Policy Forms Update: ALTA Short Form Commitment for a Short Form Residential Loan Policy
November 2, 2017
The ALTA Board of Governors approved a recommendation to adopt a new ALTA Short Form Commitment for a Short Form Residential Loan Policy during a meeting on Oct. 11. The new form is currently posted for industry comment and is subject to change. The public comment period ends Nov. 24. The Board also approved the decertification date for the 2006 ALTA Commitment and 2008 Short Form Commitment.
Forms may be downloaded at www.alta.org/policy-forms. Upon review of comments and final publication on or about Dec. 1, 2017, the prior version of the Short Form Commitment will be marked for decertification on Aug. 1, 2018. On Aug. 1, 2018, both the ALTA Commitment (06-17-06) and the ALTA Short Form Commitment (10-16-08) will be decertified from the current collection of standard ALTA forms and moved to the archives.
In related news, the Board approved the release of Discussion Drafts of revised ALTA Owner’s and Loan Policies of Title Insurance. The deadline for comments is May 1, 2018.
As always, the forms have been developed by the ALTA Forms Committee and approved by the ALTA Board. An opportunity to review and comment is extended to ALTA Members, Policy Forms Licensees, and industry customers before final publication. The forms, in general, are made available for customer convenience. The parties are free in each case to agree to different terms and the use of these forms is voluntary unless required by law. The Forms are copyrighted and use is restricted to ALTA Policy Forms Licensees (including ALTA members) in good standing as of the date of use. Permission to reprint may be requested by contacting service@alta.org.
ALTA Short Form Commitment for a Short Form Residential Loan Policy – New Form
The new 2017 ALTA Short Form Commitment for a Residential Loan Policy will replace the current version (last revised effective 10-16-2008 with a technical correction dated 08-01-2015) and be a companion form to the 2016 ALTA Commitment.
The Short Form Commitment for a Residential Loan Policy incorporates by reference the substantive conditions of the offer of lender’s title insurance on a residential loan transaction. It is commonly used between centralized title & closing operations and loan originators’ centralized refinance operations to streamline the transfer of the data necessary for a Short Form Residential Loan Policy to be issued. The “Notice” provision is included as [bracketed] text and may be set out in the form or, as the other provisions of the long form version, incorporated by reference.
The current ALTA Short Form Commitment for a Residential Loan Policy and the 2006 ALTA Commitment are scheduled to be decertified effective Aug. 1, 2018, in order to coordinate decertification of the Commitment forms and provide title companies with sufficient time to update systems and file the revised forms. Note that this is a delay to the decertification date for the 2006 ALTA Commitment which was originally set for Dec. 31, 2017.
Questions? Comments?
You may download and review the subject forms in the "Forms Effective 12-01-2017 - For Comment" section in the Policy Forms Online. Forward comments or concerns to Kelly Romeo, the staff liaison for the Forms Committee.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.