California Ownership &
Encumbrance Report

An Ownership & Encumbrance (O&E) report is a research report that shows a property’s current recorded owner, its legal description, and the open items against the title — mortgages, deeds of trust, tax and other liens, and abstracts of judgment — plus the property’s tax status. It is a fast, affordable way to see who holds title today and what claims exist — without buying insurance.

Fast. Once we have your order and payment, our in-house team can turn one around in as little as 30 minutes, and orders are rarely completed later than the end of the same business day. That is well ahead of the three-to-five business days many national title-search services quote for California.

An O&E report is a flat $275 per property — one price, all-in, with no escrow or subscription. We confirm the property and scope with you before we run anything, and any county copy fees are passed through at cost.

No. An O&E report is informational — it shows what is recorded against a property right now. It does not insure the title and is not a substitute for a title insurance policy of its own. If you are financing a traditional purchase, your lender will require title insurance from a licensed title company. For cash buyers, auction bidders, lien checks, and due diligence, an O&E is usually exactly what is needed.

Yes. California property records are public, so an O&E can be ordered on any property by any party — buyers, investors, attorneys, and lenders included — without being the current owner. You give us the address or parcel number and we do the rest.

All 58. We work across every California county from our office in San Jose, entirely remotely — you never need to visit in person, and turnaround is the same fast in-house process statewide.

Because we are a Registered Legal Document Assistant office, you can direct us to prepare the document that resolves it — for example a reconveyance for a paid-off loan, a correction deed for a vesting error, or an affidavit of death for a deceased owner still on title. A data vendor cannot prepare those documents; we can, at your direction.

Yes. If you order regularly — wholesalers, investors, private lenders, and law offices — ask about volume pricing. Same in-house team, same fast turnaround, priced for repeat volume.

Everything the public record holds against the property, in one document: the current owner of record and how title is vested, the full chain of ownership back through prior transfers, every recorded lien and judgment, deeds of trust and mortgages, mechanics liens, IRS and Franchise Tax Board liens, HOA assessments, recorded easements and restrictions, and the property tax and foreclosure status. It is the same body of records a title company reviews when it opens a file. Flat $275, most reports back the same business day.

Yes, and it is what this report exists for. At a foreclosure or tax sale the liens are what cause loss, because some survive the sale and attach to you. A private lender has the same problem in reverse: your position depends on what is already recorded ahead of you. The O&E gives you the ownership line and the encumbrance picture together, which is what you need before you bid or fund. If you only need liens, the Property Lien Report is $95.

You can, and people do. It means searching the parcel index and the name index across decades, following every name change, trust transfer, death, and foreclosure, and knowing when an index gap means a missing record rather than no transfer. Liens against the owner personally are indexed by name, not by parcel, so a property-only search misses them entirely. The risk is not the hours; it is finishing with a report you believe is complete and acting on it.

No, and the distinction matters if escrow is involved. A preliminary title report is issued by a title company as the first step toward a policy, and it comes with that company’s underwriting behind it. An O&E is a research report on the same underlying records, issued without underwriting and without a policy. Investors and lenders use an O&E to decide whether to proceed; escrow will still order its own prelim when the deal moves forward.

Yes, and neither the price nor the turnaround changes. An O&E needs no notary and no signature beyond a short authorization, so there is no travel, no consulate appointment, and nothing to mail. You send the address or APN, we run the search, and the report arrives as a PDF. Out-of-state investors and lenders are a large share of who orders these.

The property address or the Assessor’s Parcel Number, and the county. You do not need to own the property and you do not need the deed. If you have a specific owner name, a lien you are trying to confirm, or a closing date driving the timing, tell us and we will work to it. You sign a short authorization and we run the rest.

They are layers of the same research, and you pay for depth. A Property & Vesting Profile at $75 answers who owns it and how. A Property Lien Report at $95 answers what is owed against it. A Chain of Title at $195 adds the full ownership history with deed copies. The Expanded Title Search at $275 is all of it in one document. Order the layer your decision actually requires.

Usually, yes, and that is the difference between us and a data vendor. A deceased owner is cleared with an affidavit of death, an ex-spouse with a divorce transfer deed, a paid-off loan with a reconveyance, and a misspelled or wrong name with a correction deed. Because we are an LDA office you can direct us to prepare and record the document that resolves what the report found.