Customer ReviewsforNorth American Title Company

September 21, 2021

To the North American Title Company, Stockton office:

I read this on your home page:

"At North American Title's Stockton office, our customers' success is our number-one focus. From the first contact to the final preparation of your title policy, we provide superior communication and effective follow through to make sure we meet the all-important deadlines for each of your transactions."
Final grade: FAIL

We recently sold a piece of property and used your firm to handle the escrow. Our experience was deeply disappointing. When we started we asked if there would be any issue with probate and were told that everything was in order. The property had been released under a quitclaim deed that had been designed to avoid probate.
The sale was ready to close in the middle of June but at the last minute (after we had been notified that notaries would be contacting us for closing) things were stopped and it was determined that we would have to go through probate after all. After about 6 weeks (July 28) our attorney was able to record the documents needed to proceed with the sale. It took until the middle of September to finally close the sale.
There are several issues: Why were we told at the beginning that probate would not be necessary? And why did it take so long after the deed was recorded to close? Why were we not able to have timely responses to our calls and questions? Why did you not keep us up to date with your process all the way along? It seems that, at the least, if we needed to go through probate, your firm would be ready to proceed with closing when that was done. You had 6 weeks to get your side in order for closing while we were waiting for the attorney to finish her work. You were ready for closing on June 18 so we assume everything was done at that point or you would not have contacted notaries for us.
Meanwhile, the buyer was becoming increasingly concerned because he had bought the house for his two sons to live in while attending college at UP and they needed to move in and do some repairs before school started in August. He threatened to sue us for $1000/day for every day after August 20 that he wasn't able to move in. We agreed (against the advice of our realtor) to let him move in on August 21. He also asked for $2000 to reimburse him for the cost of moving out their furniture to redo the flooring in the house because he hadn't been able to do that before the boys moved in. We were also responsible for water, sewer, trash and electric bills for all the time until we closed. Adding in the cost of the attorney, this cost to us came to over $6000.
Our family can't think of any reason for all these delays other than a basic disregard for the good of your clients. We can't but suspect that you have given little time and energy to understand our frustration; though you expressed to one of us that you understood our concern and vexation, we saw absolutely no sign of that in the way you dealt with us. We returned any and all documents that you asked for within a day. You didn't communicate to us the reasons for the delays. We had to continually ask you for updates. We found you to be untimely, sloppy, rude on occasion in our phone calls (e.g. calling our frustration "yelling" at you when there was no yelling whatsoever on our part, rather expressions of frustration) and rather incompetent in attending to details in a timely and professional way. The 4 notaries (in 4 different cities) that worked with us each said that the escrow papers were the sloppiest they had seen. They had included wrong dates (e.g. 2031 instead of 2021) and not once did they spell Charles ********** correctly. He's not Roberto nor Roberta. All 4 of them missed the IRS form 593, which we attribute to incomplete instructions. Because of things like this the closing was delayed yet again.
In conclusion, we will send a copy of this letter to the better business bureau in hopes that it might make a difference in your future relationships with your clients (regardless of your statement to the contrary in the quote we included from your website). We would suggest some serious training in customer service and in the particular details of completing escrow. We will not recommend your firm to anyone who is considering a title company and I have advised ***** ***** at ****** ********** to not use you again.