About two months ago a client calls for what sounds like a typical small town survey of several lots. This is a "free land" type of deal where the city is giving away vacant lots with the condition that a house must be constructed within one year or they get the land back.
Courthouse research leads to the discovery of a title issue. I prepare a sketch and plenty of words to describe the title problem for the client. The client contacts the city and they, in turn, contact their attorney. Which leads to today's ring ring.
Attorney: Hi, this is Bob Ratt calling on behalf of the City of Lanyonville. I have been provided your documentation of a problem with certain tracts in Block 2. Now, what the heck do I do?
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I loved it. No big spiel about how he is the legal expert and I'm some dumb technician out to cause trouble for no good reason. We simply went through a nice discussion of the steps in the process of thoroughly screwing up things by letting ignorant people do ignorant things. We swapped contact info and thirty minutes later he had a detailed plan of action from me on the multiple steps needed to straighten things out. He will be the one to have the pleasure of explaining to the city council, the school board, four adjacent land owners and my survey clients why each of them will need to sign off on a series of correction deeds. I'm hoping that they all learn in the process why professionals in real estate transactions should be consulted instead of allowing ignorant people to put erroneous words on paper and then filing those papers in the public record.
One thing that bothers me in this whole mess is that the mapping department within the County Appraiser's Office should have caught the initial error, the next error and the five additional errors that have occurred. They are sort of the last line of defense in preventing such foolishness to happen. I'm curious as to who is being taxed on a 100 foot by 16 foot strip of land that has been ignored in the various transactions to date. Also, a strip a half-foot wide by 157.5 feet.
> I loved it. No big spiel about how he is the legal expert and I'm some dumb technician out to cause trouble for no good reason. We simply went through a nice discussion of the steps in the process of thoroughly screwing up things by letting ignorant people do ignorant things. We swapped contact info and thirty minutes later he had a detailed plan of action from me on the multiple steps needed to straighten things out.
Glad you had a positive experience.
the vast majority of Attorney contact I have had has been similar: calmly sharing info and mutually working of a solution.
The "bad attitude/I am God" Lawyers I have had trouble with have Always been either Young/New or are true novatos when it comes to land and title. They think that having a single course in school made them some super expert.
