How to clear a Schedule B exception before closing, for title agencies?

Chase the third-party artifact the underwriter named for that exception: a recorded release, satisfaction, reconveyance, HOA estoppel, tax cert, or judgment satisfaction. Log the instrument on the file. A payoff letter or paid-in-full receipt is not the release. The underwriter decides deletion.

This is for the closer or processor at a 5-to-30-person title agency or attorney-closing firm on Qualia, SoftPro, ResWare or RamQuest who has a commitment on the file and still has to prove each listed item is gone before funding.

What a Schedule B exception is

The ALTA 2021 Commitment for Title Insurance (v. 01.00, effective 07-01-2021, publication 07-30-2021, read 2026-10-15) splits Schedule B in two. Part I is Requirements: items that must be met to the satisfaction of the Company before it will issue the policy. Part II is Exceptions: matters the policy will not insure against, “unless cleared to the satisfaction of the Company.”

Shops list a mortgage as a Part I “pay and release” requirement or as a Part II exception that will be omitted if a release records. The processor chases the same artifact either way. Clearing is not deleting an easement, CC&Rs, or minerals because the seller asked. Those usually stay. Clearing is getting the recorded instrument, or the underwriter’s written consent to insure over the item, onto the file in Qualia, SoftPro, ResWare or RamQuest.

What you are chasing

Each exception names its own third party. Do not treat one artifact as another.

Exception on the commitment	Artifact that can clear it	Who issues it
Open mortgage, deed of trust, or HELOC	Recorded release, satisfaction, or reconveyance. Freeze a HELOC first	Servicer or trustee, then the county
Judgment or child-support lien	Recorded satisfaction or a property-specific partial release	Creditor, clerk, or the agency that owns the judgment
Recorded HOA or condo claim of lien	Estoppel, payment of what it names, then a recorded release if a claim of lien is of record	Management company, then the county
Delinquent property taxes	Signed tax certificate, then payment to that collector	Each tax collector on the parcel
Federal tax lien	Certificate of Release if the debt is paid in full; Certificate of Discharge of this parcel if it is not	IRS. Discharge uses Form 14135

A complete payoff request starts the servicer’s clock. It is not the release. The tax cert and the HOA estoppel are separate chases. Confirm the later recording the same way you confirm this one: stamped image plus a hit on the county index.

SoftPro 360, rechecked 2026-10-15, lets a shop request a lien release and e-record from inside SoftPro. The portal is not the recorded instrument.

The chase

Do not wait for clear-to-close, the title policy jacket, or the seller to drop off a paid-in-full letter. Those flags do not start a servicer’s, collector’s, or IRS desk’s work.

When	What to do	Through which channel
Day the commitment is on the file	List every Part I requirement and Part II exception the underwriter marked to clear. Order the matching artifact	File in Qualia, SoftPro, ResWare, or RamQuest
Same day	Payoff request (freeze a HELOC). Tax cert from every collector. HOA estoppel. IRS payoff, or Form 14135 at least 45 days out	Servicer portal already on the file; collector and HOA portals; IRS channel on the NFTL. Publication 783 (read 2026-10-15)
When the payoff letter is in	A named person callbacks the servicer and approves the wire details before anyone sends money	Number already on the file, never the number on the letter
After funding	Diary the state release clock. Ask the servicer for recording information	Same servicer channel
When status is Recorded	Download the stamped image. Search the county by that instrument number	Vendor, then the recorder website already on the file
Clock ran, still no recorded release	Flag the closer that day. Ask the underwriter whether a statutory title-company release is on the table	Underwriter bulletin, then counsel

Call the servicer, collector, or recorder number already on the file. Never a number that arrived with a rush email or with the payoff letter. Note the time, the name on the other end, and the ticket or instrument number.

Wire instructions stay untrusted

A payoff letter is an instruction to send money, not proof the lien is gone. Call the servicer back at a number already on the file, never the number printed on the letter. A named person approves the pay-to, the account, and the amount before anyone sends money. How a title company should verify payoff wire instructions is that callback. Use the same rule when the payee is a tax collector, a clerk, or the IRS.

State clocks we read

The rows below are only the statutes read for this page. Other states differ. These clocks run after a correct payoff is received, not from the contract date. Check the underwriter’s bulletin and counsel. This is not legal advice.

Place	Servicer or creditor clock	Title-company release if the servicer never records
Florida	Fla. Stat. § 701.04(2) (2026 Florida Statutes, read 2026-10-15): within 60 days after full payment or payment per the estoppel letter, whichever is earlier, execute the release, send it for recording, and send the recorded release to the mortgagor or record title owner	§ 701.041 (read 2026-10-15): a title insurer may record a certificate of release after payment per the estoppel letter, on a mortgage of $500,000 or less that is not an open-end or revolving line
Texas	Finance Code § 343.108 (read 2026-10-15): by the 60th day after the servicer or mortgagee receives the correct payoff of a home loan, deliver a release to the mortgagor or file it with the county clerk. A mortgagor request within 20 days of payoff shortens that to 30 days from the request	Property Code § 12.017 (read 2026-10-15): a title insurance company may record an affidavit as release on a one-to-four-family residence, or on other property if the original face amount was less than $1.5 million. Notify the mortgagee at the pay-to first. The mortgagee may controvert within 45 days
California	Civil Code § 2941 (read 2026-10-15): 30 days after a mortgage is satisfied, the mortgagee records a certificate of discharge. On a deed of trust, the beneficiary has 30 calendar days to deliver a reconveyance request to the trustee; the trustee has 21 calendar days after receipt to record it	If a full reconveyance has not recorded within 75 calendar days of satisfaction, a title insurance company may record a release after 10 days’ prior first-class mail notice to the trustee, trustor, and beneficiary of record
Federal tax lien	26 CFR 301.6325-1 (eCFR current as of 2026-10-14, read 2026-10-15): a certificate of release no later than 30 days after the entire tax liability on the NFTL is fully satisfied	Discharge of one parcel is a different paper. Form 14135 (Rev. 11-2024, read 2026-10-15) and Publication 783: file at least 45 days before the certificate is needed. A payment receipt is not that certificate

On a Florida file, payment per the estoppel letter starts the 60-day recording duty. On a Texas home loan, the 60-day clock runs from receipt of the correct payoff. On a California deed of trust, 75 days with no reconveyance is when the statute first lets a title company record a release, and only after the 10-day mailed notice.

What does not clear an exception

Move	Why it fails
Treating the payoff letter as the release	The letter is the amount to wire. The county still shows the lien
A paid-in-full email, a canceled check, or a clerk receipt	The index still shows the encumbrance until a recordable satisfaction records
Seller’s word that the old loan was paid years ago	The next examiner reads the index, not the seller
Deleting a utility easement, CC&Rs, or minerals because the buyer objected	Those usually stay. The underwriter decides
Marking a HELOC cleared from today’s balance	The line can still be drawn on. Freeze it, then chase the release
Issuing the policy off a Sent or Accepted e-recording status	Wait for Recorded, then match the instrument on the county index
Recording a statutory title-company release before the clock and the notice rules	Florida, Texas, and California each limit which mortgages qualify

If the release will miss the contract date, flag the closer that day. Do not fund on a verbal, and do not tell the lender the exception is gone because the payoff wired.

Pull the files closing in the next 30 days. For each Schedule B exception the underwriter marked to delete, confirm the recorded release, satisfaction, reconveyance, estoppel, tax cert, or judgment satisfaction is on the file, with an instrument number that hits that county’s index. Start the chase on any exception that still has only a payoff letter, a paid-in-full email, or a seller promise, and log the instrument on the file that afternoon.