California is the nation’s most populous state with 41 million residents. As home to the largest economy in the U.S., California’s huge real estate market creates a constant demand for reliable property title searches for each transaction.
With thousands of daily transactions, verifying a property’s legal status is no longer optional; it’s a critical step in protecting your investment. Title searches reveal key information such as current ownership, unpaid liens, easements, and any restrictions that could affect how the property is used or transferred.
A precise and localized title report can make or break a deal in California, where zoning laws, environmental rules, and tax assessments vary widely across counties. A reliable title search offers peace of mind and ensures every transaction moves forward confidently and legally, whether you’re buying, lending, investing, or simply verifying a property’s standing.
If you need 5 or 5,000 searches per year, send us the contact form. Why? We’ll make your life easier…
- Management – Do in a few clicks what takes hours now. All in one spot. Automatic tracking, delivery, naming, saving, storage, finding, communicating, and payment.
- Fulfillment – We can add your search vendors into our marketplace, or you can use those already there.
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What is included in a California Title Search?
A California title search report for residential or commercial properties includes the following:
- Tax amounts due, payment terms, and assessment details
- Ownership records – deeds
- Open deeds of trust (aka “mortgages”), any riders, and associated documents
- Active judgments and open liens
- Any other documents of record that affect the property
These documents help prospective buyers or sellers identify risk before finalizing a transaction.
PACE loans and assessment liens in California
In California, PACE loans (Property Assessed Clean Energy), as well as other assessment liens, such as the Notice of Special Assessment, are commonly found in title searches before real estate transactions. These documents can be confusing, misleading buyers into believing there are liens on the property for delinquent assessments. However, this is often not true as assessments can be collected/paid with property taxes.
To clarify if an assessment is just part of the property taxes, you can:
- Read the document to see if it states how the fee is collected. Here is a snippet from an Assessment Lien which states it’s collected “in the same installments as the general taxes.
- See the tax breakdown. If a portion of the taxes is going towards the entity that issued the Notice of Assessment. If so, and as long as the taxes are current, typically this is not a true lien on the property.
Trustee Sale Guarantee in California
In California, foreclosure is not a process run by the court. It is referred to as a non-judicial foreclosure. Instead of attorneys processing a foreclosure, Trustees do so. Before they can do the foreclosure, a Trustee orders a title search and assurances, and the result is named a Trustee Sale Guarantee (TSG). The TSG includes:
- The legal description and current ownership information
- Mortgages or deeds of trust
- Open liens or encumbrances
- Property tax status and any bankruptcy filings
- Contact information for parties entitled to receive foreclosure notices
- Name of the approved newspaper for publishing the foreclosure notice
- The city or judicial district where the property is located
Foreclosure laws and notification requirements vary by state.
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FAQs about California title searches
- The quickest, non-guaranteed way is to look up the property on the county assessor’s website. This is never 100% accurate, as the assessor must wait until the deed recorder’s office sends them the deed data. Delivery of this data can take 1-12 months. That means assessor data always lags actual data, and cannot be trusted as accurate.
- The 2nd way, but still not guaranteed to be accurate, is to look up the property’s parcel number to review the latest deed for the owner’s information.
- The best way is to order a title search of the property’s records. This is to verify that there is an unbroken deed chain. Although this is the best method, it is also not guaranteed, as there may be forgeries or other hidden title defects that could impact true ownership.
Most residential title searches can be done in 2-3 days. Searches on commercial properties can take 1-3 weeks.
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