What Is a Title Commitment? How to Read Schedule A, B-I, and B-II Before You Close

A title commitment is the title company's written offer to issue a title insurance policy on a specific property, on specific terms, once certain conditions are met. It is the most important document you will read between contract and closing, and it is routinely skimmed — buyers glance at page one, confirm the legal description looks right, and move on, missing the two schedules that actually determine what the policy covers. Here is what a title commitment contains, how to read each section, and what to do when something in it looks wrong.

What a title commitment actually is

After a title search is completed, the title company summarizes what it found and states the basis on which it is willing to insure. That statement is the commitment. In plain terms it says: if you satisfy the items in Schedule B-I, we will issue the policy described in Schedule A, subject to the exceptions listed in Schedule B-II.

Three things it is not:

• It is not a guarantee of clear title. The commitment does not certify that title is good or marketable. It identifies what the company found in the public record and what it is prepared to insure around.
• It is not a title opinion. An attorney's title opinion is a legal conclusion about the state of title. A commitment is an insurance offer with conditions attached.
• It is not a survey. It may list a survey as a requirement, and it will almost certainly except out boundary and encroachment matters that only a survey can resolve, but it does not establish where the lines are.

Terminology varies by state. In much of the West — California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona among them — the equivalent document is a preliminary report, or prelim. California's prelim is explicitly not a representation about the condition of title, only a statement of the terms on which the company would issue a policy. The practical content is similar; the legal weight is narrower.

The parts of a commitment

Commitment conditions

The front matter sets the rules: the commitment is an offer, it is not effective without the company's authorized signature and attached schedules, liability is limited to actual loss incurred in reliance on it and capped at the proposed policy amount, and the commitment terminates on its own after a set period — commonly six months from the commitment date on ALTA's standard form — or when the policy issues. If your closing slips past that window, the commitment needs updating, and an update can surface liens or judgments recorded in the meantime.

Schedule A — the facts

Short, and worth reading line by line. Schedule A states:

• The commitment date — the effective date of the search. Anything recorded after it is not reflected.
• The policy or policies to be issued, the amount of each, and the proposed insured.
• The estate or interest being insured — fee simple, leasehold, an easement.
• The current record owner, or vesting: who the public record says owns the property today.
• The legal description.

Two checks catch most problems. Does the vesting match the party signing your contract as seller? If the record owner is a trust, an estate, a dissolved LLC, or a deceased individual, you have a signing-authority problem to solve before closing, not after. And is the policy amount right? An owner's policy should be written at the purchase price (on new construction, price plus improvements); a lender's at the loan amount. Insuring for less leaves you permanently underinsured.

Schedule B-I — requirements

This is the to-do list. Nothing issues until these items are satisfied. Typical requirements include:

• Pay the consideration and record the deed from the record owner to the proposed insured.
• Pay off and obtain recordable releases for existing mortgages, deeds of trust, judgment liens, and tax liens.
• Pay current taxes and any special assessments due.
• Provide an owner's affidavit covering unrecorded matters — parties in possession, recent work, unrecorded agreements.
• Produce entity documentation (operating agreements, resolutions, authority to sell) or probate, trust, divorce, and guardianship documents when title passed through any of those.
• Obtain a current survey, or satisfy the company's requirements for deleting survey exceptions.
• Obtain releases, subordinations, or payoffs for HOA assessments, mechanic's liens, and UCC filings.

Read B-I as schedule risk. Every item depends on a third party acting by a deadline — a servicer payoff, a signature from an out-of-state heir, a release from a contractor who disputes being owed money — and any of them can take longer than your contract allows.

Schedule B-II — exceptions

This is the section that defines the policy's limits, and the one most buyers never read. Everything listed here is carved out: the policy will not cover loss arising from it.

Standard or general exceptions appear on nearly every commitment: rights of parties in possession, unrecorded easements and claims, boundary and encroachment matters a survey would disclose, unrecorded mechanic's liens, and taxes not yet due and payable. Many of these can be removed. An owner's affidavit, a current survey, or an endorsement will often buy "extended coverage" that deletes some or all of them. Whether that is available, and at what cost, depends on the state and the underwriter — but you have to ask.

Special exceptions are specific to your property and come straight from the recorded chain: easements and rights-of-way, CC&Rs and HOA declarations, plat restrictions, mineral and oil-and-gas reservations, leases, options, party-wall agreements, and encroachments already of record. These generally cannot be removed, because they genuinely burden the property. The job is to read them and decide whether you still want the property on those terms. A mineral reservation with surface access rights, an easement running through the only buildable area, or a use restriction that conflicts with your plans are all deal-level facts that live only in Schedule B-II.

How to review a commitment

1. Confirm the vesting and legal description against the contract and tax parcel. A wrong legal description insures the wrong dirt.
2. Check the policy type and amount. Owner's at purchase price, lender's at loan amount. If no owner's policy was ordered, make that choice deliberately rather than by omission.
3. Work through B-I and give each item an owner and a date. Anything needing a third-party signature or payoff goes first.
4. Read every B-II exception and pull the underlying documents. Exceptions are usually listed by recording reference only; the title company can provide copies, and the one-line text tells you almost nothing.
5. Ask what can be deleted — survey, parties-in-possession, mechanic's lien coverage — and what an affidavit, survey, or endorsement would cost.
6. Object within your contract window. Miss it and you are generally deemed to have accepted every exception listed.

Why investors and wholesalers read commitments harder

On a retail purchase, the commitment is a due-diligence document. On an investment or assignment deal, it is the deal. It is where you learn that the seller inherited the property and probate was never completed, that a judgment lien attached between contract and closing, that an unreleased deed of trust sits in the chain from a lender that no longer exists, or that an HOA has recorded assessments exceeding the equity. Each is survivable with enough runway and fatal with none. If you are assigning or double-closing, the commitment also tells you whether the chain supports your plan: vesting that does not match your contracting party, a seller holding only a fractional interest, or exceptions blocking the end buyer's intended use will all stop the deal, usually at the worst possible moment.

Where the commitment fits in the title process

The sequence is: order title → title search → commitment issued → requirements cleared and objections resolved → closing → policy issued. The commitment is the hinge. Once the policy issues, its coverage mirrors what the commitment promised: Schedule A's amount and insured, minus Schedule B-II's exceptions. Nothing new is added in your favor at closing. For the broader picture of what title coverage protects, see our title insurance guide. And if your work involves finding properties with clouded title, unreleased liens, or probate gaps in the first place, the same recorded documents that drive a commitment make those properties identifiable at scale — the approach covered in our guide to using property data for leads.

Need property and owner data to go with it?

We build property and owner files from county recorder and assessor records — deeds, liens, releases, probate transfers, and absentee ownership — for investors, title professionals, and agents. Email info@listcentral.us with the counties you work and we will send a free sample so you can test the data before committing to anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a title commitment and a title policy?

A commitment is an offer to insure, issued before closing and conditioned on the requirements in Schedule B-I being satisfied. The policy is the actual contract of insurance, issued after closing. The policy's coverage mirrors the commitment: the amount and insured from Schedule A, minus the exceptions in Schedule B-II. A commitment also expires on its own, commonly six months from its date on ALTA's standard form, while a policy remains in force for as long as the insured holds an interest in the property.

Can you remove exceptions from a title commitment?

Sometimes. Standard or general exceptions — parties in possession, unrecorded easements, survey and boundary matters, unrecorded mechanic's liens — can often be deleted by providing an owner's affidavit, a current survey, or by buying an endorsement, depending on the state and the underwriter. Special exceptions taken from recorded documents, such as easements, CC&Rs, and mineral reservations, generally cannot be removed because they actually burden the property. You review those and decide whether to proceed.

How long do you have to object to a title commitment?

Your purchase contract sets the window, not the title company. Most contracts give the buyer a defined number of days after delivery of the commitment to review it and raise written objections. If you let that period pass without objecting, you are generally treated as having accepted every exception listed, and the seller has no further obligation to cure them. Read the title review clause in your contract as soon as the commitment arrives.