Title Firm Fights State’s Suspension

Spokane County Title Co. will request a hearing before Washington Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn to contest an order imposing a six-month suspension on the company’s title business, owner John Schreiner said Monday.

The request will stay the order, which is due to go into effect at the end of next week, he said, adding that the paperwork is still being prepared.

An informal meeting with the commissioner’s staff has already been set for August 29, Schreiner said.

In the meantime, Spokane County Title published a letter in The Spokesman-Review defending the flat $200 fee it charges for real estate closings.

And Schreiner issued a statement accusing area attorneys of “spreading a lot of gossip and rumor about us” that precipitated Senn’s order.

“We’re taking money out of their pockets,” he said.

The commissioner said she took action in response to complaints that Spokane County Title’s flat fee for its closing, or escrow, service was a money-losing come-on for its title insurance business.

An investigator said he also found several occasions on which Realtors and others were given improper benefits for using Spokane County Title services.

Pam Wise, a closer for Spokane Escrow Co. Inc., said Monday that several escrow companies closed or cut back as Spokane County Title pushed its market share to more than one-third of residential closings.

Spokane Escrow, which charges the half-percent typical for closings, was losing Realtor customers who could not resist the inducement of significantly lower fees for their clients and benefits for themselves, she said. “It’s just irritating.”

But Shreiner said salesman never made use of Spokane County Title insurance a condition for a $200 closing.

Realtors liked the fee because it lowered the cash needed to close a deal, particularly for transactions at the lower end of the market, he said. “It can make or break a sale.”

, DataTimes