RE Attorney Question/Help

[Brock Carroll]

Looking for some input here - I recently purchased my first two deals, one is a 4 plex I put on a traditional mortgage and the other being a SFH I bought with cash and flipped. I used a RE attorney to help put together closing documents when I purchased the the SFH since he said he could save me ~$1,500 by not having the title company prepare the documents, so of course I went with that option. Well when I went to sell the house to the new buyer there was $3,800 in unpaid summer taxes and liens against the property that were never caught since my attorney did the closing. Is it fair to assume that since he was supposed to do the proper title search and created the documents this should have been known about before I even purchased the house? I do have an indemnity clause in the original purchase agreement with the previous owner so he should be on the hook for the costs but I want to make sure that I'm correct in assuming my lawyer should have caught this prior to the closing.

I'm also in the process of looking for a new lawyer for this and other reasons of this so if there are any recommendations in the West Michigan area it'd be appreciated. 

Thanks!

Brock

[Jeremy Tomes]

@Brock Carroll I would agree with @Stanley Bronstein.  It's always advisable to have a title company run a proper title search and obtain an owner's policy at the time of closing.  Having said that, the back taxes should have been discovered by reviewing the applicable property tax statements for the property.  I'm not sure what your scope of representation was with the attorney, but assuming it was within the scope to conduct a title search, the attorney should have noted the unpaid taxes, which then should have been paid by the seller at or prior to closing.  Sorry you have to deal with that.  Good luck on the sale!