Bulletin: OR2022001

Dear Associates:

The American Land Title Association (ALTA) recently adopted new/revised forms effective as of July 1, 2021. Those forms have now been filed in Oregon and adopted by OTIRO. They are available to use as of June 24, 2022.

The new forms and corresponding guidelines are available on Virtual Underwriter here.

The following new or revised policies were adopted by ALTA, effective as of July 1, 2021, and now adopted by OTIRO effective in the State of Oregon as of June 24, 2022:

• OTIRO Form No. PO-05 2021 - ALTA Owner's Policy, (07-01-2021)
• OTIRO Form No. PL-07 2021 - ALTA Loan Policy, (07-01-2021)
• OTIRO Form No. PL-08 2021 - ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy - Current Assessments, (07-01-2021)

The notable changes and revisions in the 2021 ALTA Owner's Policy and the 2021 ALTA Loan Policy include the following:

• Use of new or amended defined terms such as Affiliate, Consumer Protection Law, Discriminatory Covenant, Enforcement Notice, Governmental Mortgage Agency or Instrumentality, Insured, Knowledge, Obligor, PACA-PSA Trust, Public Records, and State in the policies and revised endorsements (these terms made changes to some endorsements necessary).
• Moving some exceptions that became commonplace (such as calculation of area, and PACA-PSA Trust to the jacket as Exclusions).
• Punctuation and grammatical refinements.
• Clarification that choice of law will be the State, or to the extent it controls, federal law.
• Clarification that the choice of forum will be a State court or a federal court.
• Amendments based on how courts have treated the prior policy language.
• New coverages and exclusions for both Insured and Insurer.
• The OTIRO 239 Policy Authentication (Electronic Policy/Signature) endorsement will become obsolete. The endorsement's coverages are now included in the Policy Jacket. However, if requested, you may issue upon request.
• The 2021 ALTA Policies treat the PACA-PSA Trust both as a Covered Risk and an Exclusion. If there is a recorded PACA-PSA Trust Enforcement Notice (such as a lis pendens) and the policy does not except to that recorded notice, it is a Covered Risk. If it is a regular PACA-PSA Trust lien and not recorded in the Public Records, it is excluded.
• A new definition of the term "Insured" will allow coverage under the 2021 ALTA Owner's Policy and the 2021 ALTA Loan Policy to continue when the Land is conveyed to an Affiliate, even when there is a monetary exchange.
• "Enforcement Notice" is a new defined term. This is a document affecting the Title, recorded in the Public Records at the Date of Policy that describes any part of the Land and identifies a violation or enforcement of a law, ordinance, permit, or governmental regulation, exercise of a power, or enforcement of a PACA-PSA Trust.
• Covered Risk 10 of the 2021 ALTA Loan Policy adds language to clarify and confirm for lenders that the coverage is for certain enumerated components of the Indebtedness.
• Covered Risk 11.a. on Mechanics Liens (consistent with the OTIRO 232 Series endorsements) confirms that the coverage relates to services and equipment, in addition to labor and materials.
• Exclusion 9 of the 2021 ALTA Loan Policy and Exclusion 7 of the 2021 ALTA Owner's Policy exclude liability for the quantity of area, square footage, or acreage described in the Land (if any).
• The Transaction Identification Data that has been a part of ALTA Commitments since 2016 is now formatted into Schedule A of the new 2021 ALTA Policies as well for consistency. It is made clear this information is not insured.
• The 2021 ALTA Loan Policy adds a new option for the Insured to select the date the Insured Mortgage is extinguished for determination of value. The 2021 ALTA Owner's Policy adds a new option for the Insured to select the Date of Policy for determination of value if Title to all of the Land is void.

For a detailed list of differences between the 2021 and 2006 ALTA forms and a summary of the advantages to the customer of the new ALTA forms, click here.

The following new or revised Commitment was adopted by ALTA, effective as of July 1, 2021, and now adopted by OTIRO effective in the State of Oregon as of June 24, 2022:

• OTIRO Form No. C-04 - 2021 ALTA Commitment for Title Insurance (07-01-2021)

The following new or revised endorsements are adopted by OTIRO, effective as of June 24, 2022, and may be issued with the 2021 ALTA Owner's Policy and the 2021 ALTA Loan Policy, if applicable:

The 2006 versions of the above endorsements must be issued with the 2006 ALTA Owner's Policy and the 2006 ALTA Loan Policy.

OTIRO Endorsement 234.1 (Identified Exception and Identified Risk Coverage) (7-1-21) can be issued with either the 2006 or 2021 ALTA Policies.

Additional changes have been made to the Oregon Title Insurance Rating Manual as follows

• OTIRO has adopted the ALTA 18.3-06 (OTIRO End. 218.3-06) Single Tax Parcel and ID (12/1/2018).
• While the arbitration paragraph was removed from both the Owners Policy and Lenders Policy in Oregon as of Feb. 15, 2018, we continually see clients requesting OTIRO Endorsement 85(O) and 85(L) Modification of Arbitration. The endorsement “modifies” a paragraph that does not exist therefor the cost has been changed to zero.
• OTIRO Endorsement 109 has been withdrawn.

The following ALTA 47 series endorsements were adopted by OTIRO as of June 24, 2022, and are to be issued only with the 2006 ALTA Owner's Policy and the 2006 ALTA Loan Policy, and only if our Guidelines require issuance.

• The ALTA 47 (OTIRO End. 247) Operative Law may be issued for ALTA Owner’s Policy-2006 (06-17-2006; Rev. 02/15/2018).
• The ALTA 47.1 (OTIRO End. 247.1) Operative Law may be issued for ALTA Loan Policy-2006 (6-17-2006; Rev. 02/15/18), and ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy (06/17/2006; Rev. 02/15/18).

The following OTIRO endorsements have not been revised and may be issued with the 2006 ALTA Policies and the 2021 ALTA Policies, if applicable.

Per Oregon statutes a domestic partner has the same rights as a spouse (ORS 106.300-340.) OTIRO has adopted a new endorsement, OTIRO 110 (Domestic Partner) as an amendatory endorsement to establish that the policy term spouse includes a domestic partner. There is no charge for this endorsement, and it should be included with all 2021 Owner’s Policies.

Decertification of the 2006 ALTA Forms is scheduled for December 31, 2022, but the decertification will not prohibit use of the 2006 ALTA Forms. While we prefer to use the 2021 ALTA Forms, we will continue to make the 2006 ALTA Forms available if they are requested by your customers.

As a reminder, the most current version of the ALTA form available in each state for issuance with the applicable version of the ALTA Policy should be used, unless approved by a Stewart underwriter.

Please contact Property Info Customer Care at customercare@stewart.com or your title production software vendor to have the new forms uploaded to your system.

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

For on-line viewing of this and other bulletins, please log onto www.vuwriter.com.