It’s kind of your worst nightmare: you buy a house, and park your funds with a Title Company, who executes the transaction and writes you a title policy to guarantee ownership and title of your most expensive asset, your home. Piece of cake, right?
But in a rare case, Texas insurance regulators have taken over a North Texas title company amid allegations the owner disappeared with millions of dollars of consumer’s money.
Millennium Title, with offices in Southlake, Fort Worth, Friso, Plano, Allen and Dallas Uptown, was ordered shut by The Texas Department of Insurance. TDI said the company had less than $10,000 on hand to pay more than $100,000 in bills. The firm was a year old and based in Southlake.
According to KXAS-TV reports, employees were dismissed, and state caretakers are now trying to close property transactions.
But where is the money? Apparently, there are questions concerning the company founder, Nancy Carroll, who has vanished. KXAS found packing boxes at Carroll’s Keller home.
Carroll is accused in a lawsuit, filed Friday in Tarrant County District Court by John Herlihy, of disappearing with funds he had put in escrow to sell some property. The suit claims Carroll has “left the country, absconding with over $1 million of his proceeds.”
whose vision was to create a real estate and title services company that meets the needs of clients. At Millennium, we offer legal and title insurance services, combining cutting-edge technology and attentive customer service that gives our clients unparalleled business value
Nancy Carroll is the founder and president and a practicing attorney since 1998. She’s a graduate of Southern Methodist University with an LLM degree and a Masters in Tax Law. Prior to Millennium Title, Nancy founded and managed Carroll PC, a group of fee-attorney title offices, which closed an average of 150 residential and commercial transactions per month.
TDI, which regulates title companies in Texas, says consumers should not see a disruption in closing; funds in escrow up to $250,000 are insured by the state. Funds that exceed that would be covered once the company is liquidated.
The state set up this website for anyone in the middle of buying or selling property who has questions. Millennial’s website is still active.
As for Ms. Carroll, no one can find her: a neighbor said he noticed someone moving out of her upscale Keller home in the middle of the night last week, a couple days or two before the state takeover.
When Channel 5 went to the house, no one answered the door and stacks of moving boxes were visible in her driveway.