Settlement 3 months ago, title company never recorded deed

[Lynn McGeein]

Contacted the title company as never got copy of recorded deed or owners title insurance in the mail -- it was a short sale and bank required that we use their closing company. Closed 3 months ago. Just got an answer back from the title company (I was copied on an email to her boss) that said, Should have info shortly. Need to send one more document to the abstractor.

Is this normal? I've never gone this long without getting copies of my recorded deed and owners title policy. Should I just be patient? Should I contact my realtor or loan officer? Or should I be getting an attorney?

[Daniel Doran]

Lynn,

I've been in the title business in NY, CT and FL for over 20 years. The answer they gave you makes absolutely no sense unless they do not do their own policies in house and are waiting for their abstractor to complete it for them.

Before they can do your title insurance policy they have to get the recorded deed back from the clerk. The reason is the policy states the book and page the deed was recorded in. So if the deed hasn't been recorded yet, they can't do the policy.

Three months to get a deed recorded sounds like a mixup to me. Granted there are counties that are slow in getting documents back to the title company but what it sounds like here is more than likely the document was returned to them because there was a mistake with it. Either they mailed it to the wrong county, or they mailed it with insufficient funds to record, something. Whatever the case, they had to resend it to the clerk and are waiting for it to come back.

Contacting your realtor or loan officer isn't going to really help much. All they can do is call the title company and complain, just like you. What you need to do is look at the title commitment that was issued before closing. See who the title company's underwriter is, and contact them directly. They will get to the bottom of it asap because they are on the hook to insure you if something went wrong. Almost every underwriter requires documents to be filed within 30 days of closing. Believe me if the title company get's a call from their underwriter they will run down to the clerk's office to get that document back.

Hope this helps and good luck.