Just curious if anyone has had something similar happen.

Years ago, I purchased a foreclosure from a bank. It was a weird closing that took place at this creepy lawyer's office. When I got there, he wanted me to close "in escrow". I know that in California, they refer to pending deals as "in escrow". Here, if you get to the closing and the bank hasn't sent the deed yet, that's called "in escrow". It happens all the time and it infuriates me. They want you to come in with your money, sign all of the papers, and then leave with nothing and wait for them to get the deed. During that time, you have paid for a house that you can't take possession of. I always tell the title company prior to closing that I will not close in escrow. Several times, I have shown up to closing and been told that we are closing in escrow. When I threaten to leave, the deed magically shows up and we can close.

With this particular closing, the deed had not arrived yet. The creepy lawyer wanted me to sign everything and leave the check with him. I explained to him that I was not leaving $80K with him and not getting any paperwork. He was angry, but oh well. It took about a week for the correct papers to show up and I signed them and handed over the money.

On the closing statement, it showed that the title company was holding $2,300 from the seller's proceeds for the property taxes. Weeks later, I received a check from the city for $2,300. Apparantly, the bank had paid the taxes and the title company paid them also. Being the owner of record, the overage was sent to me by the city.

I figured the bank would figure out their mistake and contact me or the city to get the funds back. I decided that since the money had come from the city, I would only return it to the city and not the mortgage company. I didn't want to have to pay back both if there was some misunderstanding.

I never heard from anyone. Anybody else have something like this happen?

It was like a bank error in my favor from Monopoly.