Commonwealth Suburban Title Agency, Inc.

Reviews

• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
  I had a really negative experience with this title company. In a nutshell, the title company did not collect a payment from the seller for an outstanding water bill, which was a clear contingency in our agreement for purchase. When I found that I could not turn on water services in the home due to the outstanding bill, I contacted the title agency directly, and they completely wrote me off, gave me the run around, and ultimately, would not respond. I'm copying and pasting the email I sent to the company below. I never got any response, even though I sent it to 3 different title agents at Commonwealth-Suburban, and eventually their President and Vice President. No response at all. Not even from their President. I'm actually shocked. DO NOT WORK WITH THIS TITLE AGENCY. ------------------- Dear Mr. Stebelton and Mr. Mastriana, As the president and vice president of your Title Agency, I thought you would like to be made aware of the poor service I have received from your Boardman office. Regarding (address of home), I found out after closing, that there remained an outstanding water bill of $246.23 from 2009 on the house. I was not made aware it was unpaid until after closing, when I attempted to have the water turned on with Youngstown Water. I immediately called Karen to verify why this bill was not paid, as it was clearly a contingency in our offer for purchasing the home. She let me know she would look in to it and call me back. I never received a call back. My real estate agent also tried reaching the Boardman office, to which they said they didn't know anything about any water bills, but they would look in to it. They did not return his phone call either after "looking in to it". I called 2 more times, and Karen was either "out of the office running an errand" or "unavailable," so I left 2 messages with the receptionist to have Karen call me back. She never returned my call. Finally I reached her on Monday of this week, and I was told that she was unaware of any water bills and never received any emails from my real estate agent. Whether or not she received an email, the Title Agency's job is to clear title, making sure there are no outstanding liens, etc. Nevertheless, it is my belief that your title agency was full aware that there were outstanding water bills based on the email correspondence I was shown between my agent and the selling agent. (Please see attachments). After speaking with my agent, I sent an email to Karen, Nicole, and Geri (all of whom, have in some way worked on this property closing). I included 3 very clear and important documents detailing that the selling agent requested your title agency to pay all water bills out of the seller's proceeds. I never received a response to this email! Copy of that email is included below. After receiving NO response, I went ahead and paid the Youngstown water bill, so that I could have the water turned on in the house. It would seem, your employees take advantage of buyers in that if they wait long enough, the buyer has to pay the bill themselves, and this is exactly what has happened, even though, I am in no way the one responsible to pay the bill. I realize that it is done, and getting reimbursement is highly unlikely. A reputable title agency would have admitted fault and paid the bill. I understand mistakes happen, and for that alone, I would have been very gracious and willing to work with you. But, what I find unacceptable, is the silence and lack of response your employees choose to avoid and ignore the problem. Due to your company's unprofessionalism and disregard for its clients, we cannot and will not be using your title agency for any future title work. Thank you for taking the time to read through my complaint.
  By Stefanie C, March 17, 2018
• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
  My husband and I recently purchased a home in the youngstown area and our bank did business with this agency. My overall impression of them was a company who didn’t want to bother to 1. Meet customer needs with flexibility and 2. Do their job correctly the first time. At the time we currently lived in Cincinnati, and upon closing of the Home the agency insisted he be there in person to sign the paper work. Even though they could have overnighted the papers to him, had him sign at a notary, and send them back. (There are multiple ways to accomplish this task electronically) They also provided close to no options on their flexibility of coming into the office to close, so we took off work, made the trip up to canfield, and he missed out on wages for the day. Eating the costs of traveling we figured would be fine, let’s just get this done. However, upon arriving at the office to close, the agency didn’t even have him on the paperwork when it was specifically listed in our purchase agreement and by mortgage processor that he would have survivorship. Now, why would they absolutely insist and provide zero options for him to sign paper work at a distance and not have any of the paperwork be correct. After spending about an hour at the office waiting for new papers to sign, we were then told we would have to pay again to have the title changed to the correct format. Our bank was kind enough to eat the cost of the mistake, but when notifying the agency they would be eating the cost, they questioned why I wouldn’t just pay for it myself. Why should I pay for a rather large mistake on their part when it was in writing in multiple documents that he was to have partial ownership of the home? Unprofessional.
  By Katie Ferrall, July 25, 2017

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