real estate “title” issues?

dollady: real estate “title” issues?
I have lived in the same house for 29 years (bought it new with 1st husband), have had several mortgages on it (2nd husband) and now the property is back in my name. in 01 a mortgage was taken out, in 02, a second was taken .. in 03 they were consolidated..and the bank never removed the leins from 01 and 02 (they also NEVER recorded the mortgage in 03…collected taxes and fees…)..now I am being faced with leins showing on my title..from 01 and 02 (title insurance was purchased in 03 AND in 05)….cannot sell…am being damaged financially at this time…do I have cause for a law suit? I could LOSE my home due to this error….any recourse?

Answers and Views:

Answer by glenn
Go to title company that issued the title insurance in 2005. They are “on the hook” already. It should not be a problem getting bank to remove paid off loans- that is a very common problem and is solved all the time. It is much more common to have a tough to solve problem because of divorce. If the papers were not done just right they could be legal but not insurable and the ex husband would have to sign something.

If the title company can not clear up paid liens then that would be the first time I have ever seen it in 31 years or real estate.

Answer by daeve930
You said there was title insurance on the ’03 consolidation and again in ’05? If so, they should fix this. Did they send you releases that you didn’t record? You should have copies of all releases, and provide them to the title company.

So then the second question I have is, was the lender collecting escrow for taxes and insurance as part of the payments? If so, they should have paid the insurance, or notified you why they didn’t. Your closing docs show indicate if escrow was included or not, and your monthly statement should have show that too.

I don’t know about a lawsuit. Anyone can file a lawsuit. Who knows if you’ll win…but it’s expensive, time-consuming and a big pain in the butt do try.

Answer by acermill
You seem to have an ugly mess of not taking care of previous liens. Your only recourse is to work with each lender involved, with hopes that they will release such liens upon the basis of having been paid off as needed.

In the future. do NOT assume that liens clearly automatically. It’s YOUR property, and you need to take actions to insure that paid off liens are removed.

Answer by alterfemego
You need to hire attorney to fight this for you. While you could go back to the company that handled the closing and advise them of this mistake, because they handled the transaction for you and the lender. They may be responsible to clearing this up. As for your credit history, you should have the documentation where you closed and the mortgage were to be paid off. You should send a copy to each of the reporting agencies and have them take any negative credit issues from this situation off your reports.

Answer by Jeromy W
First, the mortgage from 03 not being recorded is not your issue, that is the title companies issue, that should have no bearing on what your trying to accomplish. You first step would be to see if any documentation from the 03 tranaction (you mentioned an 05 transaction, what was that for and why didn’t this come up then?) specifically the hud and any possible title insurance you may have. Now you could run into an issue is you don’t have an owner’s policy, you might be able to get away with a loan policy, but those are generally for the bank. Either way, the hud is going to tell you a few things, one, look in section 1400 for recording fees, you should at least one discharge recording fee. I say this as if the mortgage you took out in 02 was a home equity, the title company may or may not have been responsible for recording the discharge for it. Many lenders either send the discharge for home equities to the county clerk themselves for recording or they send it to the borrower to have recorded. The other possibility is that the discharges were rejected. The title company handling the 03 mortgage could have possibly sent the discharge(s) along with the mortgage, the county rejected it and the docs are either with the county being held or in some office drawer somewhere. The other reason to get the hud is it should list the title company for this transaction, call them immediately as they are responsible for this issue in many ways. They can even product a letter, the proper name escapes me, that will clear you from this issue. Unfortunately, this happens all to often. Are you being financially damages, maybe, if you have to spend time obtaining duplicate discharges and getting them recorded, then yes. If the title company for the 03 transaction produces the letter of indemity (I believe that’s what it’s called) clearing you of this issue, then no. If the title company balks at you, then seek legal counsel

Answer by estielmo
Someone didn’t dot the “Is” and cross the “Ts” here. Better contact the title insurer.