What Is Title Insurance in Texas? Cost and Who Pays

Title insurance protects your ownership of a house against problems that already existed before you bought it: an unknown heir with a claim, a forged signature somewhere back in the chain, a lien nobody released, unpaid taxes from two owners ago. You pay the premium once, at closing, and the owner’s policy stays in force for as long as you own the property.

Texas works differently from most states. The premium is set by the Texas Department of Insurance rather than by the title company, so on Fort Worth’s $319,999 median sale price the owner’s policy premium is $1,867 at every title company in the state. Shopping around will not find you a lower one, which is why the standard national advice about comparing title insurance quotes does not apply here.

How the numbers in this guide work. Dollar examples are anchored to the $319,999 Fort Worth median sale price from my market report. Every premium figure is calculated from the promulgated rate table effective March 1, 2026, pulled from TDI on September 10, 2026. Endorsement charges come from the rate rules in the Basic Manual of Title Insurance, most of which were last amended by Order 2024-8851, effective November 1, 2024. Contract references are to TREC form 20-19, the current One to Four Family Residential Contract, effective July 1, 2026.

What Does an Owner’s Policy Actually Insure?

An owner’s policy covers problems that already existed before your purchase date, not problems that arise after it. That distinction explains most of the confusion about what you are buying.

Your homeowners policy covers events that might happen, such as hail, fire, or a burst pipe. Your owner’s title policy covers events that already happened in the public record before your name went on the deed and that nobody caught in time. TDI lists the common ones on its consumer page: unpaid property taxes, fraud or forgery in earlier paperwork, and a spouse or unknown heir who surfaces later claiming they own part of the place.

Two parts of the coverage are easy to overlook. First, the title company defends you in court if someone attacks your title, and legal defense on a contested-heirship claim can cost several times the premium. Second, the title company had to search the record before it would agree to insure, which means a company with its own money at risk already looked for problems on your behalf.

What is not covered?

Several categories are excluded, and they are worth reading. A title policy generally will not cover defects created after the policy date, defects you created or already knew about, building and zoning violations, or restrictive covenants that were disclosed to you. It will not cover a boundary dispute with your neighbor unless you buy the additional coverage described further down this page.

The other limit is on Schedule B of your policy. Anything listed there as an exception is carved out of your coverage. Those exceptions come straight from the title commitment you receive before closing, which is why reading the commitment matters more than reading the policy.

Why Does Every Texas Title Company Charge the Same Premium?

A state agency sets the number. Texas is a promulgated-rate state, meaning TDI publishes a Schedule of Basic Premium Rates under Rate Rule R-1 of the Basic Manual and every licensed title agent is required to charge it. TDI states that discounts on the premium are not permitted and that each agent must charge the same premium for the same policy.

The policy forms are standardized as well. The language in a Texas owner’s policy is the same regardless of which company issues it. The only parts that vary from deal to deal are the property description in Schedule A, the exceptions in Schedule B, and the exclusions.

The promulgated premium also covers more than insurance, which surprises many out-of-state buyers. Under Rate Rule R-1 it includes the title search, the title examination, and closing the transaction. In many states those arrive as three separate invoices from three separate parties. In Texas they are bundled into the single premium figure.

What you can shop

The escrow fee. TDI states that escrow and closing fees differ between agents and that comparing them is how you save money at a Texas closing. On a median-priced Fort Worth home the buyer’s share of the escrow and settlement fee typically runs $350 to $650, and calling three companies has moved that figure by a couple hundred dollars for my clients.

You also get to pick the company. Your lender, your builder, or your agent may recommend one, and you are free to use somebody else. Under Section 9 of RESPA a seller cannot make the sale contingent on your using a particular title insurer.

What Does Title Insurance Cost in Fort Worth?

TDI’s chart lists exact premiums up to $100,000 and gives a four-step calculation above that. For the $100,001 to $1,000,000 band: subtract $100,000 from the policy amount, multiply by 0.00494, round to the nearest dollar, then add $780.

Run it on the Fort Worth median:

Sale price ...................... $319,999
Minus $100,000 .................. $219,999
Times 0.00494 ................... $1,086.79506  rounds to  $1,087
Plus the $780 base .............. $1,867

Across the price points I see most often in Tarrant County:

Sale price	Owner’s policy basic premium
$250,000	$1,521
$300,000	$1,768
$319,999 (Fort Worth median)	$1,867
$400,000	$2,262
$500,000	$2,756
$650,000	$3,497

Two notes on that table.

The rates dropped on March 1, 2026. Under the previous schedule, in effect since September 2019, the factor was 0.00527 on an $832 base, and that same $319,999 policy came to $1,991. The current premium is about $124 cheaper than the prior schedule produced for the same policy amount. Many online calculators and title-company worksheets have not been updated, so a net sheet quoting the old figure is out of date rather than deliberately wrong.

The premium tracks the policy amount, which tracks the sale price. Paragraph 6A of the TREC contract requires the owner’s policy to be issued in the amount of the sales price, not the appraised value and not the loan amount. Negotiating the price down lowers the premium with it.

Owner’s Policy or Lender’s Policy: What Is the Difference?

Two policies, two different insureds, and in a financed purchase you will see both on the settlement statement.

The owner’s policy (form T-1, or the residential T-1R) protects you. It is written in the amount of the sale price and lasts as long as you own the house.

The lender’s policy (form T-2, or the short-form residential T-2R) protects your lender’s lien. It is written in the amount of the loan and ends when the loan is paid off. If you refinance, your lender will require a new one. This is the policy lenders will not let you skip.

The second policy is inexpensive when it is issued alongside the first. Under Rate Rule R-5, when both policies are issued at the same closing on the same land and the loan amount does not exceed the owner’s policy amount, the lender’s policy premium is a flat $100 rather than a percentage of the loan. On a $319,999 purchase with a $303,999 loan, the $1,867 owner’s premium and the $100 lender’s premium total $1,967, against roughly $3,655 if the two policies were bought separately.

The flip side matters to sellers: the discount only exists when both policies are issued together, so a purchase with no owner’s policy gets no simultaneous-issue rate on the loan policy.

What happens when you refinance?

You buy a new lender’s policy, and if your timing is right you do not pay full price for it. Rate Rule R-8 gives you a credit against the new loan policy premium. The credit is figured on the lesser of your written payoff balance or the original loan amount, then discounted by how long it has been since the existing policy was issued: 50 percent of that figure if four years or less have passed, and 25 percent if it has been more than four years but less than eight. Past the eight-year mark the credit is gone and you pay the full basic rate.

Refinancing in year three of a $303,999 loan therefore costs less in title premium than the same refinance in year nine. The difference comes from a published rate rule rather than anything your loan officer negotiated, so ask for the R-8 credit by name if the quote looks like a full premium.

Your owner’s policy is unaffected by any of this. It does not lapse, it never needs renewing, and refinancing does not require replacing it. You would only buy a second owner’s policy for a second purchase.

Who Pays for Title Insurance in Texas?

Custom in most Texas residential deals: the seller pays for the owner’s policy, the buyer pays for the lender’s policy and its endorsements, and the two sides split the escrow fee down the middle. That is a market convention, not a statute.

What the contract actually says

Paragraph 6A of the TREC One to Four Family Residential Contract reads that the seller shall furnish to buyer, at Seller’s or Buyer’s expense, an owner policy of title insurance in the amount of the sales price. There are two checkboxes. Whoever is named in the checked box pays, and the term is negotiable like the price or the closing date.

Three other places in that contract decide title money:

• Paragraph 6A(8) carries the survey exception checkbox, including who pays to amend it.
• Paragraph 6B gives the seller 20 days after the title company receives the contract to deliver your title commitment, with an automatic extension if it runs late.
• Paragraph 12A puts the loan title policy and lender-required endorsements in the buyer’s column and splits the escrow fee one half to each side.

In a soft market, asking the seller to cover the owner’s policy is a routine request. In a competitive one, offering to pay it yourself is an inexpensive way to strengthen an offer, since $1,867 in closing costs often reads better to a seller than $1,867 off the price. Tarrant County days on market stood at 29 in the May 2026 figures, which leaves room to ask. Where else that money moves is laid out in my closing cost breakdown for buyers and my seller closing costs walkthrough for the other side of the table.

What Are Endorsements, and What Do They Cost?

Endorsements buy back coverage the standard policy excludes. TDI sets these prices too, as a percentage of the basic premium or a flat fee. On the $1,867 median premium:

Endorsement	Rule	Cost	On the median
Area and boundary amendment, owner’s policy (residential)	R-16.B	5% of basic premium, minimum $20	$93
Area and boundary amendment, lender’s policy	R-16.A	$0	$0
T-19.1 restrictions, encroachments, minerals, owner’s policy	R-29	10% of basic premium, or 5% with the survey amendment	$187, or $93
T-19 restrictions, encroachments, minerals, lender’s policy	R-29	5% of basic premium, minimum $50	$93
T-17 planned unit development, lender’s policy	R-11	$25 flat	$25

The area and boundary amendment, commonly called survey deletion, is the one to understand. Every standard Texas policy excepts out discrepancies, conflicts, shortages in area or boundary lines, encroachments, and overlapping improvements. If that exception stays in place, a fence built three feet onto your neighbor’s lot is your problem alone. Amending it brings the dispute inside the policy. As of November 2024 the amendment costs $0 on the lender’s policy and 5 percent of the basic premium on a residential owner’s policy, about $93 at the Fort Worth median. I recommend it on nearly every purchase.

T-19.1 is the owner’s-policy version of the restrictions, encroachments and minerals coverage, and it also reaches HOA covenant violations and mineral development on your surface. Buy it alongside survey deletion and the rate rule cuts the charge from 10 percent of the basic premium to 5 percent. That is why the two usually appear together on a Texas settlement statement.

T-17 applies when the property sits in a planned unit development, which covers a large share of newer Fort Worth subdivisions. The charge is $25 for the first endorsement.

Why Does Texas Close at a Title Company?

The promulgated premium already covers it. Rate Rule R-1 folds closing the transaction into the basic premium, so the escrow officer at the title company runs the closing: they prepare the settlement statement, hold the earnest money in escrow, collect and disburse funds, pay off the seller’s existing lien, and record the deed. An attorney is welcome at the table and TDI says so directly, but nobody is required to hire one.

This is a structural difference from attorney-closing states, and it explains the escrow fee. The premium covers closing the transaction as TDI defines it. The escrow fee covers everything else a title company does: document preparation, notary work, wires, courier runs, tax certificates, and recording. TDI does not set those charges, which is why they are the part you can compare. Ask for the fee sheet in writing before you pick a company, and ask what the extras cost rather than accepting a single bundled figure.

What Does the Title Search Find?

The examiner reads deeds, mortgages, wills, divorce decrees, judgments, tax records, liens, and plats. In North Texas the same handful of problems come up over and over:

Heirship gaps. Someone died, the estate never went through probate, and the deed conveys an interest that four cousins arguably still share. This is the most common serious defect I see on older Fort Worth properties.

Unreleased liens. A paid-off second mortgage, an old mechanic’s lien from a roof job, a contractor’s lien filed and forgotten. The debt is satisfied but the release never got recorded, so it is still clouding the title.

Severed minerals. Texas treats the mineral estate as separate property, and in the Barnett Shale footprint under much of Tarrant County it is frequently sold off decades ago. That does not stop you from owning the surface, but the mineral owner may hold rights to use the surface to reach the minerals. Check the commitment for it. This is the situation the T-19.1 endorsement is designed for.

Easements. A utility line, a shared drive, a drainage strip. Usually harmless, though occasionally the reason a planned addition cannot be built.

Taxing entity surprises. MUD districts, public improvement districts, unpaid rollback taxes from an agricultural exemption that ended.

What happens when a claim arises?

Notify the title company immediately, before you talk to anybody else. Waiting can jeopardize the claim. The underwriter, whose contact information is in the policy conditions, either clears the defect, defends you in court, or pays the covered loss up to the policy amount. Do not negotiate with the person making the claim on your own. A settlement agreed to without the underwriter can compromise the coverage you paid for.

What I Do With the Title Commitment

I read it with you during the option period, Schedule B and Schedule C line by line, before your right to terminate expires.

The timing matters. Paragraph 6D gives you a written objection deadline, and if you miss it you have waived the right to complain about anything the commitment disclosed. The seller then gets 15 days to cure whatever you did object to. Buyers who skim the commitment late in the option period give up that leverage for nothing.

Two costs come off your side of the table when you work with me. I pay for the home inspection out of my own pocket, which runs around $600 in this market. I also stand behind your earnest money: if it’s lost because of a deadline I missed or a step I got wrong, you’re reimbursed in full. Both are numbered cards in my written guarantees, signed before you sign anything.

I do not pay for your title insurance, and no agent does. An agent who implies otherwise is describing the Texas custom of the seller paying for it. What I do is make sure the right endorsements are on the order, that the survey exception gets amended, and that you understood every exception on Schedule B before your option period ran out.

Get the Real Number Before You Sign Anything

The premium rate is the one line item no one can discount for you. Everything around it is negotiable: who pays the premium, which endorsements go on the order, what the escrow fee runs, and whether the seller covers your side.

Book a free 10-minute Initial Consultation and I will price the title line for the range you are shopping, show you which endorsements I would put on the order and why, and tell you what a seller in that band is realistically likely to cover. It takes ten minutes and there is no pitch. If it wastes your time, I send you $100. You can also call or text me at 806-928-8884.

If you are earlier than that, start with the rest of the buyer costs that land at the same table, or read the commission math if you are trying to understand who pays whom after the settlement. Sellers should look at the listing side first, since the owner’s policy is customarily yours. Buyers, my buyer representation page covers what I take on so you do not have to.