# Texas Title Opinion Letter Template ## Usage Instructions Use the docx skill to generate the Title Opinion Letter. This template provides the structure and content guidance. **Before generating**: - Complete all analysis steps in SKILL.md - Have all findings organized - Know the transaction type and client requirements > ⚠️ **IMPORTANT**: All generated opinions are DRAFTS for informational purposes only. They do not constitute legal advice and must be reviewed, verified, and approved by a licensed Texas attorney before any use or reliance. --- ## TITLE OPINION TEMPLATE ``` ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ **DRAFT - FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW** ║ ║ ║ ║ This document is a preliminary draft prepared for informational purposes ║ ║ only. It does NOT constitute legal advice. This draft must be reviewed, ║ ║ verified, and approved by a licensed Texas attorney before any use or ║ ║ reliance. No attorney-client relationship is created by this document. ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ [LAW FIRM LETTERHEAD] DRAFT TITLE OPINION - PENDING ATTORNEY REVIEW TO: [Client Name] [Client Address] FROM: [Attorney/Firm Name] DATE: [Date of Opinion] RE: Title Examination Property: [Street Address] [City], [County], Texas [ZIP] GF No.: [Title Company File Number] Commitment Date: [Effective Date of Commitment] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ I. PURPOSE AND SCOPE This title opinion is rendered in connection with [the proposed purchase / refinance / lending transaction] involving the above-referenced property (the "Property"). This opinion is based solely upon my examination of the documents described below and is subject to the qualifications and limitations stated herein. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ II. DOCUMENTS EXAMINED I have examined the following documents: A. Title Commitment 1. Commitment for Title Insurance issued by [Title Company], GF No. [Number], effective [Date and Time], in the proposed amounts of $[Owner's Policy Amount] (Owner's Policy) and $[Lender's Policy Amount] (Lender's Policy). B. Recorded Instruments [List each instrument examined with full recording information:] 1. [Warranty Deed / Special Warranty Deed / General Warranty Deed] From: [Grantor] To: [Grantee] Dated: [Date] Recorded: [Date], Document No. [Number] / Volume [Vol], Page [Page] [County] County Real Property Records 2. [Deed of Trust] From: [Grantor/Borrower] To: [Trustee] for the benefit of [Beneficiary/Lender] Dated: [Date] Recorded: [Recording Info] Original Principal: $[Amount] [Continue numbering for all instruments...] C. Survey [Survey description, if reviewed:] Survey dated [Date], prepared by [Surveyor Name], RPLS No. [Number], certified to [Parties Certified To]. D. Other Documents [List any additional documents: tax certificates, HOA docs, judgement searches, affidavits, etc.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ III. LEGAL DESCRIPTION The Property is legally described as: [Insert full legal description from commitment] Being commonly known as [Street Address], [City], Texas [ZIP]. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IV. CHAIN OF TITLE Based upon my examination, title to the Property has been conveyed as follows: [Provide chain of title summary, typically covering at least 25 years or back to a root of title. Format:] 1. [Date]: [Grantor] to [Grantee], [Deed Type], recorded [Recording Info] [Note any special provisions: reservations, restrictions, etc.] 2. [Date]: [Grantor] to [Grantee], [Deed Type], recorded [Recording Info] [Continue through current owner...] Current vesting is addressed in Section V below. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ V. CURRENT VESTING Based upon my examination, fee simple title to the Property is currently vested in: [OWNER NAME(S)] [Manner of Holding: e.g., "as their community property" / "as joint tenants with right of survivorship" / "as tenants in common" / "a married person as separate property" / etc.] Marital Status: [Married to (Spouse Name) / Single / Unmarried / Widowed] [For entities:] [ENTITY NAME], a [Texas limited liability company / Texas corporation / Texas limited partnership / etc.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ VI. REQUIREMENTS The following items must be satisfied before marketable title can be conveyed [and before the proposed lender's lien will have the intended priority]: [Number and list each requirement from Schedule B-I, plus any additional requirements identified during examination:] 1. Payment of [current year] ad valorem taxes for [County] County, Texas, currently showing [status/amount]. 2. Release of Deed of Trust dated [Date], from [Grantor] to [Trustee] for the benefit of [Beneficiary], recorded [Recording Info], securing an original principal indebtedness of $[Amount]. 3. [Additional requirements...] 4. Execution and delivery of [Warranty Deed / Special Warranty Deed] conveying the Property from [Seller] to [Buyer]. 5. [For purchase-money financing:] Execution and delivery of Deed of Trust from [Borrower] to [Trustee] for the benefit of [Lender], securing the proposed loan. 6. Receipt of T-47 Affidavit (Seller's Affidavit as to Debts, Liens, Possession, and Indemnification Agreement). 7. [Entity requirements if applicable:] Receipt of evidence of authority for [Entity Name] to convey, including: - Certificate of Existence from Texas Secretary of State - Resolution/consent authorizing the transaction - Incumbency certificate confirming signing authority 8. [HOA requirements:] Receipt of current HOA Resale Certificate from [HOA Name]. 9. [Survey requirements:] Receipt of [new survey / updated survey / T-47 affidavit regarding survey]. 10. [Additional requirements as identified...] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ VII. EXCEPTIONS The following matters will remain as exceptions to title [or: the following matters affect title and require attention]: A. Standard Exceptions (Anticipated to Remain) 1. Standby fees, taxes, and assessments for [year] and subsequent years, not yet due and payable. 2. [If not deleted:] Discrepancies, conflicts, shortages, or encroachments that a survey would disclose. 3. [If applicable:] Rights of tenants in possession under unrecorded leases. B. Special Exceptions [Analyze each Schedule B-II exception:] Exception No. [X]: [Description from commitment] Recording Information: [Volume/Page or Document Number] Analysis: [Brief description of the exception, what it covers, and its impact on the Property] Recommendation: [Accept / Require cure / Obtain release / Further investigation required / etc.] --- Exception No. [X]: Restrictive Covenants recorded in [Recording Info] Analysis: These restrictions [describe key provisions]. Based upon my review, the current use of the Property [appears to comply / may not comply] with these restrictions. [Note any enforcement mechanism, expiration, or concerns.] Recommendation: [Typical recommendation for restrictions that will remain and are compliant] --- Exception No. [X]: Easement to [Grantee] for [Purpose] Recording Information: [Recording Info] Analysis: This easement grants [describe rights]. Based upon the survey, the easement [location relative to improvements]. This easement [does / does not] appear to materially affect the use of the Property for [intended purpose]. Recommendation: [Accept / Investigate location / etc.] --- [Continue for each exception...] C. Mineral Interests [If minerals are excepted or severed:] Exception No. [X]: Minerals reserved in [Instrument] recorded [Recording Info] Analysis: [Describe reservation - full minerals, NPRI, fractional interest, etc.] [Note surface use rights if reserved] [Check for existing leases] Surface Impact: [Describe potential impact on surface use] Recommendation: [Standard mineral exception / Require T-19.2 endorsement / Investigate further / Negotiate surface use agreement] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ VIII. TEXAS-SPECIFIC MATTERS A. Homestead Based upon my examination, the Property [is / is not / may be] the homestead of the current owner(s). [If homestead:] Homestead Implications: - Both spouses must join in any conveyance or encumbrance - Only liens for purchase money, taxes, improvements, home equity, or refinance are valid against the homestead - T-47 affidavit should confirm homestead status and spousal consent [If uncertain:] The homestead status should be confirmed by affidavit at closing. B. Community Property The Property was acquired by [Owner(s)] on [Date]. Based upon the marital status [stated in the deed / to be confirmed by affidavit], the Property [is / may be] community property. [If community property:] Community Property Implications: - Non-titled spouse must join in conveyance - Marital status affidavit should be obtained [If separate property claimed:] If Seller claims the Property is separate property, Seller should provide: [tracing documentation / separate property affidavit / partition agreement / etc.] C. Minerals and Surface Rights [Summarize mineral status:] Based upon my examination: - Mineral ownership: [100% with surface / Partially severed / Fully severed] - Current lease status: [No lease shown / Active lease to (Lessee)] - Surface use rights: [Reserved with minerals / Not reserved / Surface use agreement exists] [If minerals severed, include surface impact analysis and recommendations] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IX. OPINION Based upon my examination of the documents described above, and subject to the requirements set forth in Section VI, the exceptions set forth in Section VII, and the qualifications and limitations set forth in Section X, it is my opinion that: [CHOOSE APPROPRIATE OPINION:] [For clear title:] Marketable fee simple title to the Property is vested in [Owner Name(s)], and upon satisfaction of the requirements stated herein, [Seller] can convey good and marketable title to [Buyer] by [Warranty Deed / Special Warranty Deed], subject to the exceptions stated herein. [For title with concerns:] Title to the Property is vested in [Owner Name(s)], subject to the matters described herein. The following issues require resolution before I am able to opine that marketable title can be conveyed: 1. [Issue 1] 2. [Issue 2] [For title with material defects:] Based upon my examination, I am unable to opine that marketable title can be conveyed at this time due to [describe defect(s)]. I recommend [curative action / further investigation / title litigation]. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ X. QUALIFICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS This opinion is subject to the following qualifications and limitations: 1. This opinion is based solely upon my examination of the documents specifically identified above. I have not examined the original recorded instruments except as noted, relying instead upon the copies or abstracts thereof contained in the title commitment. 2. This opinion addresses only the status of record title and does not address matters that may be revealed by physical inspection of the Property, survey, or inquiry of parties in possession. 3. This opinion is limited to matters of Texas law and does not address federal law except as noted regarding federal tax liens. 4. This opinion does not address: zoning, land use, environmental, or building code compliance; the existence or validity of water rights; or compliance with restrictive covenants. 5. This opinion is rendered as of the effective date of the title commitment and does not address matters that may arise thereafter. 6. This opinion is rendered solely for the benefit of [Client Name] and may not be relied upon by any other person or entity without my express written consent. 7. My liability under this opinion is limited to [state limitation, if any, per engagement terms]. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Please contact me if you have questions regarding this opinion or require additional information. Respectfully submitted, _________________________________ [Attorney Name] [State Bar Number] [Firm Name] [Address] [Phone / Email] ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT - CONFIDENTIAL [If privileged: ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ATTACHMENT A: TITLE REQUIREMENTS CHECKLIST [Include Requirements Checklist as attachment] ATTACHMENT B: EXCEPTION CURE RECOMMENDATIONS [Include Exception Cure Recommendations if applicable] ``` --- ## Formatting Notes When generating with docx skill: - Use professional fonts (Times New Roman or similar, 12pt) - 1-inch margins - Proper paragraph spacing - Bold section headers - Include page numbers - Add letterhead placeholder or firm name at top