Missing recorded deed -1950s. What now?

Question

We put an offer on a home but can't get title insurance on it because of a missing recorded deed from the 1950s.

The current owner father purchased it in 1950s but it was not recorded. He passed away and property was probated to his son. A quiet title was done to get sons name on deed, but issue still stands that his fathers name is not on the deed.

How do you properly resolve this? The corporation that the father purchased it from also is dissolved now as well.

Is it another quiet title?

Peter Walther · Answer

A quiet title action is only binding on parties who are named and served in the suit.  If the dissolved corp wasn't named any potential interest it might have wouldn't have been extinguished.

Ryan Seib · Answer

State law weighs heavily on real estate title matters. That said yes generally you are going to need to establish ownership and chain of title somehow. It could be a quitclaim, or a quiet title action, or adverse possession, or by operation of law (ie statute of limitations has run out). Easiest is obviously to track down the most current record owner and ask them to sign a quitclaim. Or find the original deed and record it. Or just go forward without title insurance (totally depends on laws in your state--consult state attorney). quiet title might be easy enough due to the amount of time passed though. I hope it works out in the end and not too much time/effort is wasted. Hopefully the seller pays for fixing the matter. I would ask for a pretty huge discount at the very least.

Peter Walther · Answer

I assume the original deed can't be located, if it can be it can still be recorded along with an affidavit explaining why it wasn't recorded, that might satisfy the title company.  If that can't be done, a long shot would be to try to locate surviving members of the last Board of Directors.  Since the deed was from the 50's chances are they're all dead but it might be worth a shot.  Another thought is to see if the corp was purchased by or merged into a still existing entity and obtain a new deed from them.  Another route would be to locate the Articles of Dissolution for the corp and see if it identifies where the assets of the corp were distributed.  If those individuals are dead you may be able to locate their heirs and/or beneficiaries and get a deed from them.  A last suggestion is to bring another quiet title action naming the dissolved corp.  Any of these options are going to take leg work and a bit of luck.  If you're going to do it I hope you're getting the property for a really good price.  I curious though, if the deed was never recorded I assume the taxes are still being assessed in the name of the corp.  Is that correct?  If the property was being assessed in the name of the deceased father you could ask the Assessor's office what they relied on to change the name from the corp.  It's possible the father took the deed to the Assessor and they never got it to the Recorder.

Matt Devincenzo · Answer

The quiet title was the process to resolve this. That action (should have) resulted in the property being transferred to the son free of any past claims on title due to this issue. Are you sure that this is even an issue any longer? I'd ask the title company why the quiet title didn't resolve this...that's the answer you need. Maybe they need to complete another quiet title...?

Andy Eakes · Answer

@Marina Shimanski Question... Is the title missing? Or is the fathers name just not on the title? You mention both and I don't see how they could have the son's name put on a title without proof that his dad even owned the house right? I am not an attorney so I don't know about that for sure.

Honestly, there are resolutions to this, but it usually takes a long time and being that the deed is missing, and potentially never recorded, an attorney is going to have to get involved. Really the seller should step and be helpful in the process being that they cant sell without it. It was probably just a human error back in the day that never got resolved.

I don't know how attached you are to this property, but this will most certainly become a huge head ache for you, especially if the seller isn't cooperative, and the main players involved in the original transaction in the 50s have either died or no longer exist. It'll make finding records that much more difficult.\

But if you are up for the process an attorney should be able to help you out! Also, consider having the seller

Missing recorded deed -1950s. What now?

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