Closing Attorney & Title Services in Hendersonville, TN

If there is a contract on a Hendersonville house in front of you, buying or selling, it is most likely the standard Tennessee REALTORS form - written for the whole state and for no lake in particular. Nothing in it says where the government's land starts behind the back yard, what becomes of the dock when the deed changes hands, or whether the address is inside the city limits at all. Those are the questions that cost people money here. Ask them while the signature line is still blank. Buying your first home? The road from offer to keys →

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Nashville District runs Old Hickory Lake, and on most of it your deed runs out before the shore does. When the Corps built the dam, it bought land up to a line at or near the 451-foot contour at the dam end, climbing to 464 feet upstream, while normal pool sits at 445. So behind a typical lakefront yard there is usually a band of public land, and the Corps' 2020 shoreline plan - the plan on file - leaves it to each neighbor to know exactly where his or her own lines and corners are. Before you make an offer on a waterfront house, get the survey and find the government line on it. The grass you are paying for may stop short of the water. ^‡‡

The dock is the next question, and the answer surprises people. A shoreline use permit - for a private dock, or for mowing Corps land - belongs to the person it was issued to; the plan says it cannot be transferred and is void once the property sells. Someone, buyer or seller, has to notify the Corps' Resource Manager before the sale is final. After that, the new owner has 14 days to apply in his or her own name, or 30 to remove the dock and restore the shore. Some things do not make it through a sale in any form: an enclosed boathouse from before 1973 loses its sides under a new permittee, a lift that does not float with the dock comes off before ownership changes, and licensed handrails or special-access walkways and above-ground water lines go too. Write into the contract which of these applies to the house, who pays to remove anything, and what happens if the Corps turns the new application down. ^‡

Whether a dock is possible at all depends on how the Corps classifies the shore behind the lot. About 14 percent of the lake is public recreation area and about 36 percent is protected, where private docks and mowing are not allowed; of the roughly half set aside for limited development, only about two-thirds is open to docks. Even in a dock area the map is not a promise: the Corps inspects the spot, checks that a dock would float at normal pool and holds most docks to 50 feet from shore. The surest answer for one particular house is a Realtor letter, which the owner applies for. The Corps usually issues it within 14 days, and it stays good for 90. Selling? Have the letter in hand before the house goes on the market, so the buyer's first question already has an answer. Buying? Make the deal depend on what the letter says. ^‡

On some lots the Corps' reach goes past its own line. It also holds flowage easements - the right to let the lake rise onto private land - across 3,653 acres around the lake. If one crosses your lot, the title commitment will list it as an exception, and it limits what you can build there: no dwellings, and anything else only with the Corps' written approval, sometimes through a consent-to-easement instrument from its Real Estate Office. Fill above the high-water line is capped at one foot or ten cubic yards unless an engineer certifies a plan to replace the flood storage it takes. Picturing a pool, a garage or a raised yard near the water? Have that exception explained to you before you are bound to buy. The city also points every owner to FEMA's flood maps; look the address up there before you name a price. ^‡‡‡

Away from the shore, start with which city you are actually buying in. The 37075 ZIP code covers more than Hendersonville: the Census Bureau's 2020 files put the Shackle Island area and unincorporated Sumner County inside it, along with thin edges of Gallatin and Goodlettsville. Inside the limits, a house gets a City of Hendersonville tax bill on top of the Sumner County Trustee's, both draw interest from March 1, and the year's tax split at closing has to count both. Water and sewer may come from Hendersonville Utility District or White House Utility District, and power from Cumberland Electric or Nashville Electric Service, depending on the street - ask which before the transfer date. Buying a lot or a house not yet finished? Sumner County's Adequate Facilities Tax reaches new homes in Hendersonville at 70 cents a square foot, unfinished basements and bonus rooms included, due when the building permit issues. Pull the parcel up in the county's property search, ask whether the builder's price already covers that tax, and ask whether a Notice of Completion has been recorded; under Tennessee law it shortens the time unpaid contractors have to give notice of a lien. ^{‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡} Who pays which closing costs in Tennessee → What title insurance covers, and what it does not →