Calculating Title Insurance Premium Savings Should Never Be a Riddle
As a Florida real estate attorney, I think a closing should be smooth, transparent, and as cost-effective as the law allows. One of the easiest ways to deliver on that last part — and one of the most commonly missed — is the reissue credit on title insurance premiums.
What is a Reissue Credit?
A reissue credit is a discount on a new title insurance policy when a valid prior policy already exists on the same property. The exact eligibility rules turn on how old the prior policy is and what kind of transaction is being insured now, but the basic idea is straightforward: if you’re refinancing, or buying a property that recently had an owner’s policy issued, you may be entitled to a meaningful discount on the new policy.
Why It Matters (In Actual Dollars)
Title insurance protects you from unforeseen ownership claims on the property you just bought or borrowed against. In fact, it may have saved one of my clients one million dollars. Before any policy is issued, a title search has to be performed — and that search is a real chunk of the work behind the premium.
When you refinance, there is already a recent owner’s policy in place. When you buy a property that changed hands not long ago, the prior owner’s policy reflects a recent, thorough search of that same chain of title. In both cases, the underwriter can lean on the prior work, and that reduction in risk and labor is what justifies the discount.
The savings are not theoretical. Depending on the purchase price or loan amount, a reissue credit can be the difference between paying full premium and saving a few hundred to a few thousand dollars at the closing table. On a higher-priced home, it can be one of the largest single line-item reductions on the settlement statement.
If You Don’t Know, Now You Know
In practice, buyers are usually given a notice that a reissue rate might be available — but that notice often shows up at the closing table, tucked into the stack of documents being signed. Here’s the rub: by then, there’s no time to ask the seller to dig up a prior policy, and no realistic way for a buyer to obtain one on their own. The form gets signed, the right gets waived, and the disclosure has done nothing for the person it was supposed to protect.
There’s also a structural piece worth naming. In a purchase, the prior policy belongs to the seller, not the buyer. Even a buyer who reads the notice carefully and wants to act on it has no real leverage — the seller’s old closing attorney or title agent isn’t going to hand a stranger’s policy over to the buyer, and shouldn’t. The only way the credit gets captured is if someone on the closing side asks the right party, early enough to matter.
How We Handle It at Battaglia Law
On every transaction we handle, we ask the seller or current owner for a copy of the existing title insurance policy — and we ask early, when there’s still time to track it down. If one is produced, we review it for reissue credit eligibility and, if it qualifies, we apply the credit. No request from you required.
It is, in our view, just part of the job.
Contact Us
If you’re buying, selling, or refinancing real estate in Florida and you want a closing handled by an attorney who treats your money like it matters, we’d be glad to talk. And if you’re a Realtor whose clients deserve a closing partner who catches details like this without being asked, we’d love to hear from you, too.
