>As an analogy, I'm imagining a country where there is no reliable municipal property registry, and no one knows who owns a particular house. Wouldn't that create chaos?
That's basically how it works in many (most?) US states. There's no authoritative record of all claims on a property. Land registries exist, but they're not authoritative. Liens can exist without being registered on it, and surface later. Hence the need for "title insurance".
That's basically how it works in many (most?) US states. There's no authoritative record of all claims on a property. Land registries exist, but they're not authoritative. Liens can exist without being registered on it, and surface later. Hence the need for "title insurance".
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/working-title-insuran...