Title West has a staff of exceptional escrow officers that average over 14 years of experience each in real estate, title and related fields. Together with their assistants, these "Escrow Teams" strive to meet the specific needs of each individual client. Coupled with our title searchers and our state of the art title plant, we can ensure that your title needs are handled with the utmost of professionalism.

ESCROWS
In the State of Utah, as in most of the Western United States, real property transactions are handled by escrow agents. In these instances, there is no need of a formal closing (a ceremony in which the deed to the property is exchanged for the purchase price). Instead, the deed is given to the escrow agent, who holds it until receipt of the purchase price, at which time the escrow agent delivers (or records) the deed and the funds to the appropriate party.

The escrow agent is authorized to do their work by an instrument called the escrow instruction; it employs, empowers and instructs the agent as to their duties. This document is executed at some point in time after the execution of the contract of sale for the real property (earnest money sales agreement). It is legally possible to have the valid escrow instructions pre-existing contract of sale, but is not customary in this state.

Care must be taken by the parties in the drafting of the escrow instructions, because if the terms of the contract of sale and the escrow instructions differ, the latter controls. After all, it is the last word of the parties as to what their agreement means. The instructions will, therefore, supersede the contract of sale to the extent of any discrepancy between the two documents.

For the latter of these two documents to control its predecessor, however, the conflict should be complete. Where the documents are not in absolute conflict, any ambiguity in them creates uncertainty as to how the escrow agent should proceed. Such an ambiguity creates a duty to not proceed, but rather, to inquire of the parties how they wish to proceed. This duty of inquiry requires the agent to seek clarification from the parties.

In this area, the vast majority of escrow agents are employees of the title insurers. The escrow agent is the central figure in the conduct of real property transactions and thus it is only natural that insurers should take a hand in this work by forming escrow departments within their organizations.