Commercial Title Insights — Title Industry Edition | September 2026
A monthly briefing for the title industry — Michigan agents, out-of-state agents, and underwriting counsel.
Title Industry Pulse
A Foreclosure Judgment Vanishes Because the Borrower Was Already Dead
A New York appellate court dismissed a 2014 Fannie Mae foreclosure on August 12, erasing a judgment standing since 2018, because the borrower had been dead more than two years when the suit was filed. A judgment entered against a party who could not be sued is a defect, and it does not cure by sitting quietly in the chain.
Source: MPA Magazine via ALTA News You Can Use, Aug. 17, 2026
Ten State AGs Sue the OCC Over Escrow Interest
Two OCC rules issued in May let national banks and federal savings associations decide whether to pay interest, or charge fees, on mortgage escrow accounts regardless of state law. Ten attorneys general sued in Oregon federal court arguing the agency exceeded its authority — a direct fight over how far federal preemption reaches into escrow economics.
Source: CNBC via ALTA News You Can Use, Aug. 13, 2026
Congress Reopens Gramm-Leach-Bliley
A new Congressional Research Service report tracks rising congressional interest in updating GLBA. Title agencies are covered financial institutions, so any rewrite lands on NPI handling, vendor contracts, and the information-security obligations already in Best Practices.
Transaction Spotlight
Details anonymized to protect client confidentiality.
A recent sale-leaseback involved a parcel with no frontage of its own. Its access to a public street ran entirely across an adjoining frontage parcel held in related ownership, under a cross-easement. That easement is the only reason the property is not landlocked, which means it is worth exactly what the policy says about it and nothing more.
The file is a clean illustration of why the two halves of the fix are not interchangeable. An easement that serves the insured land has to be written into the insured estate itself, not merely acknowledged somewhere in the file, so the policy insures the access along with the dirt. Then it needs the indirect access endorsement on top of that, covering access to a public street by way of the easement rather than from the insured parcel directly. Doing one without the other leaves a gap nobody notices until the related ownership stops being related. At Midwest Commercial, we have the knowledge of transactions like this so we are prepared and ready.
Commercial Title Insight
Michigan's Marketable Record Title Act: What It Clears and What It Doesn't
Michigan's Marketable Record Title Act, MCL 565.101 et seq., is the statute most often invoked and least often read closely on a commercial file. It runs from a root of title — the most recent title transaction of record at least forty years old — and extinguishes interests predating that root unless they were preserved. Preservation is where the work is. A notice of claim recorded under the act, a specific reference in a post-root muniment, or possession will each keep an old interest alive, and the statutory exceptions are broad enough on commercial land that MRTA rarely delivers the clean sweep people expect. Interests of parties in possession survive, as do easements with physical evidence of use on the ground and rights held by federal, state, and local government.
So treat MRTA as a defense you have to prove, not a shortcut you get to assume. Search back through the root, not merely to it — you cannot know whether a pre-root interest was referenced in a post-root muniment, or whether an easement is visibly in use, without looking. Then write it up for underwriting counsel instead of deciding it at the desk: state the root, identify the interest you propose to extinguish, and show why no exception reaches it. That memo is what gets the exception removed, and what protects the file if the interest resurfaces. That is this month's Pulse from the other side: a defect does not cure by aging, and MRTA is the narrow statutory exception.
From Dave's Desk
Two on the calendar. September 16 I am in Columbus for Westcor's Central States CE and CLE session — ALTA surveys, commercial claims, and succession planning. Claims sessions taught to a room of commercial agents are where the useful arguments happen.
Then ALTA ONE in Scottsdale, October 12 through 15. If you are going and you carry Michigan work, find me. Most of our co-agent relationships started in a hallway, not a pitch.
— Dave
Co-Agent and Referral Arrangements
We welcome co-agent referral arrangements on Michigan commercial transactions. If you are a Michigan agent without a commercial bench, an out-of-state agent with a Michigan leg, or an underwriter looking for a qualified Michigan specialist for a complex file, please reach out directly. We split fees on co-agent arrangements per underwriter rules and are happy to handle the Michigan portion of multi-state portfolio closings.
Stay Connected
Follow us on LinkedIn: Midwest Title Commercial | Dave Nykanen
About Midwest Title and Dave Nykanen
Midwest Title's Commercial Division is a Michigan title agency specializing in complex commercial closings — multi-parcel assemblages, entity-level acquisitions, co-insurance placements, multi-state portfolio legs, and the underwriting issues that benefit from a dedicated commercial bench. Founded and led by Dave Nykanen, a licensed Michigan real estate attorney with three decades of commercial real estate experience as both a practicing attorney and a title agent, the division regularly serves as Michigan co-agent for out-of-state agents and as a referral destination for residential-focused Michigan agents who don't carry a commercial desk.
Contact:commercial@mwtmi.com | Midwest Title | Commercial Division | Michigan-Licensed Title Insurance Agent
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
