Marital Rights in Missouri and Title Insurance

Marital Rights in Missouri and the role of the title company

Common practice in St Louis is for real estate closings to take place at the title company.  Many buyers and sellers don’t really understand what title companies deal with in their title searches.   Title companies help sellers transfer their titles and make sure buyers have clear title to their new home. Title companies also conduct title searches for any existing claims on properties, offer title insurance for buyers and lenders, and maintain necessary escrow accounts for sellers and buyers.

If there is one thing I have learned over my years in real estate, it is the value of a trustworthy and established title company.  Sloppy work by the title company can result in problems down the road.  Without their due diligence, problems like transferring ownership of only 1/2 of a condo can happen (and did to me once).  Or, they do not even record the title transfer; then go out of business so that the title can’t even be found (happened to a friend of mine in a refinance situation).
Insight Title Company has been one of my favorite title companies for many years.  Barb Seerey and Alex Kueling from Insight Title were kind enough to share a tip with us about how marital rights can effect a successful closing.

Title Tips: Marital Rights in Missouri.

As a title company, several areas often require delicate handling when requesting information. One of the most frequent involves requesting information on a party’s spouse, or even worse, their ex-spouse. Parties rarely understand why this type of information is necessary, so we thought we would provide some basics in regards to spousal rights in Missouri.

It is easy to understand that when both spouses jointly own a property (in an arrangement known as tenants by the entirety), both spouses must sign off on paperwork to sell or mortgage the property. However, even when one spouse owns a property in his or her name alone, that person’s spouse must consent before he or she can convey (sell) or encumber (mortgage) the property. This is because, under Missouri Revised Statute 474.150, any conveyance of real estate made by a married person without the written expressed assent of his or her spouse is deemed to be in fraud of the spouse’s marital rights.

When this situation arises, we typically ask that a spouse not on title execute a Marital Rights Waiver, which essentially states that a particular transaction will not be in fraud of his or her marital rights. The failure to obtain a Marital Rights Waiver, or its substantial equivalent, can become a defect on title. Therefore, essentially whenever a married person owns property in Missouri in his or her name (rather than in a corporate entity or trust), that person’s spouse must consent to transactions involving the property.

So what about ex-spouses, why do title companies care about them? This can be for a variety of reasons. One typical reason is that the owner was married when he or she acquired the property, but later got divorced. While the divorce is final, it may not be fully documented for the land records- the records may show that title remains vested in husband and wife.

Therefore, we usually seek documentation (a divorce decree or other court order) showing that the property was awarded to one spouse or the other in the divorce. Hopefully, the property was awarded to the current owner. Another issue may relate to child support payments. But that will be for another day….

There are many other reasons why we would require information related to a spouse or ex-spouse. If you have any title questions, please reach out to Barbara Heise.

For the “unmarrieds” out there, this link on tips for unmarried couples buying property together is helpful

Additional information for how to take title as unmarried couples

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