Title insurance, unlike car or homeowner’s insurance, protects against past problems, not future incidents. What it does is it insures against legal problems that are already in existence when a seller transfers ownership to a buyer. For example, perhaps a roofer was never paid and put a “lien” on the house for the dollar amount of the work that was done. Or perhaps ownership documents were forged or the house was already sold at a tax sale. During the course of the sale of a home, a title search is done and the title insurance company provides insurance to protect from these kinds of things.