Clear and Marketable Title

Also known as: marketable title

Title is clear and marketable when an owner can transfer it free of reasonable doubt, with no encumbrance, defect or claim that would cause a prudent buyer to refuse it.

The standard is practical rather than absolute: it asks whether a well-advised purchaser would accept the title, not whether every conceivable doubt has been eliminated. A defect that can be cured before completion - an uncancelled MODT, a pending mutation - does not necessarily make title unmarketable, whereas a break in the chain or an applicable statutory restriction does. This is the conclusion a Title Search Report exists to reach.