Among the bills recently passed by Utah’s legislature was Senate Bill 121: Controlled Business in Title Insurance Repeal, a decidedly unsexy offering that flew under the radar of most onlookers. Because after all, who knows or cares about title insurance; and, controlled business in any setting sounds like something that should get the axe. Am I right?
Trouble is, the Controlled Business in Title Insurance (CBTI) law that legislators just swept away is a critical consumer protection law. You’d never know by reading it because CBTI accomplishes its consumer welfare objective in a roundabout way, but ultimately CBTI protects people from being misled, paying too much, and otherwise being taken advantage of when closing on the sale or purchase of their homes.