A title commitment is the single most important document you will read between contract and closing — and most Florida buyers skim it once and file it away. That is a mistake. The title commitment tells you everything the title company found in the public records, everything that has to be cleared before you can close, and everything the policy will not cover after closing. Learning to read a title commitment in detail puts you ahead of 95 percent of buyers and helps you spot problems while there is still time to fix them.
What Is a Title Commitment?
A title commitment, sometimes called a binder or pre-lim, is a written promise from the title insurance company that it will issue a title insurance policy once specific conditions are met. It is issued after the title search and examination are complete, usually 7 to 14 days after the file is opened. The commitment is technically an offer to insure — not the policy itself — and it is governed in Florida by the standards adopted by the Florida Land Title Association and the underwriting rules of the issuing carrier. It expires if closing does not happen inside the effective period (typically 90 days), at which point the title company runs an update search and reissues.
Schedule A — The Transaction Basics
Schedule A is the cover page. It identifies the effective date of the search (a precise moment, often expressed to the minute, that establishes the window the policy will insure back to), the type and amount of coverage being offered (owner's, lender's, or both), the name of the proposed insured (buyer, lender, or both exactly as they will appear on the deed and mortgage), and the legal description of the property. Read Schedule A first. If your name is misspelled, if the address is wrong, if the coverage amount is below your purchase price, fix it immediately — those errors carry forward into the policy and become real problems later.
Schedule B-I — Requirements You Must Satisfy Before Closing
Schedule B-I is the working section. Every item listed here has to be cleared before the title company will issue the policy and let the closing fund. The standard B-I list for a Florida sale includes payoff of the seller's existing mortgage, payoff or proration of any outstanding property taxes and special assessments, release of any recorded judgment liens, satisfaction of any unrecorded municipal or HOA liens identified in the lien search, delivery of a properly executed deed with two witnesses and a notary as Florida requires, and confirmation that the seller (and spouse, if homestead applies under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution) is signing. Each requirement has a procedure. Your title coordinator works through them in the background, but you should track the list so you know nothing is stuck.
Schedule B-II — Exceptions the Policy Will Not Cover
Schedule B-II is the list of things the title company found that it will not insure around. These are not problems being cleared at closing — they are conditions you are agreeing to take title subject to. The most common Florida exceptions are utility and drainage easements (the power lines, the sewer cleanouts, the stormwater swales), platted easements from the original subdivision recording, deed restrictions and HOA covenants, mineral and oil and gas reservations (especially in older interior counties), riparian rights along waterfront properties, and standard policy exclusions for matters that would be disclosed by an accurate survey. The first time you read a title commitment, the B-II list looks terrifying. Most of it is routine. The exceptions that actually matter are the ones that affect what you can build, where you can fence, and whether the prior owner's deed-restricted use will get in your way.
The Survey Exception — A Florida-Specific Trap
Most Florida title commitments include a standard exception for "matters that would be disclosed by an accurate survey." That language sounds harmless. In practice, it means your title policy will not cover boundary or encroachment problems unless you order a current survey, provide it to the title company before closing, and ask them to remove the survey exception. For a few hundred dollars and a couple of weeks of lead time, you convert a generic exclusion into actual coverage. Skipping it is one of the more common ways Florida buyers leave money on the table.
Other Schedule B-II Exceptions Worth Reading Carefully
Beyond easements and deed restrictions, watch for any exception that references a specific recorded instrument with a book and page number. That citation points to an actual document in the public record — a settlement agreement, an old well-pumping easement, a private road maintenance covenant, a defunct condominium declaration. Ask your title coordinator to send the underlying recorded document so you can read it. The text is usually short and the implications are easy to understand once you see the original. Title commitments paraphrase, and paraphrasing in real estate is where misunderstandings live.
What You Should Do With a Title Commitment
When you receive the title commitment, do four things. First, verify Schedule A — your name, the property, and the coverage amount. Second, scan Schedule B-I and confirm with your coordinator that each requirement has a plan and an owner. Third, read Schedule B-II twice, look up any book-and-page references that are not obvious, and ask whether the survey exception can be removed. Fourth, save the document. After closing, the issued policy will incorporate by reference the matters from the commitment, and you may need it in five or ten years if you ever sell, refinance, or face a boundary dispute.
Bottom Line on the Title Commitment
A clean title commitment in Florida is the result of a thorough search, a careful examiner, and a coordinator who is following up on every requirement before the closing date arrives. Verified Title issues commitments on every transaction we close in all 67 Florida counties, and our coordinators walk buyers and sellers through Schedule A, B-I, and B-II on request rather than waiting for confusion to show up at the signing table. For the full closing pipeline behind the commitment, see our title services overview, or read the Florida Land Title Association for industry standards.