is no deadline attached. When a contract does come, your agent reads the title commitment with you: which Schedule C lines are routine payoffs, which Schedule B exceptions you are accepting, and which item needs a cure started the same week.
A title commitment is the document a title search produces: the title company’s written promise to issue a title insurance policy at closing, on the terms and conditions it shows. It is organized in schedules. Schedule A states the facts of the deal as the title company has them — the effective date, the policies and amounts to be issued, who record title is vested in now, the proposed insured buyer and lender, and the legal description of the land. Schedule B lists the exceptions: the recorded matters the policy will not insure against, from standard exceptions to property-specific ones like easements, subdivision restrictions and taxes not yet due — these stay with the property after closing. Schedule C lists the requirements: what must be satisfied before or at closing before the company will issue the policy, typically the seller’s mortgage payoff and lien releases, and any authority or identity documents the transfer needs. (Some state forms add a Schedule D with disclosures about the title company and its agents.) The commitment is a snapshot at its effective date and a promise on conditions — it is not the policy, which is issued after closing and recording, and it is not an opinion that title is clean: it is the checklist of what stands between the contract and an insurable title, delivered while there is still time to work it.
In schedule order, with three different jobs. Schedule A is a verification pass: check that the seller’s name and vesting match the contract, the buyer’s name is spelled the way it must appear on the deed and loan, the policy amounts match the price and loan, and the legal description is the property actually being sold — an error here follows into the policy if nobody catches it. Schedule B is the read-every-line pass: each exception is something the policy will not cover and that the buyer takes the property subject to, so any exception you do not understand — an easement, a restriction, a reservation — is a question for the title company or your attorney before closing, not after. Schedule C is the project list: work it with the title company until every requirement shows as satisfied, and if an item needs more time than the contract allows, the closing date moves by a written extension signed before the existing date passes. Most commitments on ordinary sales are routine; the reading is what keeps them that way.
No. The commitment comes before closing and is a conditional promise — the title company commits to issue the policy if the Schedule C requirements are met and the deal closes and records on the Schedule A facts. The policy itself is the insurance contract, issued after closing, and it is what actually pays a covered claim if a title defect that survived the search surfaces later. Reading the commitment matters precisely because it previews the policy: the Schedule B exceptions in the commitment are the exceptions the issued policy will carry, so the time to object to one, or to understand it, is while the commitment is on the table and the closing has not happened yet.
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