Countrywide Legal Indemnities is a British

title insurance Title insurance is a form of indemnity insurance, predominantly found in the United States and Canada, that insures against financial loss from defects in title to real property and from the invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans. Unlik ...

company. The company is based in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, United Kingdom. The company is an

underwriting Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liability ...

agency that works with

conveyancing In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contract ...

professionals. Countrywide Legal Indemnities as an agent for the American insurer

Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Insurance Company is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest Property insurance, property and Casualty insurance, casualty insurer in the world. It ranks 87th on the Fortune 100, ''Fortune'' 100 list of larges ...

, which supplies legal indemnity insurance and protection to individuals and firms purchasing property or land with a title defect. The directors of Countrywide Legal Indemnities also operate two other legal indemnity insurance companies: Isis Conveyancing Insurance Specialists and Blue Button Legal Indemnities.

History

The company was founded in 1994. In 2006, the

Solicitors Journal ''Solicitors Journal'' is a legal periodical published in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1856. It was published weekly until September 2017, when it ceased publication, and has been published monthly since January 2019, when it re ...

named Countrywide as being "one of the country's leading intermediaries". In 2007, the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' listed Countrywide Legal in 34th place in its list of "Best 100 Companies". In 1997, Countrywide became the first legal

indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

provider to be endorsed by

The Law Society The Law Society of England and Wales (officially The Law Society) is the professional association that represents solicitors for the jurisdiction of England and Wales. It provides services and support to practising and training solicitors, as ...

, providing its members with a Defective

Title insurance Title insurance is a form of indemnity insurance, predominantly found in the United States and Canada, that insures against financial loss from defects in title to real property and from the invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans. Unlik ...

Scheme and other related indemnities on their behalf. This endorsement lasted until 2009, and the endorsement has since passed to a competitor, First Title Insurance.

Contaminated land and Japanese knotweed

Since 2001, local authorities in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

have been testing land for harmful

chemicals A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

under the new

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

measures that were introduced and this has encouraged firms such as Countrywide to develop policies to protect against the threat of historical

contaminated land Contaminated land contains substances in or under the land that are definitively or potentially hazardous to health or the environment. These areas often have a long history of industrial production and industrial farming. Many sites may be affect ...

. Countrywide Legal Indemnities also launched a

Japanese knotweed ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Polygonum cuspidatum'', is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is ...

indemnity policy in 2015 due to changes on the TA6 property form, and the increasing number of properties affected by knotweed. However, these policies will only cover properties that are not affected by knotweed and then only for a few years, raising questions as to how useful the insurance really is.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Countrywide Legal Indemnities website archive
Financial services companies established in 1994 Law of the United Kingdom Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Norwich