Closing Attorney & Title Services in Marshall County, TN

Maybe it is a house on a county road, a few acres you plan to build on, or a farm you mean to divide someday. The contract you are about to sign was written for the whole state, and it never asks the questions Marshall County answers differently depending on where the land sits: who has to approve a new house, who brings the water, whether a town sends a bill of its own, and which county's Register takes the deed. Those answers cost little before you sign and a great deal after. Send the contract to Vanderpool Law first, and the questions get asked while the answers can still move the price.

Here is something few buyers know. The Register of Deeds, on the first floor of the Courthouse Annex in Lewisburg, indexes its books by the owner's name, not by street address - ask about an address and the office sends you to the Assessor. Its own FAQ says it does not do title searches and cannot tell you whether a lien sits on a parcel. In other words, the office keeps the records, and reading them for your purchase is a separate job - have it done before you sign. That reading runs in a set order. The Assessor's map pins down the parcel and the owner of record, and the search of the Register's books follows that name back, deed by deed and plat by plat, since the office records subdivision plats too. Only documents recorded since October 1, 1972 are online; anything older takes a visit to the Annex or a letter, so an old farm's chain of title takes real legwork. Before you close, ask what the search actually found, not just whether it is finished. ^‡‡‡ What title insurance covers, and what it does not →

Outside the city and town limits, a house goes up on the county's say-so. The Building Codes and Zoning office on Legion Avenue requires a permit for any structure of 200 square feet or more, and it will not take up an application without a valid septic permit and proof of an adequate water source. Where that septic permit comes from deserves one phone call. The state's septic permit page names nine contract counties that run their own program, and Marshall is not among them; the Columbia field office of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation lists Marshall among the counties it serves. Ask the county codes office which office issues the permit for your parcel. The state also keeps an online search of septic records. On an existing country house, look there for the permit on file for that lot. On bare land, make a passing soil evaluation a condition of the contract, so the deal can end cleanly if the ground will not take a system. ^{‡‡‡‡‡}

Then ask where the water comes from. Out in the county the answer is usually the Marshall County Board of Public Utilities, set up in 1969 to bring water to rural residents and serving most of the county today. Its own history of the countywide waterline project, begun in 2006, reads like a list of roads - Delina, Fishing Ford, Mooresville, Holts Corner - and that is the point: a line on one road tells you nothing about the next one. Before you buy a rural tract, ask the utility whether its line runs along your frontage. If dividing the land is part of the plan, know that the utility counts any parcel split into more than two tracts as a subdivision, and a water service availability request and an engineering review come before any promise of service. A farm meant to become three or more homesites needs that answer before the price is agreed, not after the surveyor has drawn the lots. ^‡‡‡

A new house, or a lot bought from a builder, carries a county charge a resale buyer never meets. Under a private act of 2001, the County Commission imposed an adequate facilities tax on new residential and non-residential construction, figured by the square foot. Find out whether it has been paid, along with the building permit itself, and put the answer in the contract. Two more county sign-offs stand between a finished house and your moving truck: the Highway Department approves the driveway or road connection where one is needed, and the codes office issues a certificate of occupancy after the final inspection. Ask to see that certificate before closing day. ^‡‡‡

Farmland raises two more questions. The first is greenbelt, and the status does not ride along with the deed. When ownership has changed as of January 1, the new owner files a fresh application with the Assessor of Property, Jennifer Neill, on the third floor of the Annex; agricultural and forest land must be at least 15 acres, open space at least three. If the land later leaves the program, rollback taxes reach back three years for farm and forest land and five for open space, and your contract should name who pays them. The second is water of the other kind. The Duck River drains much of the county, and the county's codes policy warns that land outside a mapped flood hazard area still comes with no promise of staying dry. Pull the FEMA map for the parcel and price the insurance before you make the offer. ^{‡‡‡‡‡} Who pays which closing costs in Tennessee →