Looking for Attorneys in Tampa good with Quiet Title Action

[Jon S.]

I purchased a property in July, which was resold to me from a wholesaler. At time of closing at the Title office, I paid an additional $1500 for an attorney to handle the Quiet Title Action. It is now 4 months later, and the QTA is not complete. Just two weeks ago, they exhausted efforts on finding the former owner and decided to publish, and told me to plan on another 60-90 days. Is this normal time frame? How much longer will it probably be, after publishing, before the QTA is completed and I have a clean title? Is this a normal amount of time before deciding to publish? For future reference, if this isn't a normal time frame, are there any attorneys in Tampa, who are faster with QTA service? Thanks

[Chris Horlacher]

Jon,

I handle a large number of quiet title actions here in Florida, statewide.  The timeframe given for publication to judgment is accurate.  Since I do not know the facts of the case, I cannot give any insight into whether or not 4 months was an appropriate timeframe prior to publication. 

However, I can let you know that an attorney does need to exhaust their means of finding someone before publishing - that usually involves a postal search, skip trace, internet searches, military service search, social security search, tax collector search, DMV, Dept of Corrections, death record search, etc.  If the attorney doesn't do all these things (must file an affidavit that he/she did them), the service could be compromised.  Additionally, if the process server has attempted a few addresses, that can really slow things down. 

Hope it all works out.