Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Title issues
We have run into a snag with our home purchase. It seems that the abstract on the title does not match the new survey that was just completed. The new survey says that the land the house sits on is 25 acres. The abstract says 18 and the tax information says 21. It's put the deal at a stand still.
The sellers atty wants to provide the previous survey (from 1969) and do a quitclaim deed for the rest of the property but our atty says it's not wise to accept this unless they are willing to pay for a fee title insurance policy for the rest of the property. He said if they aren't willing to do this, we could accept the property at the 18 acres and ask for a decrease in the price since we were expecting over 21.
Has anyone ever dealt with title issues like this or know anything about quitclaim deeds? I just don't want us to get into something that isn't a good idea. It's all very confusing to me. :-/
Re: Title issues
I think at this point title insurance is a really good idea regardless of if you accept that it has only 18 acres anyway.
Its been my experience that situations like this are pretty common with homes with large parcels of land, especially here in the northeast where deeds are usually done by meets and bounds (the property lines are measured in directions and lengths by landmarks such as rocks, trees, stone walls, stream beds etc, all or none of which may even be there anymore)
I would follow your attorney's advice, but consider getting a title insurance policy whether the sellers agree to pay for it or not.
DO NOT accept a quitclaim deed! They are worthless. They only give you whatever interest the person has in a land...which is nothing if they don't actually own the land - does that make sense? Talk to your attorney, he'll explain it more. If your attorney tells you accept a quitclaim, find another attorney ASAP.
Here's the thing about an abstract: it's a summary of the documents in the courthouse. It does not verify that those documents are correct, merely that they're there. Your attorney (or your title company - whatever you're using in your part of the country) needs to go pull the title documents and compare the property descriptions on all the documents and see when and if they ever changed. The property descriptions are the important part here that will tell you how many acres the land has. It'll take some legwork, but it's imperative that it get done. The only way I can think of that this 6 acre discrepancy would arise is if 1) there's a typo or change or sell-off in one of the original docs - and that's what someone needs to go check or 2) this surveyor got it wrong.
After that gets done and if it doesn't answer the question (and I bet it will), I'd split the cost of another survey with the sellers. Find the best in the business, bring him in from the next town over if you have to.
At the end of all this, I'd lower the price to reflect the 18 acres.
And yes, get title insurance. IMO, every buyer in the country should get title insurance.
ETA - Thought of another way to explain a quitclaim to you: In very elementary terms, a quitclaim says, "Whatever I may or may not own of Land A is yours." A general warranty deed (what you want) says, "I give you Land A, described as XYZ, and promise that it's really yours and there are no problems with it." That promise is the important part that you do not get with a quitclaim, and without it, that's why a quitclaim is worthless.
My Pinterest
The Googlesites Paint Bio
Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
Quitclaim deeds have a place, but not in this kind of transaction. They are often used with estates and divorces. I would not accept one in your place. I think there needs to be a definitive determination of how much land is there and the price needs to be adjusted accordingly.
I will say that it is not uncommon for the auditor to have a different acreage than other records, especially with large parcels. But you need to know how much is really there so you aren't paying too much.
And always get title insurance. Always.