I will refrain from naming the county.
I cannot for the life of me understand how an attorney cannot get the concept of estoppel by deed.
We have an insured transaction in which an error was discovered in the first of three deeds being recorded. A corrective deed was filed upon discovery and the correction served to correct the chain of warranty deeds and our insured's interest is whole.
At issue is the tax assessor's position that our insured does not own the entire property.
The attorney for the seller prepared two of the three deeds including the one which he corrected. We are of the that everything was done correctly and the seller's attorney sees no reason to do extra work just to satisfy a lunatic.
Do you think lunatic is a harsh word?
Well, our insured has just found out that since 2005, the monies paid on his behalf by his mortgage lender for taxes have not been processed. Apparently they take his one third - the only part they think he owes - and refuse to accept his money to pay the taxes on the remaining two thirds. They want a check written by the seller.
Our insured has received certified mail notice that they intend to have a tax sale and STILL they will not accept his money.
I advised him to hire an attorney and pronto.
Lunacy. Utter lunacy.
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Shortly after this post, I received a call from the attorney representing our insured.
He expressed his personal feelings about the tax collector and tax claim not accepting money. I agreed.
We reviewed the deeds and he agreed that estoppel by deed did correct the warranty deed and that technically additional corrective deeds were not necessary but it would be so much easier if we just did them.
I said I didn't disagree but I can do no more than I have already done and that was to sent two letters to the attorney who represented the seller explaining the issue and that I certainly would not approach his client - who I think is an elderly woman - to sign a corrective deed. I added that it's not a title insurance issue in my opinion, however if he wanted to process a claim, I'd be happy to send the material in but I think it was be a long road that would bring him right back to where he sits right now.
Our insured owns the property. The attorney for the tax assessment office is simply wrong. How do you deal with lunacy in government?
I'll be very curious to see how this plays out.
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