EAGLE POLICY

First American Title Insurance Company introduces the all-new EAGLE Policy—our answer to the need for expanded title coverage for owners of one-to-four family residences, including condominiums. The EAGLE Policy includes exciting new coverages never offered before — not even in our original EAGLE Policy! What’s more, the new EAGLE Policy never expires, even when the homeowner no longer holds title. No policy issued by any company in our industry has ever offered a broader, more comprehensive, more reassuring range of coverages for the homeowner. Many of the coverages, including post-policy coverages, were developed as First American “firsts”, as the company continues to innovate ways to protect people and their property. Now, the post-policy coverages have been expanded in this new EAGLE Policy. Take a look at the new coverages automatically included in the EAGLE Policy — they’re another “first” from First American.

HERE IS WHAT’S NEW . . .

POST-POLICY PROTECTION FOR COVERED RISKS
Several important new risks are now covered on post-policy basis. This means that some defects in title that did not exist at the time the insured purchased the property, but are now asserted by other, are covered.
These post-policy covered risks involve cases in which someone other than the homeowner claims to own an interest in the title; or has rights affecting the title arising out of lease, contracts or options; or claims to have rights affecting the title arising out of forgery or impersonation; or has an easement on the land; or has a right to limit the insured’s use of the land; or in which the title is defective. The following are several examples of this post-policy protection:

POST-POLICY FORGERY
The homeowner is covered when someone forges the insured’s signature to a deed or mortgage in an effort to sell or impose a lien or restriction on their home.

POST-POLICY ENCROACHMENT
This coverage protects the homeowner if, after his or her purchase, someone else builds a structure (excluding boundary walls and fences) which encroaches on the homeowner’s land.

POST-POLICY CLOUD ON TITLE
Coverage is provided when the homeowner’s title is clouded because someone recorded in the land records a document containing the legal description of the homeowner’s land, whether by mistake or in a specific effort to cause the insured harm, and the homeowner is prevented from completing a loan or sale transaction on their home.

POST-POLICY ADVERSE POSSESSION
Coverage is extended to a homeowner when someone claims to have the insured’s title arising our of someone else’s continued use and occupancy.

POST-POLICY EASEMENT BY PRESCRIPTION
The homeowner is covered in the event another party claims to have the right to use a part of the insured’s land as an easement because of continuous use over time.

Previously, these types of risks were only covered if they existed on the policy date, although our original EAGLE Policy included coverage on a post-policy basis for forgery and encroachments onto the land.

Other existing coverages include:

EXPANDED ACCESS
The new EAGLE Policy expands access coverage to include, for the first time, actual vehicular and pedestrian access to and from the land, based upon a legal right. The access coverage traditionally provided by title insurance was tied to a legal right of access and did not include actual access. The new EAGLE Policy affords the type of access protection most needed by homeowners.

BUILDING PERMIT AND ZONING VIOLATION
Coverage is extended to a homeowner who is forced to remove or correct existing structures that were built without a building permit or that violate an existing zoning law or zoning regulation. The zoning coverage even extends to boundary walls and fences! The original EAGLE Policy’s coverage in this area was tied to forced removal, not force remediation. Because we have found it far more likely that a homeowner would be forced to correct a building permit or zoning violation than to actually remove the structure, the coverage has been expanded in the new EAGLE Policy to specifically include forced remediation of zoning violations, and up to the full Policy Amount for forced removal of structures due to zoning violations.

SUBDIVISION VIOLATION
The homeowner is covered where subdivision laws have been violated prior to the homeowner’s purchase and , as a result, the homeowner is unable to obtain a building permit, is force to correct or remove the violation, or is unable to complete a sale or loan transaction. The new EAGLE Policy continues to provide homeowners up to $10,000 (after a small deductible) for protection against this risk — a benefit which homeowners who obtained our original EAGLE Policy have found most valuable.

ENCROACHMENT BY BOUNDARY WALLS AND FENCES
The homeowner is covered if he or she is forced to remove a boundary wall or fence because it encroaches onto a neighbor’s land, onto an easement or over a building set-back line. Previous policies excluded boundary walls and fences from this type of coverage. We have found that the encroachment of boundary walls and fences onto neighboring land is far more likely to occur than the encroachment of other structures and, therefore, have determined to provide the homeowner protection of up to $5,000 (after a small deductible) for these types of encroachments.

RESTRICTIVE COVENANT VIOLATIONS
Coverage is provided for violations of restrictive covenants occurring before the homeowner acquired the land if the homeowner is forced to correct or remove the violation or if the homeowner’s title is lost or taken because of the violation. Examples of such violation would include the following, if not permitted by the applicable restrictions: (1) additional building; (2) types of rood material; (3) color of home; (4) number of stories; and (5) types of fencing. While these coverages have been available by endorsement for some time, they were never provided automatically until our original EAGLE Policy. The new EAGLE policy expands the coverage in this area from that provided in the original EAGLE Policy by eliminating the deductible that applied to a portion of this coverage.

Some coverages may not be available in your area or transaction, due to legal, regulatory or underwriting considerations. Please contact your First American representative for further information.

ANOTHER BENEFIT EXPANDED . . .
Coverage amounts continue to increase annually under the EAGLE Policy, but now First American will increase the policy by ten percent of the original amount in each of the first five years! This helps homeowners cover increases in the value of their property by raising the limit of insurance protection.

AND ANOTHER . .
The first line of one of the conditions in the new EAGLE Policy contains this unprecedented statement: “This policy insures you forever, even after you no longer have your title.” All other policies terminate when the homeowner gives up title to property and no longer has liability under title warranties made to a buyer or lender — but not the new EAGLE Policy. It is paid for just once, but it lives forever!

AND ANOTHER . . .
Now, living trust coverage includes not only the trustees of a trust, but the beneficiaries as well. This important expansion of benefit recognizes the growing popularity of living trusts as well as the concerns of trustees for those who will succeed them in the ownership of real property.

WHY CHANGE A GOOD THING?
The EAGLE Protection Owner’s Policy was reborn in its new form — and with important new benefits and conditions — in order to provide the broadest protection currently available to the nations’ growing family of homeowners.
All the coverages that were new with the original EAGLE Policy — all the important features that have made this policy so effective for homeowners — have been retained.