Title insurance may crash and burn my deal...

[Ori Skloot]

Got a great off-market property under-contract in Oakland.  Yay!  

There was one last piece of paperwork that the seller submitted last week to title company (death certificate of his mother who did a quitclaim to him) and it was being reviewed by title company underwriting.   I got an email from the title company today:

"We have heard back from our underwriters and unfortunately, we are not able to move forward with this transaction until the estate of XXXX is probated. Our underwriters are not comfortable with the recordation of the quitclaim deed and the time that elapsed between execution and recordation. To move forward with us, the seller would need to probate XXXX's estate and the executor or administrator would need to act as the seller.”

Here is the issue (as best as I understood it): the deed was executed in the mother's name in 2003 and not recorded until 2014, which was 3 years after the mother had passed.  The current owner and seller, her son, has title in his name and has a quitclaim from the mother recorded.   The divorce settlement for the mother does not specify that the current owner was to receive the property as part of the mother's divorce.

Going to probate is not an option as the house is going to be foreclosed on next month.   I was thinking that maybe a quiet title may be the solution, but that takes time too.

So my best solution is to try another title company and see whether their underwriting will allow it.  Current title company is Old Republic.  

My question is whether anyone has a recommendation for another title company that may be more likely to offer title insurance on this property?   I know I can just "call around" but hoping to get advice here. 

Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendations!