The two are easy to confuse but cover opposite directions in time. Homeowners (hazard) insurance protects the physical property against future damage and liability — fire, weather, theft, injury — and you pay it for as long as you own the home. Title insurance protects your legal ownership against defects that already existed in the property’s history — liens, errors, fraud — and is paid once at closing. A homeowner generally carries both: one guards the structure going forward, the other guards your right to own it.