Auction Purchase - Title Question

[William Howley]

Hi, I am an investor in Tampa, Florida (Hillsborough County) and I recently won a property at auction. You initially deposit a non refundable 5% prior to auction, and than pay the 95% within 24 hours. 

Here is the situation / story: 

After winning the property I paid for an in depth title research (yes I know this should be done ahead of time but often there is not enough time to do it before hand. so lets not discuss that aspect of it here.)  The women of the title research called me back the morning of and told me "I do not think you should buy this property because the previous owner had filed for bankruptcy and because of this the foreclosure auction may be illegitimate and thus they may have a claim on the title and you could lose your purchase entirely".  I followed her advice and decided to not follow through with the 95% payment and lost my 5%. After talking with a friend of mine he had said that I SHOULD have purchased it any ways because there is 10 day period in which the judge will review the case and issue the title. If they find an issue, or if the previous owner files an objection than my 95% would be refunded by the court. This it is worth taking the risk. Unfortunately I did'nt know this until after.

Question:

So what if a similar situation happens again? Regardless of the county issuing the title to me 10 days later is it possible for the previous owner to come after me with a lawyer like 30 days later saying I don't have a legitimate claim to this property despite the county issuing me a title? Or is it that when the title is issued, that is it case closed. This is important information to know. I lost $5,000 this time and felt that I should have in fact bought the property! 

Any advice from someone with a similar experience please let me know.

[Wayne Brooks]

When BK is filed, it automatically Deluca the auction, of scheduled. Then the bank goes to BL court and gets the stay lifted, then the auction is rescheduled and sold. Your title agent is misinformed/overly cautious. Worst that could happen if property is sold when it shouldn't be is you'd get reimbursed. You can look at the foreclosure case file, docket events, and see what happened and when.