FAQ
Your Order
Orders can easily be placed online at www.atl-service.com on our Order page. Please call our office if you need assistance, and someone will aid you in placing your order.
No, but we need a minimum of 2 out of the 4 in order to ensure your search is done on the correct property.
We charge a standard search fee of $80 within Florida and $100 outside of Florida plus any out of pocket expenses that are incurred in the course of your search. These expenses vary by both county and municipality, information that is requested, and ordinances that do govern fees charged.
With every order that you submit, you will receive a confirmation from us letting you know what the current and most up to date turnaround time is for your request. It is our goal to meet or beat that turnaround time with each and every request.
Municipalities and counties can vary greatly with their response times, with a variety of different reasons, and in many cases due to these agencies having to reduce staff.
If rush service is available in the county or municipal agency where your property is located, we can. Many cities do not offer rush service. There may be an additional charge for rush service.
We carry Error and Omissions coverage of $1,000,000 for your protection and peace of mind.
Once you are registered with our system, you have access to our Client Order Management section. In this section you can also find researcher contact information as well as directly communicate with your researcher. Additionally, you will find a list of all of your open orders, and a list of all of your prior orders. You can order updates directly from your history list.
We encourage you to contact the researcher assigned to your request. This can be found in the top right section of your report and also in the client order management section on our website. Your researcher will happily answer any questions that you may have.
If an order cancels prior to the completion of the final report, we only bill what expenses we cannot recover. If the order cancels after our final report and documentation has been sent, we will credit back half of our Search Fee upon receipt of payment, but expenses remain due.
With cancelled files, it is important to notify us as soon as possible in order to increase the possibility of cancelling municipal expenses.
General Information
A municipal lien search looks for any outstanding or pending issues that are not recorded (unrecorded liens) with the Clerk of the Courts. These issues include code violations, utility balances, special assessments, and real estate and tangible personal property taxes. In many cases, these issues turn into a municipal lien when left unresolved. Municipal issues when left unresolved or unpaid, will remain with the property and upon transfer of real property ownership, will become the responsibility of any future property owner.
There are two types of special assessments. One is defined as a term used to designate a unique charge that the government can assess against real estate parcels for certain public projects. These can include road projects, street lighting projects, utility service construction, etc.
The second type of assessment is for any unpaid services or bills that are owed to any local governmental agency. These often include utility bills, lot clearing bills, and code enforcement fines. These unpaid charges become unrecorded liens against the property.
A code violation occurs when city or county ordinances are not followed by a property owner. These code violations remain with the property regardless of a change of ownership. This could lead to fines, as well as expenses to correct the violation, becoming the burden of the new property owner.
Code enforcement violations are excluded from coverage in a Owner’s Title Policy.
An open or expired permit is one that has not passed a final inspection by the issuing governmental agency. As with code violations, these remain with the property regardless of a change of ownership.
This could lead to major expenses for the new property owner to close the permits.
Open/Expired permits are excluded from coverage in a Owner’s Title Policy.
Whenever there is a Transfer of Title, an estoppel should be obtained. An estoppel is different from a municipal lien search. An estoppel verifies any outstanding balances, special assessments, past due assessments, violation fees, legal fees, and approval requirements when the property is a part of a Homeowner’s Association or Condominium Association. In some cases, properties can belong to more than one association, in which case multiple estoppels would be needed.
A title search discloses any recorded liens on a property, however it does not uncover unrecorded liens against the property. Unrecorded liens are not covered by your Owner’s Policy, and a Transfer of Title does not remove unrecorded liens.
No. Although some recorded liens may show up during the course of an unrecorded lien search, there is no guarantee that they will. Unrecorded lien searches do not include federal/state tax liens, judgments, or bankruptcies.
Yes. Please contact us with the lien information and we will be happy to request a payoff for you.
We offer Nationwide Service.
In addition to our Chapter 159 municipal lien search, we offer additional services including:
Open or Expired Permit Searches, Estoppel Service (HOA and Condo), Zoning Verification Letters, UCC Searches, Corporate Searches, Bankruptcy Searches, Judgment Searches, Federal Tax Lien Searches, O & E Searches, and OFAC Searches. Please refer to our services page. If you have a service needed that is not listed here, please contact us for more information.
Yes. Individual condominium units and co-op units are subject to the same municipal liens enforceable by the governing municipality, even if the Utilities are paid by the governing association. Vacant land is also subject to the same municipal liens, even though there may not be a current structure on it.