What is a Statement of Information and Why Is It Needed?

According to the California Residential Purchase Agreement released on April 28, 2010, all sellers of a Residential Property shall provide the escrow holder completed Statements of Information within seven days after acceptance of contract.

So what is a Statement of Information and why is it important?  Well, the Statement of Information (SI) is a form that you fill out.  It will ask you questions regarding other names you have used, where you have lived, the names and ages of your children and jobs you have had.  This information is provided to the title company so they can distinguish the buyers and sellers involved in this transaction from other people with similar names.  Once Title identifies the true buyers and sellers they can disregard judgments and liens on the public records that are linked to other people who may have similar names.

Whenever Title is insuring a property they search the recorded documents looking for anything that affects the property such as liens, court orders, and bankruptcies.  These things affect the title to the property and will be listed as an exception from coverage on the title policy.  The completed Statement of Information allows the title company to differentiate between recorded documents for the people involved in this particular transaction from parties with similar names.  This protects all parties involved and allows the title company to completely carry out their duties.