ALTA Policy Forms Update

The ALTA Board of Governors on Feb. 9 approved a recommendation to adopt revisions to the 2021 ALTA Forms Collection, as well as the approval of two new Collateral Assignment endorsements. The forms went into effect April 2 after going through a comment period.

2021 ALTA Forms Collection: Revisions to Forms and Endorsements

• Short Form ECRLP Policies (Assessment Priority and Current Assessments versions): The revision will resolve problems with incorporating a state statute as an exception, by reference to Schedule B in the updated versions. The revised version enables incorporation of the appropriate state statutes directly by incorporating Endorsement 8.1 (Environmental Protection Lien).  A redline of the change is as follows:

• Endorsement 3.3 (Zoning – Completed Improvement – Non-Conforming Use): This revision is designed to address coverage for a permitted non-conforming improvement, coverage for specified zoning classification, and to allow for the checkbox selection of the specific zoning matters that will be covered if removal or alteration results, rather than automatic inclusion of a blanket list of covered zoning matters.
• Endorsement 42 (Commercial Lender Group): The revision is needed for alignment with the 2021 Forms Collection.  It replaces what is now an incorrect reference to a base policy provision in the 2021 collection with the new defined term “Obligor.” A redline of the change is as follows:

2021 New ALTA Endorsements

• Endorsement 10.2 (Collateral Assignment) and Endorsement 10.3 (Collateral Assignment and Date Down): The new Endorsements 10.2 and 10.3 are designed to address collateral assignments of an insured mortgage.

These forms may be downloaded at alta.org/policy-forms in the section titled “For Public Comment | Recently Adopted Forms – Not Published” and comments may be submitted to [email protected].

As always, the forms have been developed by the ALTA Forms Committee and approved by the ALTA Board. An opportunity to review and comment is extended to ALTA Members, Policy Forms Licensees, and industry customers before final publication.

Technical Corrections

The following technical corrections to the ALTA Forms Collection have also been made:

• Endorsement 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3: Opinions from industry expressed that the ALTA 2021 14-series endorsements with the current wording in their definition of “Advances” could be interpreted to limit interest to only amounts expended to prevent deterioration of the property. The Forms Committee decided to clarify the language by replacing two semi-colons with commas to clarify that the application of the interest is not limited to the single item, but to all advances. A redline of the change is as follows:

The pending technical corrections to the ALTA 14-series endorsements are available at alta.org/policy-forms in the “Technical Corrections – Effective April 2, 2024” section, along with a single redline document reflecting the change being made to the four endorsements.

Purpose and Use of ALTA Forms Collection

The forms, in general, are made available for customer convenience. The parties are free in each case to agree to different terms and the use of these forms is voluntary unless required by law. The forms are copyrighted, and use is restricted to ALTA Policy Forms Licensees (including ALTA members) in good standing as of the date of use. Permission to reprint may be requested by contacting [email protected]. 

Questions or Comments?

If you have comments or concerns, contact Steve Gold at [email protected].