Selling Property with Deed Issue Help

[dlatin 328]

My neighbor is trying to sell a small property in the Valley so she can be my neighbor full time. She would winter in the south and live on the lake up north in the summer. This is an inexpensive property with a trailer on it. The title search brought up an issue when the original owners sold it to owner 2. Apparently the 1st owners sold it but only the wife signed the sale to owner 2 back in 2000, my neighbor (owner 3) bought it in 2001. She is trying to sell it now but original owner 1 husband never conveyed the deed to owner 2. So the title policy won’t issue the policy without going back to owner 1 (that is likely deceased, why he didn’t sign the sale).

 

The buyer can buy the property without a title policy but she’s part of an investment group so she will likely want to have clear title. How would we go about getting a clean title since there’s no chance we could get a hold of the likely deceased or contact heirs that know nothing of this.

[Dr Fear 1268]

She probably qualifies for the 20 year adverse possession with a deed, but you still would have to go to court.

Are we sure the husband didn't die before the wife sold it? I guess your friend did not have title insurance herself?

[HRSchenker 2268]

Dr Fear beat me to it but yeah she probably has an adverse possession claim

[dlatin 328]

She probably qualifies for the 20 year adverse possession with a deed, but you still would have to go to court.

Are we sure the husband didn't die before the wife sold it? I guess your friend did not have title insurance herself?

She has owned the property for over 22 years. She’s now not sure what the situation was with owner 1. I suspect the husband died so when it was sold, only the wife signed the paperwork (but I don’t know this).

So I think we need to find a lawyer in the county to get this cleared in court. Any idea of a very rough estimate of what this would cost? I think the value of the property is only about $30k.

This is in Hidalgo County

[TwiceHorn 31433]

3 hours ago, dlatin said:

She has owned the property for over 22 years. She’s now not sure what the situation was with owner 1. I suspect the husband died so when it was sold, only the wife signed the paperwork (but I don’t know this).

So I think we need to find a lawyer in the county to get this cleared in court. Any idea of a very rough estimate of what this would cost? I think the value of the property is only about $30k.

This is in Hidalgo County

I believe the process would be a suit to quiet title and probably the biggest issue would be finding and serving the heirs of owner/seller 1.

Given that your neighbor would have a strong adverse possession claim, there would be little percentage for the heirs to appear and fight, so it looks like it would be an agreed or default judgment scenario, about as likely as not.  Or the heirs could show up and ask for a nuisance payment.

I'm going to guess this could be done for about $5k or so assuming the heirs don't show up and kick up a big fuss, and that they're reasonably easy to find.

Edited August 1, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[Upgrayedd 5810]

Doesn’t owner 3 have a title insurance claim?

[Gil Bang 25907]

4 hours ago, dlatin said:

 

My neighbor is trying to sell a small property in the Valley so she can be my neighbor full time. She would winter in the south and live on the lake up north in the summer. This is an inexpensive property with a trailer on it. The title search brought up an issue when the original owners sold it to owner 2. Apparently the 1st owners sold it but only the wife signed the sale to owner 2 back in 2000, my neighbor (owner 3) bought it in 2001. She is trying to sell it now but original owner 1 husband never conveyed the deed to owner 2. So the title policy won’t issue the policy without going back to owner 1 (that is likely deceased, why he didn’t sign the sale).

 

The buyer can buy the property without a title policy but she’s part of an investment group so she will likely want to have clear title. How would we go about getting a clean title since there’s no chance we could get a hold of the likely deceased or contact heirs that know nothing of this.

 

12 minutes ago, Upgrayedd said:

Doesn’t owner 3 have a title insurance claim?

ding ding ding

Owner 3's title policy covers this.   Is that title company still in business?  If so, they will almost certainly issue a new policy for owner 4

[dlatin 328]

I believe the process would be a suit to quiet title and probably the biggest issue would be finding and serving the heirs of owner/seller 1.
Given that your neighbor would have a strong adverse possession claim, there would be little percentage for the heirs to appear and fight, so it looks like it would be an agreed or default judgment scenario, about as likely as not.  Or the heirs could show up and ask for a nuisance payment.
I'm going to guess this could be done for about $5k or so assuming the heirs don't show up and kick up a big fuss, and that they're reasonably easy to find.

I believe finding heirs will be a challenge if not impossible. What happens if heirs cannot be located? My guess is the wife sold it says the husband signature. And given the location, value of the property, cash exchange, no title policies were issued until now, buyer 4 as an investor is seeking title insurance and this is now uncovered.

It’s a mess and I feel terrible for my widowed neighbor who is very old and wants this all to be done with. I stepped in to see what the holdup was and to be sure she wasn’t being taken advantage of and found this mess. Im going to help her work through it.

Thanks for all the help so far. Im going to call a couple of lawyers tomorrow on her behalf.

[TwiceHorn 31433]

5 minutes ago, dlatin said:

I believe finding heirs will be a challenge if not impossible. What happens if heirs cannot be located? My guess is the wife sold it says the husband signature. And given the location, value of the property, cash exchange, no title policies were issued until now, buyer 4 as an investor is seeking title insurance and this is now uncovered.

It’s a mess and I feel terrible for my widowed neighbor who is very old and wants this all to be done with. I stepped in to see what the holdup was and to be sure she wasn’t being taken advantage of and found this mess. Im going to help her work through it.

Thanks for all the help so far. Im going to call a couple of lawyers tomorrow on her behalf.

Well, if affidavits can be made that heirs cannot be located, then the suit can be served by publication.  That's going to increase complication and expense some.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21865]

On 7/31/2023 at 10:01 PM, Gil Bang said:

 

ding ding ding

Owner 3's title policy covers this.   Is that title company still in business?  If so, they will almost certainly issue a new policy for owner 4

Ha Ha Ha.  Good luck getting a title company to cover anything under one of their policies.  They exist to fuck people out of money.

[HouTex 1866]

2 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Ha Ha Ha.  Good luck getting a title company to cover anything under one of their policies.  They exist to fuck people out of money.

Yep.  They are not assignable, meaning, among other things, that as a grantor you have to buy a policy that insures you against stuff that might have happened before the time you owned it.  And so every time property is flipped they get to charge another whole fee even though the grantor only owned the property for a short time.  It’s a huge racket even before any claim is ever made on a title defect.  

[Gil Bang 25907]

9 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Ha Ha Ha.  Good luck getting a title company to cover anything under one of their policies.  They exist to fuck people out of money.

In my asset manager days, I had tremendous success with title claims.  I don't know how many claims I made, but it had to be 20 or so.  

 

 

[dlatin 328]

My neighbor was devastated and was not sleeping well. I told her we’d get this done but it may take some time. As an aside the first buyer backed out after dragging his feet for a long time and this 2nd buyer has been slow rolling. My neighbor thought this would have been complete months ago. I was going to start the process finding a lawyer when I learned the title company agreed to wave the issue with the conveyance if my neighbor can show she’s paid taxes since 2001 when she bought it and get an updated survey. Let’s go! We’re not done yet but in an instant it could all work out. Thanks for the help!

[Dr Fear 1268]

My neighbor was devastated and was not sleeping well. I told her we’d get this done but it may take some time. As an aside the first buyer backed out after dragging his feet for a long time and this 2nd buyer has been slow rolling. My neighbor thought this would have been complete months ago. I was going to start the process finding a lawyer when I learned the title company agreed to wave the issue with the conveyance if my neighbor can show she’s paid taxes since 2001 when she bought it and get an updated survey. Let’s go! We’re not done yet but in an instant it could all work out. Thanks for the help!

Excellent news!