Texas Commercial Title Insurance and Survey Review

By Hank FasthoffJuly 5, 2026

A title commitment identifies the conditions under which a title company will issue a policy. A land title survey locates boundaries, improvements, easements, access, and other physical conditions. Commercial buyers need both because a recorded easement may be harmless in the abstract and fatal when the survey plots it across the proposed building pad.

You should begin the review while you can object, require a cure, renegotiate, or terminate under the purchase agreement. Once the feasibility period expires, a defect may become an expensive condition you accepted rather than a closing problem the seller must address.

Texas Regulates the Policy Forms and Premiums

The Texas Department of Insurance title insurance Basic Manual contains the approved forms, rate rules, and procedural rules used in Texas. A title company issues coverage through those forms and permitted endorsements, subject to underwriting requirements and stated exceptions.

Texas also regulates the policy premium. TDI explains that title companies charge the same policy premium for the same coverage, although escrow and other separately priced services may differ. Applicable rate rules determine credits, simultaneous issue amounts, and endorsement charges. TDI reduced the basic premium rates by 6.2% for policies issued on or after March 1, 2026, and published the current rate chart.

Coverage varies despite the regulated forms. Schedule B exceptions, requested endorsements, deleted provisions, added exceptions, policy amount, and the insured estate determine the protection you receive.

The Commitment States the Proposed Coverage

Texas Form T-7 defines a commitment as an agreement to issue a policy subject to its requirements, exceptions, exclusions, and conditions. The commitment precedes the policy, and Texas rules treat it as a statement of issuance terms rather than an abstract of title. The title company can decline to issue the proposed policy when a Schedule C requirement remains unsatisfied.

Schedule A identifies the commitment date, proposed policy amount, proposed insured, estate or interest to be insured, current title holder, and legal description. You should compare the proposed insured with the acquisition entity and compare the legal description with the purchase agreement, deed, and survey. A mismatch involving a tract, easement parcel, entity name, or insured amount can change the property or interest the policy covers.

Schedule B lists exceptions from coverage. Recorded easements, restrictive covenants, mineral reservations, leases, liens, and survey conditions commonly appear there. Each exception should be read in full and located on the survey when its description permits plotting. A short commitment reference rarely explains the allowed use, width, maintenance rights, relocation provisions, or effect on development.

Schedule C lists the requirements for policy issuance. Those requirements may include lien releases, authority documents, payoff evidence, affidavits, deed execution, tax information, and resolution of judgments or probate issues. The seller must satisfy some requirements, while others depend on the buyer, lender, or title company.

Schedule D also forms part of the commitment. Under Procedural Rule P-21, it discloses ownership information concerning the title company and agent and identifies how the estimated premium will be divided. Schedule D usually presents less transactional risk than Schedules B and C, but omitting it from the review leaves the commitment file incomplete.

The Survey Tests the Recorded Documents Against the Land

The 2026 ALTA and NSPS standards apply to ALTA/NSPS land title surveys commenced on or after February 23, 2026. They replaced all prior ALTA/ACSM and ALTA/NSPS versions. Your request for a new survey should identify the 2026 standards and the optional Table A items the transaction requires.

Table A selections depend on the property and intended use. Item 3 addresses flood zone classification. Item 6 states specified zoning information from a report or letter the client supplies and, when requested, depicts applicable setbacks. Item 7 addresses building dimensions, Item 9 parking, and Item 11 evidence of underground utilities from the selected sources. A lender may require additional items, but you should select them based on the asset rather than copy a list from another transaction.

Your survey certification should name the buyer, lender, and title company when each expects reliance. The standards prescribe the certification language and permit certification to lender successors and assigns when requested. A prior survey may help, but the title company, lender, and surveyor determine whether an update or recertification is acceptable.

You should send commitment documents to the surveyor early. The 2026 standards require the surveyor to receive the most recent title commitment or other title evidence satisfactory to the insurer. When a commitment update adds an easement or changes a legal description, the surveyor may need to revise the plat before closing.

Schedule B and the Survey Require One Review

You should compare each plottable Schedule B exception with the survey. An easement missing from the plat may have an inadequate description, may lie outside the surveyed property, or may require additional survey work. The recorded instrument and surveyor's explanation determine the answer.

Physical conditions require the reverse comparison. A fence across a boundary, building within an easement, driveway crossing another tract, or utility line without a listed easement may appear on the survey without a matching commitment exception. Those conditions can affect access, construction, lender approval, and title coverage even when no recorded instrument describes them.

Legal access requires separate review. Physical use of a driveway proves that vehicles can enter today, while an appurtenant easement or public frontage establishes a legal right to enter. Form T-23 insures, as of the policy date, that the land abuts and has actual vehicular and pedestrian access to and from the named street. It also insures that the street is physically open. Its wording is narrower and more precise than a general statement that the property has access.

Survey Coverage Depends on Underwriting

An acceptable survey may support amendment of the standard area and boundary exception under Procedural Rule P-2 and Form T-3. The amended exception generally preserves an exception for shortages in area. The title company may add specific exceptions for encroachments, boundary conflicts, or other conditions that it considers a possible title defect.

Possession receives different treatment. Procedural Rule P-3 defines parties in possession as people physically occupying the property under a claim adverse to the record owner. It also permits the general exception when the insured waives inspection in writing. Tenant estoppels, lease records, physical inspection, and underwriting evidence may help the title company evaluate the exception, but deletion depends on the applicable rule and the company's underwriting decision.

Construction and repair activity can affect the unrecorded lien exception. The title company may request owner and contractor affidavits, payoff evidence, indemnities, or other proof based on the construction activity and its timing. Underwriting evidence addresses one part of the review because an affidavit alone can leave the validity of a statutory lien unresolved.

Endorsements Address Defined Risks

Form T-19.1 provides an owner with specified coverage involving recorded covenants, encroachments, easements, and mineral rights. The current form contains significant limits. It excludes lease covenants, maintenance and repair obligations, most environmental covenants, contamination, flood, subsidence, and negligence in mineral development. The title company may also delete insuring provisions or add exceptions under its procedural rule, so the issued endorsement has to be read beside Schedule B.

For assembled sites, Form T-25 can insure that identified boundary lines of two or more parcels are contiguous and that no strip, gore, or other space separates those lines. Form T-25.1 insures against a strip, gore, or other space between the parcels described in the endorsement. Procedural Rule P-56 permits T-25.1 for nonresidential land consisting of four or more parcels or irregular parcels when the other underwriting conditions are met. Each form serves a different parcel configuration and underwriting decision.

Non-imputation coverage also has defined limits. Form T-24 addresses the identified action, inaction, or knowledge of specified exiting or contributing owners when incoming owners acquired their interests for value without actual knowledge of the title problem. Its protection is limited to the people, knowledge, transaction, and conditions described in the endorsement. Form T-24.1 serves mezzanine financing and protects the identified mezzanine lender under its separate conditions.

Procedural Rule P-39 permits narrowly worded insurance concerning certain encroachments, possible title defects, and liens when the company finds the risk insurable and follows the applicable procedures. The language states the covered loss and defense obligation. If you seek this coverage, you may want to identify the specific exception and review the exact P-39 wording proposed for the policy.

The Closing Process Requires a Current Title Record

A commitment reports title through its effective date. Documents recorded after that date can affect the estate or lien priority before the deed and loan documents are recorded. Your closing calendar should allow time for an updated title search, resolution of new exceptions, and a final comparison among the commitment, survey, deed, and loan documents.

When the title company also serves as escrow agent, the purchase agreement and written escrow instructions define the agreed conditions for recording and disbursement. Procedural Rule P-27 separately requires receipt and deposit of good funds sufficient for all disbursements before any disbursement occurs. Your closing instructions should identify the documents to record, their order, required Schedule C evidence, authorized payments, and the conditions for releasing funds.

An instruction that releases seller proceeds only after the county clerk records the deed may conflict with the parties' closing structure or local recording procedure. Precise instructions should instead match the purchase agreement, lender requirements, title company's procedure, and the agreed treatment of recording risk.

A Complete Review Produces a Closing Record

Your closing file should contain the commitment and every update, copies of each material exception document, the final survey, marked title comments, the title company's written responses, requested endorsements, underwriting evidence, escrow instructions, settlement statement, executed deed, and issued policy. You should compare the issued policy with the final commitment because coverage depends on the policy containing each requested deletion and endorsement.

A completed title review resolves the intended use questions before closing. Your record should show the owner, the burdens on the property and their locations, the risks the policy insures, the risks you accept, and the title company's remaining requirements for coverage.