A standard New York owner’s policy covers you up to the amount on Schedule A, usually your purchase price, and that amount never goes up. Two optional products change this for home buyers:
- The TIRSA Market Value Endorsement lets your coverage follow the property’s value at the time of a loss. It costs an extra 10% of the owner’s premium.
- The TIRSA Owner’s Extended Protection Policy (OEPP) replaces the standard owner’s policy with a broader one. It is for home buyers who are individuals or estate-planning trusts, and costs 120% of the owner’s premium.
Both are filed by the Title Insurance Rate Service Association (TIRSA), the group that files New York’s title rates. The rules are the same in New York City, Westchester and the rest of New York State; only the base premium differs by region. Charges come from the TIRSA Rate Manual, Seventh Revision, effective October 1, 2024.
Why a standard policy stops at the purchase price
The rate manual says an owner’s policy can’t be written for less than the contract price or the property’s fair market value, whichever is greater. In a normal purchase, that is the price. The 2021 ALTA Owner’s Policy, used in New York since October 1, 2024, then pays the lower of that amount or the drop in value the title problem causes (Condition 8). The claim process guide walks through that calculation.
The amount doesn’t go down, as the Department of Financial Services (DFS) points out. But it doesn’t go up either. Say you bought for $600,000, and a covered problem appears twelve years later when the house is worth $1,000,000. The policy still tops out at $600,000. The rest of the standard policy is in the policy explained guide.
The Market Value Endorsement
Where it comes from
New York law requires market value coverage to be offered (state insurance law). Every title insurer must offer it, at or before closing, for owner-occupied homes of up to four units. It insures your title at its market value when the loss is discovered.
For decades this was called the TIRSA Market Value Policy Rider. The 2024 rate manual rewrote it for the 2021 policy forms. Its full name is now the TIRSA Market Value Endorsement for Owner’s Policy Covering Owner-Occupied One to Four Family Dwellings, Including Residential Condominium Units or Cooperative Apartments. A separate rider written only for the OEPP was withdrawn and can no longer be issued (Stewart bulletin). If an older bill or quote says “Market Value Rider,” the current product is the endorsement.
How the coverage grows
The endorsement does not add a fixed percentage each year. The form, dated 03/08/2024, covers loss “not exceeding the Market Value at the Time of Loss.” How it works:
- The “Time of Loss” is the date you actually learn the facts behind the claim.
- Market value is set by three arbitrators: one chosen by each side, and a third chosen by those two. They follow the American Land Title Association’s rules.
- Improvements made after closing don’t count. A new kitchen or an added story isn’t covered. The rise in value of the house as it stood at closing is.
- You can choose to value a loss under the endorsement, or under the policy’s normal rules and amount.
- The form sets no percentage cap on the increase.
In the example above, the $600,000 policy could pay up to the arbitrated value at the time of the claim, minus later improvements. A $40,000 easement problem is paid the same with or without the endorsement. The difference shows when a covered problem takes away all or most of the title after years of rising prices.
Who can get it and what it costs
| Item | Market Value Endorsement |
|---|---|
| Policy | Owner’s (including co-op) |
| Property | 1 to 4 family house, condo or co-op unit |
| Insured | A person who lives there |
| Charge | 10% of the owner’s rate |
The form requires the insured to be a “natural person, resident of the Land,” meaning a human being who lives there. The property must be mainly residential with no more than four units, a residential condo unit, or a residential co-op apartment. The rate manual sets the charge at “10% of the Owner’s Rate,” as shown in the title bill guide.
Because the law requires the offer at or before closing, the endorsement is issued with the owner’s policy. One underwriter’s long-standing guideline for the earlier rider (Stewart guideline) says the offer appears in the title report, and a buyer who declines signs an acknowledgment. Investors and LLC buyers don’t qualify, because the insured must be a person who lives in the home.
The Owner’s Extended Protection Policy (OEPP)
Who can get it
The rate manual allows the OEPP only when both of these are true:
- The property is a one-to-four family home, a condo unit used as a home, or a co-op apartment used as a home, in New York. Vacant land doesn’t qualify.
- The insured is a person, or a living trust a person set up for estate planning. The trustee doesn’t have to be a person.
The form itself, dated 01/11/2001, says the same. It applies only to “an improved residential lot on which there is located a one-to-four family residence.” And “each insured named in Schedule A” must be “a Natural Person.” That includes the trustee of a living trust, even if the trustee is not a human being. An LLC, a corporation, or a lender taking title by foreclosure can’t be insured under it. Unlike the Market Value Endorsement, the OEPP does not require you to live in the property.
What it adds
The OEPP is a separate policy, not an add-on. It is written in plain language (“Your Title”), and its text is printed in the rate manual. It lists 28 covered risks. Beyond what a standard owner’s policy covers, they include:
- Problems after closing. Covered Risk 7 covers “Any of Covered Risks 1 through 6 occurring after the Policy Date.” Those include someone else owning an interest, rights from forgery or impersonation (Covered Risk 3), easements, use limits and a defective title.
- Mechanic’s liens. Covered Risk 8.d covers a mechanic’s lien (a claim against the property for unpaid work or materials), “occurring before or after the Policy Date, for labor and material furnished before the Policy Date.”
- Access and address. Actual vehicle and foot access, based on a legal right (Covered Risk 11). A house at the Schedule A address that isn’t on your land (Covered Risk 27).
- Zoning, permits and subdivision. Forced removal of structures built without a building permit (Covered Risk 15) or that break zoning rules (Covered Risk 16). A subdivision law violation (Covered Risk 14). Being unable to use the land as a single-family home because of zoning (Covered Risk 17).
- Encroachments. Forced removal of your structures that cross onto a neighbor’s land (Covered Risk 18) or onto an easement or setback line (Covered Risk 20). A buyer, tenant or lender backing out because a neighbor’s structures cross onto your land (Covered Risk 19). A neighbor building onto your land after closing (Covered Risk 24).
- Other items. Extra property taxes billed for a period before closing because of earlier construction or a change of ownership or use (Covered Risk 23). Discriminatory covenants (Covered Risk 22). Damage from future mineral extraction (Covered Risk 21). A wrong location on a survey map (Covered Risk 28).
- Automatic increase. The policy amount rises by 10% of the Schedule A amount each year for the first five years, up to 150%, at no extra premium (Condition 10).
Four of these risks have a deductible you pay and a cap on what the insurer pays, printed in Schedule A of the form (Condition 6):
| Covered risk | Deductible | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| 14: Subdivision law violation | $2,000 | $10,000 |
| 15: No building permit, forced removal | $4,000 | $25,000 |
| 16: Zoning violation, forced removal | $4,000 | $25,000 |
| 18: Boundary wall or fence encroachment | $1,500 | $5,000 |
The OEPP has its own exclusions:
- Exclusion 1 removes government powers, including building, zoning and land use laws. It doesn’t apply if a notice was in the public records at closing, or to the coverage in Covered Risks 14 to 17 and 23.
- Exclusion 2 removes buildings that don’t meet building codes, again unless a notice of the violation is in the public records.
- Exclusion 4.d removes risks that first happen after closing. But it does not limit Covered Risks 7, 8.d, 21, 22, 23 or 24.
Underwriters review a property more closely before issuing the OEPP. One underwriter’s 2018 bulletin lists:
- a review of the certificate of occupancy and municipal violation searches
- a current survey showing buildings within the lot lines and setbacks, no encroachments, and actual access to a public road
- an arm’s-length sale, an ordinary sale between independent parties
It also says short sales and foreclosure purchases can’t be insured under it. Those are one underwriter’s requirements, not rate manual rules.
Deed theft after closing
The standard owner’s policy generally doesn’t cover a forged deed recorded against you after closing. It excludes problems created after the policy date (Exclusion 3.d; see deed theft in NYC).
The OEPP does cover it. Covered Risk 3 covers rights “arising out of forgery or impersonation.” Covered Risk 7 extends Covered Risks 1 through 6 to events “occurring after the Policy Date.” And Exclusion 4.d doesn’t limit Covered Risk 7. No deductible or cap applies; the limits are the policy amount, the Schedule B exceptions and the other exclusions. Fraud after closing by other means, such as duress or incapacity (Covered Risk 10), is not within Covered Risk 7.
The newer ALTA 49 and 49.1 forgery endorsements are not in the 2024 rate manual.
Premium
The OEPP costs 120% of the owner’s rate. The manual counts any policy insuring ownership as an owner’s policy, and has no special OEPP rule for a loan policy issued at the same time. So the loan policy gets the normal reduced rate: 30% of the loan rate, up to the owner’s amount. The example below follows that reading, which matches the cost guide.
What they cost: an example
Hypothetical: you buy a one-family house in Zone 2 (all of New York City and Westchester) for $1,200,000, with a $960,000 loan. The amount is over $1,000,000, so deviations don’t apply. A deviation is a lower owner’s rate that some insurers have filed and had approved by DFS, for owner’s policies under $1,000,000. Figures use the Zone 2 owner’s and loan rates in the cost guide, rounded to whole dollars.
| Option | Owner’s side | With loan | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard owner’s policy | $4,977 | $6,012 | none |
| Standard + Market Value Endorsement | $5,475 | $6,510 | $498 |
| OEPP (120%) | $5,973 | $7,008 | $996 |
The owner’s premium is $4,977 and the loan policy, issued at the same time, is $1,035. The endorsement adds $498 and the OEPP adds $996. Other endorsements, searches, recording fees and taxes are not included.
If the owner’s policy is under $1,000,000 and the insurer has an approved deviation, both percentages may apply to that lower deviated rate. The title bill should show the base each charge was calculated from.
Who these options matter to
The endorsement and the OEPP solve different problems, and the eligibility rules already sort most buyers.
Buyers who can’t use either. Buyers taking title in an LLC or corporation, investors buying a home they won’t live in (for the endorsement), and buyers of commercial property or vacant land. For them, the owner’s policy amount is fixed at closing.
Owner-occupants planning to stay a long time. The longer you own and the faster prices rise, the bigger the gap between your price and what losing the title would cost. That gap is what the Market Value Endorsement covers. For a short stay or a small claim, the gap is small.
Buyers worried about legal use and boundaries. The OEPP’s zoning, permit, subdivision and encroachment coverage pays only above the deductibles and up to the caps. And because underwriters check the certificate of occupancy and a current survey first, it is issued most easily on houses where those risks are already low.
Owners worried about deed theft. Neither the standard policy nor the endorsement responds to a forged deed recorded years after closing. The OEPP covers forgery or impersonation after closing (Covered Risks 3 and 7), within the policy amount. The recording alerts in deed theft in NYC work whatever policy you have.
Both choices are made before the owner’s policy is issued. For other add-ons, see title insurance endorsements in New York.
Details for attorneys and title professionals
How the example was calculated. Rates are the TIRSA Zone 2 tables in the cost guide, rounded to whole dollars under the manual’s rounding rule, and computed with a script.
- Owner’s rate on $1,200,000: $382 + (15 × $6.34) + (50 × $5.16) + (400 × $4.14) + (500 × $3.78) + (200 × $3.48) = $4,977.10, charged as $4,977.
- Loan policy at the simultaneous rate: the full loan rate on $960,000 is $327 + $79.05 + $215.50 + $1,384.00 + (460 × $3.14) = $3,449.95. At 30% that is $1,034.985, charged as $1,035.
- Market Value Endorsement: 10% × $4,977.10 = $497.71, charged as $498.
- OEPP: 120% × $4,977.10 = $5,972.52, charged as $5,973.
Foreclosing lenders. The manual’s special rules for lenders taking title by foreclosure expressly do not apply to the OEPP.
Official sources
- TIRSA Rate Manual, Seventh Revision, effective October 1, 2024 (Sections 1, 2(E), 5(B), 10, 10(B)(1), 17(D), 20(A), 20(B), 33(D)(7); Part VI forms: TIRSA Owner’s Extended Protection Policy (01/11/2001) and TIRSA Market Value Endorsement (03/08/2024)). Also on FNF’s rate calculator site
- NY Insurance Law § 6409(c), policy forms, rates and optional market value policy
- NYS DFS, Title Insurance consumer page
- 2021 ALTA Owner’s Policy
- Stewart Title bulletin NY000711, Seventh Revision changes
- Stewart Title bulletin NY000611, TIRSA Owner’s Extended Protection Policy (2018)
- Stewart Title guideline GL00000400, NY TIRSA Market Value Policy Rider