2021 ALTA Policies and Commitment Open for Public Comment
August 27, 2020
Recently adopted changes to the 2021 ALTA Commitment, Loan Policy and Owner’s Policy are now open to public comment through Dec. 31, 2020.
Comments may be submitted to forms@alta.org. The intended effective date of the revised forms is July 1, 2021. Click here to download the 2021 forms for review. No login or password is required to download these forms.
On June 19, 2020, the ALTA Board of Governors adopted the proposed changes. The advancement in electronic notarizations and changes in law that affect creditor’s rights were two drivers to revise the base policies.
The ALTA standard policy forms have been formally revised over the years to reflect changes in the marketplace brought about by evolving business practices, expectations of insureds, laws, regulations and legal decisions. While periodic revisions and technical corrections are more frequently made to other forms in the ALTA Policy Forms Collection (e.g., Endorsements), ALTA does not often adopt new base policies and does not apply interim revisions or technical corrections once they are adopted and published. This measured approach respects the significant effort required to implement new base policies and the impact to entities across the marketplace.
For historical perspective, the 1970 policies were revised in 1984, followed by a complete rewrite in 1987. In 1990, the forms were modified adding the creditor’s rights exclusion for first time. A limited modification was made in 1992 followed by a complete rewrite of the base forms in 2006.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.