ALTA Policy Forms Update

The ALTA Board of Governors in October 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 are now final and went into effect Jan. 2 after going through a comment period.

The new or revised endorsements include:

• ALTA 48.0 Endorsement - Tribal Limited Waiver and Consent (Revised Endorsement with a modified name to reflect changes): When determining the scope of coverage under a title insurance policy, it is sometimes advisable to seek judicial guidance through a declaratory relief action. Because Native American tribes enjoy sovereign immunity, filing a declaratory relief action may be unavailable without a waiver of sovereign immunity. The original 48 Endorsement, issued in 2022, was designed to address these situations by providing a limited waiver of sovereign immunity as part of the policy. This new revision of the 48 Endorsement (2021 v. 02.00 01-02-2025) addresses questions that have been raised as to purpose and scope of the original 01.00 version of the endorsement. 
• ALTA 48.1 Endorsement - Tribal Limited Waiver and Consent Agreement (New Endorsement): While the ALTA 48 Endorsement mentioned above provides for a limited waiver of sovereign immunity for a particular transaction, some tribes and tribal entities have their own form of sovereign waiver that they prefer, and in some cases would prefer to provide a waiver for a series of transactions. The ALTA 48.1 Endorsement will provide the option of entering into separate sovereign immunity waiver agreements between an underwriter and the tribal. This sovereign immunity waiver agreement would then be referenced and incorporated into the policy by the ALTA 48.1 on each transaction, avoiding the need to require tribal authorization and execution for each and every transaction. 
• ALTA 36.9 Endorsement - Energy Project – Minerals and Other Subsurface Substances – Land Under Development (New Endorsement): This endorsement will provide coverage for removal or alterations of an electric facility that is built according to endorsement defined plans, where the loss or damage results from the later use of the surface to extract (or otherwise develop) subsurface substances, including minerals.
• ALTA 22.2 Endorsement – Land Address (New Endorsement): This new ALTA Endorsement will provide coverage for loss or damage if the unimproved land is not known by a specific stated address within the records of a specified entity. These entities could be, for example, the assessor’s office or post office, for a given endorsement issuance.

Technical Corrections

A technical correction was made to the ALTA JR1 Endorsement following a review by ALTA Forms Committee. The technical corrections include:  

1. Changing the format on a drafting instruction to comply with current standards (Paragraph 3);
2. Adding two additional drafting instructions for clarity (Paragraph sections 4.a. and 4.b.);
3. Removing an extra period on two different romanettes (Paragraph sections 4.a.ii. and 4.b.ii.).

ALTA Forms Development Process

As always, new and revised forms have been developed by the ALTA Forms Committee and approved by the ALTA Board. An opportunity to review and comment for new and revised ALTA forms was extended to ALTA members, policy forms licensees and industry customers before final publication. 

Technical corrections, designed to address smaller non-substantive changes to existing ALTA forms, are published upon the recommendation of the ALTA Forms Committee.   

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. 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].  Policy forms are available at https://alta.org/policy-forms.