I was requested to survey the south and west lines of a property for fencing.
This is a long time client and I have mostly surrounded this parcel with surveys so it seemed an easy one.
I have staked half of the south line already for the adjoiner, the north and east lines for my long time client.
So it's simply putting it into a new drawing, calculating the parcel with my new projection applied and going to the field, checking it all and finding a ROW monument I don't yet have.?ÿ
They always seem easy, maybe I'm too positive.?ÿ
Anyway, since I've surveyed around it I have the descriptions for the parcel.?ÿ
In 1981 the pasture surrounding the house/barn/shop was granted, then in 1983 the house/bar/shop parcel was granted all to a couple about my age.?ÿ
They lived there until 2016 when they "sold" to my client.?ÿ
Since accessing the vault at the Clerk's office is a big process and it's a new sale which is scanned online I pulled the deeds I already had and downloaded the new Warranty Deed and dang, they only granted the pasture, not the house.?ÿ
I went through the process of accessing the sacred vault and sure enough the actual house description is missing.
The county GIS shows the entire parcel in my clients ownership, why I have no idea. I keep thinking I'm missing something but can't figure out what it may be.?ÿ
Anyway, I contacted the client and they will start the process of fixing this, hopefully a simple correction. I'll let the attorneys handle it or maybe they will get back to me and show me what I'm missing.?ÿ
They are in the process of refencing (scheduled for tomorrow), renovating the house, barn and shop without owning it.?ÿ
Title insurance should fix this, it will be interesting to see if they can side-step it somehow.?ÿ
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What do you mean by "sold". The quotes imply something, do they not?
You should be the hero in this case.?ÿ Many times those involved in transactions are the most trusting of the work done by others.?ÿ So, when an error occurs, everyone sort of assumes there is no error and that what has made it onto paperwork so far is what needs to continue directly onto other pieces of paperwork.?ÿ Almost everyone assumes that what is in front of them is correct.
It is our job to question things.?ÿ Everything from why does the deed say what it does to what do all of the adjoiner deeds say.?ÿ No one else explores like a land surveyor does.
Well what I mean is they only sold the pasture, not the actual house parcel, I don't have access to any agreements for the sale only the Warranty Deed and it does not include the house so the new buyers occupy the house without clear title (actually without any title). No doubt the intent to sale the buildings will prevail, but clearly the "sale" needs to be cleaned up.
Yesterday while researching something else I noted something out of the ordinary.?ÿ A neighbor had me split their property into two tracts and I prepared a description for each new tract.?ÿ Later, I purchased one of the tracts from them.?ÿ About a week after my deed was filed the sellers then filed a deed from themselves to themselves for the remainder tract so as to have a clear trail should something happen to them and their heirs would need to dispose of various pieces of real estate.?ÿ What got my attention was that they filed a corrective deed to their new deed a few weeks later.?ÿ Probably a scrivener error, right??ÿ The catch is that the wife is a full time employee of a title company office and has worked there for over twenty years.?ÿ She would have been the scrivener in this case.?ÿ Oopsy!?ÿ Maybe she spelled her name wrong. 😳 😳 😳 ?ÿ
Why would the title insurance company have to fix anything that wasn't on the deed? I thought all they did was check the title to what was being conveyed, and they would have no idea what the intent was.
You are probably correct, they probably have no exposure for this one. Makes you wonder however, just what is the point of getting title insurance.
What is the service you are paying for?
Several years ago I was surveying the home and remainder of an estate that had been split among heirs. I found that one narrow strip behind the house that contained the garage had been omitted from any of the proceedings of probate and not deeded to anyone.
The Title Company's attitude was that I was wrong and then went into panic mode because everything was going to fall thru and nobody was getting paid.
I checked thru all the records and an executor had been the Grantor for all the documents and I called him and ask him to contact the Title Company and have them prepare the proper deed to that parcel and for him to finish his duties even though it was some 10yrs since the original work was done.
He was like, I have fulfilled my duties and am no longer the executor of the estate, I can't fix this.
Actually he could, he simply did not want to.
I got paid by my client and never heard what the Title Company did or if the executor signed that last transfer to get things concluded on the sale even after I had asked.
Not quite the same thing, but our family had a slightly related experience.?ÿ My dad and uncle had a sizable piece of ground they had inherited from their aunt and sold it on a contract in the 1980's.?ÿ The buyer finished paying it off about the time Dad died in 2002 and uncle, who wasn't much involved in the transaction, died not too long after.?ÿ In 2018 I noticed that the GIS still showed it as belonging to Dad, and eventually contacted the buyers.?ÿ "Oh, we wondered why our tax bill still had his name on it." Duh.
Nobody knows whether Dad made a deed and they didn't record it in the years before their house fire, or whether they simply never asked for one and Dad was too sick to notice.?ÿ We had to get Mom and my cousin as inheritors to make the deed, affidavits, etc.?ÿ If it had gone another generation there would have been lots more people to chase down.
Out here my understanding is that the title insurance is just that, insurance. It is the escrow or lawyer that puts the whole thing together that provides the service. You notice that their name is rarely on anything.?ÿ?ÿ
The title insurance company is printed on the lower left hand corner of the deed
Around here a high percentage of closings are handled by the title company offices in addition to their basic duty of preparing the title insurance policies, so they are the ones creating the deeds and any other related new documents.?ÿ They supply the description, etc. to the lender for the creation of the loan documents.?ÿ Attorneys are rarely involved in the process.?ÿ Realize there are radically different practices in other locations.
Title insurance companies aren't only selling insurance, they also put these deeds together, after all they are staffed by attorneys. When a person wants to purchase a house and gets a deed for a raw undeveloped parcel of land, something bad happened.?ÿ
Our title insurance offices are staffed with people whose prior employment is tremendously varied but normally has had little tie to anything involving real estate. They heard there was a job opening so they applied and happened to get it because no one else could stand such boring work. The title company attorneys are in Chicago or Philadelphia or somewhere similar but nowhere near Podunk, USA.
Your mileage may vary.
I'm not sure who is responsible for assuring that the description matches the intended parcel. If not the title company, who?
I'm not sure who is responsible for assuring that the description matches the intended parcel. If not the title company, who??ÿ
Other replies seem to indicate that the involvement of the title company varies from place to place.?ÿ If they were the ones who translated stated intent into a deed, then yes.?ÿ But they might have only gotten the deed or description someone else wrote up and never talked to the parties.
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Insurance can only provide $, they can Not issue title.
Insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums and but tail to avoid paying claims.
If your client is really lucky they may step up and pay some legal fees, but the cost of litigation is often more than the actual cost of the damages, and beyond the policy limits.
Most people buy a "lenders policy" that is limited to the amount financed, and once that loan is paid, no more insurance. nada.
"owners policies" are rare, the insured amount can be More that the purchase price, and the policy only expires on Sale of the property.
Most consumers are ignorant of the fact they are personally gaining nothing by paying for the lender's policy which only protects the lender.?ÿ The additional fee to add on an owner's policy is minimal.?ÿ I'm not sure what the going rate is today but 20 years ago it was only another $50 total.?ÿ Even if it is another $500 on a $200,000 policy it is still a bargain.
Another thing that can be done is to assemble several properties together into a bundle and getting an owner's policy for all of them at one time for a single fee based on total dollars of policy value.?ÿ That can be much cheaper than doing them one at a time.
I do know two things, they did get title insurance and there would be no financing for this property. You could knock me over with a feather if my client financed this place. Plus I looked at the tract book and there was a release of mortgage for the grantors and no mortgage for the grantees. So title insurance will only be an owners policy.
