§ 644.65 - Ordering title evidence.

§ 644.65 Ordering title evidence.

(a) Placing orders. Where the contract does not specify the order in which title evidence for particular tracts will be furnished, orders will be submitted to the abstractor or title company on ENG Form 1011, Order for Title Evidence. An accurate legal description of the tract of land involved will be attached to the order or will be typed thereon.

(b) Orders based on contiguous areas. If the contract does not contain a list of tracts for which title evidence is to be furnished, orders will be based on contiguous areas of land in identical ownership and will be deemed to be contiguous even though crossed by roads, railroads, rights-of-way, or streams. In such event the variation in quantity shall not exceed plus or minus ten percent as prescribed by ASPR. If there has been a severance of surface and subsurface estates, determination of what constitutes a tract will be based on ownership of the surface. However, in unusual cases where such a contiguous area is composed of several parcels derived through separate chains of title and requiring separate searches of each chain of title down to a comparatively recent date or where such contiguous area lies in more than one section, the Contracting Officer may contract to pay a specified reasonable additional charge for each such additional chain or section if such additional charge is customary in the locality where the land lies.

(c) Type of title evidence. The order will set forth the type of evidence to be furnished. When abstracts are contracted for, the following rules will be observed:

(1) If an abstract of title in satisfactory form cannot be procured from the landowner, a new abstract will be ordered.

(2) If an abstract in satisfactory form is procured from a landowner, the abstract will be transmitted to the abstractor with an order for a continuation of the old abstract.