Why buyers should take the survey coverage.

Your buyer signs a contract with a box checked or unchecked and almost never knows what it meant. Two years later a neighbor claims the fence is three feet onto their lot, and whether that becomes a nuisance or a lawsuit your client pays for comes down to that box.

Start with what the policy already excludes

Schedule B of every title commitment is the list of things the policy will not cover. Item 2 is the one nobody reads:

In plain terms, if any of those conditions exist on the property at closing, the buyer has no coverage for them. If a dispute arises and your client has to hire a lawyer, the legal fees and the loss are entirely theirs.

What the coverage actually does

Under the state's procedural rules, that exception can be amended so that everything is struck except the words "shortages in area." The literal practice is to line through the deleted language on the policy.

What your buyer gains is coverage for boundary line conflicts, encroachments, protrusions, and overlapping improvements. Those are the disputes that actually happen between neighbors.

Why "shortages in area" stays

That phrase is never removed, because the Texas Department of Insurance does not allow title companies to insure exact acreage. The policy will not guarantee that the lot contains precisely the square footage the listing advertised. Worth telling a buyer up front, especially on acreage, so they understand what they are and are not getting.

What it costs

On a residential owner's policy, the amendment costs five percent of the basic premium. On a standard owner's policy for property that is not residential, it is fifteen percent. There is a minimum premium, and the amounts are set by the state rather than by the title company.

Five percent of a premium your buyer is already paying, against a boundary dispute that can run into five figures in legal fees alone. There are very few places in a closing where the math is that lopsided.

What has to happen for the buyer to get it

• An acceptable survey has to be in the title company's hands before closing
• If an existing survey is being used, a T-47 affidavit from the seller describing any improvements made since the survey
• The premium is collected at closing
• The request is made in paragraph 6A(8) of the contract, and who pays for it is negotiable in 6A(8)(ii)

None of that is difficult. It fails when nobody starts it until the week of closing and there is no current survey.

Three situations where it pays for itself

• The fence is in the wrong place. A neighbor claims the fence line encroaches. Without the amendment, your client funds their own defense.
• Improvements sit in an easement. A utility requires removal of a shed, a driveway, or part of a deck that was built over their easement.
• The HOA says a structure crosses a building line and wants it moved.

And here is the part buyers never consider: if the survey used at closing was prepared for the previous owner, your buyer has no relationship with that surveyor and no recourse against them if it turns out to be wrong. The title policy is the only place that protection can come from.

One thing to set expectations on

Buying the coverage does not mean everything on the survey is covered. When a survey discloses a specific problem, the title company will add an exception for that item, which removes it from coverage even though the general amendment was made. The coverage protects against what the survey did not reveal, not against known defects sitting in plain view on the drawing.

How to explain it in sixty seconds