Oceanside Title, Inc.

This was my experience, so it does not mean it will be yours however aspects of it are still possible. Do understand the staff was courteous and responsive to calls pertaining to the closing but there are the following 2 issues, the first, was realized at closing and the second, 6 months later. I'll start with the latter. The closing occurred in April 2021 and 6 months later in October I was notified by the title company there was $402 in outstanding maintenance fees owed to the homeowners association (HOA). Now usually this would be reconciled at closing, by the title company requesting an estoppel letter from the HOA which they said they did ask for but proceeded to close, without it. It turns out in Florida the buyer can be but not always be responsible after the closing for unpaid HOA fees incurred by the prior owner. It is the estoppel letter that provides protection for that circumstance therefore I urge you to have the estoppel letter prior to closing so as to not get a surprise bill, as in my case 6 months later. For clarity concerning who is liable for unpaid assessments refer to- Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes, Section 720.3085(2)(b). The first- realized at closing. At some point a buyer will need to send funds to the title company and if you want to wire the funds this title company will send an instruction letter to the buyer that will include how to avoid wire fraud. What's not in the letter is their bank will charge a fee for each wire transfer received, not everyone knows that including me at the time. My bill for several transfers came to $150. If only a statement similar to what phone companies warn of- (such as there my be a charge to send a text), had been in the instruction letter to warn that their bank charges a fee of X dollars for incoming wire transfers or if I had been informed beforehand during any of the calls to or from the title company I could have sent a cashier's check via US mail for under a dollar and saved myself $149. In summary the charges were legitimate but I was not pleased because in my judgment I paid for their omissions. No timely estoppel letter. No bank fee schedule. No conversation for clarification. For me it was a $552 surprise and for them it was nothing because they took zero responsibility. Lastly, you may wonder why this was written thirteen months after closing. It's because I was repeatedly, through online survey requests, asked for my experience and so they got what they asked for. Footnotes: 1. Keep in mind the aforementioned is only a small part of a complex process administered by title companies so it's inevitable things can happen- just not with my money, please. 2. Opening the link to the survey I found the following, "If your experience wasnt great, we want to make it right. Contact us directly". And that's what I did before this review was written. Two calls with two different people who both said I would get a call back by the person in charge- as of this posting that never happened. 3. References, suggestions, common sense or anything else you find herein should not be considered legal advice because I don't want any more surprises.
Feb 27th, 2023

Feb 19th, 2023

Oct 7th, 2022

Thy did not do their job. They completely denied the the errors that was their job to find , address, and correct. They never returned our calls, saying the person to speak to wasn't available, on vacation, never returned calls. It cost us money and a year of stress and worry to correct and insure that our property ownership correct and legal. I highly recommend NOT using them .
Sep 25th, 2022

Sep 15th, 2022