Our Punta Gorda office is at 252 W. Marion Avenue, Suite 1130. From there we handle residential and commercial closings across Charlotte County, for buyers, sellers, realtors and lenders.
Who Pays for Title Insurance in Charlotte County
In Charlotte County, which covers Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, the seller customarily pays for the owner’s title policy. Cross north into Sarasota County and it flips to the buyer.
- Charlotte County (Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte): seller customarily pays.
- Lee County (Cape Coral, Fort Myers): seller customarily pays.
- Sarasota County (Venice): buyer customarily pays.
- Collier County (Naples): buyer customarily pays.
This is local custom rather than statute. The purchase contract can allocate the cost however the parties agree, and custom only decides when the contract is silent.
Waterfront and Canal Property in Punta Gorda
A large share of Punta Gorda transactions involve canal-front and waterfront property, and those closings carry questions that an inland closing never raises.
- Seawalls. Who owns the seawall, who is responsible for maintaining it, and whether an association or the city has an obligation, is not always obvious from the deed.
- Docks and lifts. Whether existing structures were permitted, and whether an unpermitted structure becomes the buyer’s problem after closing.
- Submerged land and riparian rights. Where the property line actually stops, which is a survey question more often than a title question, but the two interact.
- Easements along the water. Drainage and access easements recorded decades ago that still bind the parcel.
These are survey and title questions that need to be resolved before closing, not discovered after. Our title examination flags them and our in-house real estate attorney handles the ones that need legal work, rather than sending the file out.
Rebuild and Repair Files
Charlotte County took heavy storm damage in recent years, and a meaningful share of properties changing hands now have been repaired or rebuilt. That history follows the parcel into the closing.
- Construction liens. A contractor or supplier who was not paid in full can record a lien that has to be cleared before a policy issues. On a rebuild with several trades, there can be more than one.
- Permits that were never closed out. An open permit is not a title defect, but it is a problem a buyer inherits, and it is worth finding before closing rather than at resale.
- Insurance proceeds. Where a claim is still open, who is entitled to the money after closing needs to be settled in writing, not assumed.
- Work done without permits. Which affects insurability and can affect what a lender will fund.
Our principal partner is a licensed Florida attorney who is also a licensed general contractor and has built homes in Southwest Florida. On rebuild files that combination is genuinely useful, because the questions are half legal and half construction.
What We Handle From the Punta Gorda Office
- Residential purchase and sale closings
- Waterfront and canal-front closings
- Vacant lot and land closings
- Commercial closings
- Title searches, title examination and title insurance
- Escrow and settlement services
- Lender closing services
The Punta Gorda Office
Esquire Land Title
252 W. Marion Avenue, Suite 1130
Punta Gorda, FL 33950
Phone: (941) 799-4800
Email: Info@esquirelandtitle.com
We also have offices in Naples, Cape Coral, Venice and Port Charlotte. Addresses and direct numbers are on our contact page.