State by state
Who pays for the owner's title policy, by state
For most states, nothing official assigns it. No statute, no regulator publication, no statewide form. The purchase contract decides, and that is the whole answer.
That is not the answer the confident tables give, and it is what the research actually found — 41 of the states looked at so far have no sourceable statewide assignment at all. A handful genuinely do, through a mandatory or standard contract form, and those are named below with the authority behind them. Why the tables exist anyway, and what to do about it is the longer version.
9 of 50 states answered so far. Every answer below rests on a named primary source — a statute, a bar opinion, a regulator publication or a statewide form. Where none exists, the row says so instead of guessing, and research on the remaining states is ongoing.
| State | Answer | What the authority actually says |
|---|---|---|
| Alaskalicensed here | Negotiated | The Alaska Division of Insurance states that closing fees, including title insurance, are negotiated between seller and buyer. |
| Californialicensed here | Varies within the state | There is no single California custom; allocation differs by region and is set by the contract. |
| Florida | Negotiated | The statewide Florida Realtors/Florida Bar contract makes the owner’s-policy payer a contract selection, with a separate Miami-Dade/Broward regional option. |
| Georgialicensed here | Buyer, by form default | The Georgia REALTORS residential form places title search and remaining closing charges on the buyer unless the agreement says otherwise. A form default, not a statewide law. |
| Illinoislicensed here | Seller, commonly | The Illinois State Bar says that in most Illinois communities the seller commonly provides the buyer with an owner’s policy, and recommends making that explicit in the contract. |
| Louisianalicensed here | Buyer, by form default | The Louisiana Real Estate Commission’s residential purchase agreement places act-of-sale costs, abstracting, title search and title insurance on the buyer unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. |
| Minnesotalicensed here | Buyer, by form default | In a Minnesota purchase the buyer customarily pays for the owner’s title policy, which runs opposite to several states where it sits with the seller. Custom rather than law, and negotiable in the purchase agreement. |
| South Dakotalicensed here | Negotiated | South Dakota’s official purchase agreements make title-insurance allocation a contract choice, providing blanks for purchaser and seller. |
| Texas | Negotiated | Texas’s promulgated resale contract requires the parties to select whether the seller or buyer pays for the owner’s title policy. |
| Alabamalicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. |
| Arizona | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Arkansaslicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. |
| Colorado | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Connecticut | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Delaware | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Hawaii | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Idaho | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Indiana | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Iowa | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Kansaslicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. Kansas City-area practice should not be imported from the Missouri side. |
| Kentucky | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Mainelicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. |
| Maryland | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Massachusetts | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Michigan | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Mississippi | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Missourilicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. Missouri does require notice to a purchaser when a lender’s policy will issue without owner’s coverage. |
| Montana | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Nebraska | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Nevada | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| New Hampshire | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| New Jersey | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| New Mexico | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| New York | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| North Carolina | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| North Dakota | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Ohio | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Oklahoma | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Oregon | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Pennsylvania | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Rhode Island | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| South Carolinalicensed here | No statewide authority | Not extracted into this table yet. |
| Tennessee | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Utah | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Vermont | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Virginia | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Washington | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| West Virginia | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Wisconsin | No statewide authority | Not researched in the closing-conductor priority pass. |
| Wyominglicensed here | No statewide authority | No statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to buyer or seller was found. The purchase contract controls. |
“No statewide authority” is a finding, not a gap
It does not mean nobody pays or that practice is random. Regional custom is real and often consistent inside a single metro. It means there is no state-level rule to appeal to — so if a table told you “the seller pays here” and your contract says otherwise, the contract wins and always would have. The practical consequence is that this is a term to negotiate rather than a default to inherit.
Why this page covers states I cannot lend in
The question is national. I am licensed to originate in 14 states — marked in the table — and this page offers nothing anywhere else. It exists because the cross-state version of this answer is genuinely hard to find and mostly wrong where it is published.
Common questions
Is there a law that says who pays for title insurance?
In most states, no. Researching this across the states covered here produced no statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigning the owner’s premium to either party for the majority of them. A few states do have a real default expressed in a mandatory or standard contract form. Everywhere else the purchase agreement decides, which means the allocation is a negotiated term rather than a rule being followed.
Why do who-pays-by-state tables disagree with each other?
Because they are reporting regional custom rather than authority, and custom genuinely differs within a state. A title company that has closed thousands of files in one metro knows what is normal there and is not wrong about its own market. The error happens when that local observation is written up as a state-level fact and copied onward until nobody can trace it. Custom also differs between resale and new construction and changes over time.
Does the buyer or the seller pay for the owner’s policy?
Whichever the purchase contract says. In Louisiana the Real Estate Commission’s residential agreement places title insurance on the buyer unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, and the Georgia REALTORS form points the same way. The Illinois State Bar reports the opposite custom, with sellers in most Illinois communities commonly providing the buyer’s owner policy. For most states no comparable authority exists at all.
What is the difference between the owner’s policy and the lender’s policy?
The lender’s policy protects the lender’s lien position and is required on every financed purchase, priced off the loan amount. The owner’s policy protects your ownership interest and is optional, priced off the purchase price. Several states require written notice to a purchaser when a lender’s policy issues and no owner’s policy was requested, and those notice laws exist because buyers were declining the coverage without realising it.
Can I negotiate who pays for the owner’s title policy?
Yes, in every state, because the purchase contract governs the allocation. Even where a statewide form expresses a default it is generally worded as applying unless the parties agree otherwise. Cost allocation is often an easier trade than price, and where no custom exists at all there is nothing to defer to in the first place.
Reference material, not legal advice, and not an offer to lend in any state. Contract forms, filed insurer rules and state law change; what applies to a specific transaction is worth confirming with the professionals conducting it. Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation, NMLS #135622. Equal Housing Opportunity.