So What Happens Next with Fidelity National Title Insurance Company?????

So where do we stand now and what happens next?

Fidelity National Title Insurance Company made an offer to settle a couple of months ago for $50,000 but this amount in my opinion does not even begin to cover the cost of the loss of the easement let alone all of the other costs now involved so we did not respond.

As the Title Officer from Fidelity National Title Insurance Company opened the claim on my behalf and as it was confirmed by their Claims Counsel - I believe that we are all in agreement that there is a valid claim - which means that it just comes down to how much?

First is the actual value of the lost easement.  Their appraiser from Boise Idaho valued the loss of an almost mile long easement to an 80 acre parcel at $0.  To show how subjective appraisals can be I, too, did a Property Valuation Report (formatted exactly like an appraisal) which valued the loss of the easement at substantially over $1,000,000.  I felt qualified to do this as a former Real Estate Broker having completed a college level course in Real Estate Appraisal.  And there are two other appraisers (my appraiser's fee is $6500) preparing two more appraisals.

I feel that other things need to also be included in this evaluation.  First and foremost the property was left with only a deeded entrance through a commercial and manufacturing facility which had a tremendous effect on the attempted sale of the property.  Next although the price the property would have sold for if it had the easements which I thought that I had when I purchased the property is hypothetical and needs to be based on comparable sales - the value of the property without the residential easement is a known value as the property was actively on the market the entire time.  And finally the effect that having this cloud exist during the prime selling time for this parcel - meaning during the fair weather months of June/July through October when Fidelity finally admitted that I should not have been granted Parcels Two, Three, Four and Five.

So determining this value is important.

But then there is the literally hundreds of hours that I have personally spent peacefully trying to convince Fidelity National Title Insurance Company that this loss was not $0.  No one would even speak to me.  So there is the cost of my time.  (And yes, this was extraordinarily stressful.)  And Fidelity National Title Insurance Company still has no respect for my time nor my attorney's time as they just chased us to Walnut Creek for depositions of a person employed by them who was not even there because the attorney for Fidelity forgot to communicate with my attorney.

And then as they would not discuss this situation with me peacefully I was forced to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit against them.  So now in addition to my attorney's time there is filing fees, court reporter and videographer fees, the appraiser's fee, and more of my time and energy involved.

And then there is the time I am spending writing this blog.