Chain of title

The chain of title is the recorded sequence of conveyances by which a property's ownership descends — each deed's grantee becoming the next deed's grantor, back through the record. An unbroken chain is what searches verify and insurers underwrite; breaks — a grantor who never appears as grantee, an estate that never administered, an entity that dissolved mid-chain — are the defects title practice exists to cure.

Beyond conveyancing, the chain is investigative material: it dates ownership eras, connects entities that share principals across transfers, and contextualizes prices (the parties' relationship shows in the chain before it shows anywhere else). Reading a chain is reading a property's institutional biography.