<story><title>A million-dollar brownstone that no one owned</title><url>https://theoutline.com/post/5807/the-million-dollar-brownstone-that-no-one-owned</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tantalor</author><text>Why don&amp;#x27;t we have a proof of custody (chain of ownership) instead of insurance against fraud? Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that be stronger &amp;amp; cheaper?</text></item><item><author>dzdt</author><text>If you ever bought real estate in the U.S. you probably paid title insurance.  This is insurance that covers the value of the loan in the case faulty or fradulent documents are found making the chain of ownership invalid.&lt;p&gt;It costs like 1&amp;#x2F;2 of a percent of the property value.&lt;p&gt;That is how YOU pay because of shenanigans like in this article.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jasode</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;Why don&amp;#x27;t we have a proof of custody (chain of ownership) &lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the USA and most developed countries, we already do have a &amp;quot;proof of a chain of ownership&amp;quot;.  And, we&amp;#x27;ve had it for hundreds of years.  For example, the title deeds and transfer of title documents saved at the county courthouse.&lt;p&gt;The issue is whether the so-called &amp;quot;proof&amp;quot; is :  authentic or forged, and&amp;#x2F;or conflicting with other prior claims.  (E.g, is the title transfer document faked?  Are the signatures from the real owners?  Was the previous person who transferred the title the actual rightful owner?)&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, &amp;quot;proof&amp;quot; of ownership is a social consensus that sorts out the claims and converges on agreement of who owns what. (I made a previous comment about this.[1])&lt;p&gt;You might notice that &amp;quot;proof&amp;quot; is recursive:  if we &amp;quot;prove&amp;quot; that the &amp;quot;proof&amp;quot; was valid, how do we know &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; proof is valid?  Well, things like &amp;quot;title insurance&amp;quot; and&amp;#x2F;or a court case with a judge&amp;#x2F;jury to render a final judgement is the process to break that infinite cycle of &amp;quot;proof of proofs&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=14553867&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=14553867&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>A million-dollar brownstone that no one owned</title><url>https://theoutline.com/post/5807/the-million-dollar-brownstone-that-no-one-owned</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tantalor</author><text>Why don&amp;#x27;t we have a proof of custody (chain of ownership) instead of insurance against fraud? Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that be stronger &amp;amp; cheaper?</text></item><item><author>dzdt</author><text>If you ever bought real estate in the U.S. you probably paid title insurance.  This is insurance that covers the value of the loan in the case faulty or fradulent documents are found making the chain of ownership invalid.&lt;p&gt;It costs like 1&amp;#x2F;2 of a percent of the property value.&lt;p&gt;That is how YOU pay because of shenanigans like in this article.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chrisabrams</author><text>I would suggest looking into buying a small piece of land on the edge of town and request a title search (get a list of previous owners). There you will see the mess that currently exists. We can create the most efficient process in the world with great technology, but it will take a long time before we can have confidence that all of the past records are recorded. If your title company fails to notice a deed from 1912...&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what the insurance is for. Even with the technology the insurance would still exist because it&amp;#x27;s silly not to buy the insurance. You are protected if the title company screws up with title insurance. In the future insurance would protect you from the &amp;quot;title chain&amp;quot; having bad data.</text></comment>