What do you do when you find errors after closing?

Hello Diane,

I bought a house in Florida 5 years ago. I recently discovered that my HUD is incorrect. I do fault myself for not paying more attention even though I was being rushed through the process by the title company on the day of closing.

It has become apparent that my purchase payment is $7,000 more than my purchase contract and the property address is also incorrect. The address and parcel ID on the Warranty Deed is also incorrect although the legal description is correct. What can I do about this now?

I thank you in advance for your time and look forward to your reply.

M

Hi, M:

I would write a letter to the company who handled the transaction with a copy going to your mortgage lender and real estate agent, if applicable.  Ask for an explanation of the $7000 purchase payment discrepancy.  There may have been a misunderstanding which their explanation will resolve.  If, however, they cannot explain it and you believe there was an error or some kind of fraud, you should follow with another letter which would be a formal demand for correction.  I always believe a demand letter should be sent via certified mail.  This shows you are serious.  If you aren't satisfied, you could hire an attorney to assist or perhaps talk with the Florida attorney general's office.  They should have some formal mechanism for handling consumer complaints.  It works like the Better Business Bureau but has teeth.

As for the deed, I would request that whoever insured your purchase transaction - the title company - create a corrective deed.  In my opinion it could be a deed from you to you simply to correct the parcel ID and address.  Since the legal description is correct, I don't see any reason they would have to go back to the seller.

You can handle both of these problems in the same letters, however, be sure to keep it easily understood that there are two issues and that you want them both resolved.

Good luck and I hope this helped.  ;)

Diane

did the gas rights move with the deed?

Hello,

I follow your blog and appreciate you helping people on the web. I have a concern when it comes to my dads property and oil rights. MY grand parents left the property and gas rights to my dad back in 1981 in a will. The deed was never transferred or recorded until 2000. The estate attorney (whom i wont mention) copied and passed all legal descriptions and didn't transfer the gas rights to the property. They are still in the estates name in which my dad was the administer and transferred to my dad in a will. 

How can we fix this issue. we have 2 storage wells on the property and dominions wont send checks anymore in the estate name and need my dad to have a deed with gas rights. I was considering a correction deed? just to give gas rights, the family is all willing to sign off on this, its just really tough as i dont know where to go.?

I know a title search is pretty expensive and we dont have alot of money at this point. Any helpful info would be great.

Thanks.
H


Hi, H:

In PA if the gas rights are owned by the seller and not mentioned in a deed, they move with the property.  Our deeds convey everything the seller owns unless they expressly reserve something.  I would be surprised if it doesn't work in the same way where you live.  If that is the case, then it would just be a matter of changing the name on the gas lease to the new owner, your father.  Try contacting the gas folks and explaining this.  See if they will simply change the name.  If the person you are speaking with isn't sure, suggest they confer with their legal counsel.  If that doesn't work, then get an attorney who specializes in real estate to look at your deed and write a letter to the gas folks.  I don't think this will be hard to resolve so I don't think you should have to pay for large legal fees.  

Don't be too hard on the estate attorney as simply taking the legal descriptions from prior deeds is the norm.  ;)

Good luck.

Diane

query: deed correction by title company/title company made mistake but buyer refuse to

If there is a mistake and you have a buyer who is refusing to cooperate, here are a few tactics that can be employed.

If we make a mistake - and everyone does, being human - we try to make the solution as easy as possible. That means that we will send one of our closers to the consumer's home or some other convenient place to have the corrected document signed. If a party refuses to sign a corrective document and won't meet with our closer, I'll send a friendly but explicit letter outlining the harm being caused to whomever and whatever legal forms and affidavits the buyer signed at closing in which they agreed to cooperate. These two methods have always worked for me and I haven't ever had to go further.

I know one law firm whose back office was run by a women who used a small sum of money as a lure. If she had a party who was probably not going to cooperate, she's call them and say she found an error and they were owed $5 or $10 and that they had to come into the office to pick up the check and sign for it. She's make certain that they signed the corrective document as part of releasing the check. She always refused to mail the check because they had to sign for it. She insisted that it always worked even though the sum wasn't large. Maybe with gas prices you'd have to make it $20 today.

query: corrective deed in PA

A corrective deed in one that replaces a deed which has already been recorded but contains an error. You can handle it in one of two ways.

If you have the original deed in hand, you can strike and correct the error, have the parties initial the correction, add a new additional notary acknowledgment that covers the initialing by the parties, and type across the top of the front page the words, CORRECTIVE DEED. It also helps to include a sentence or two giving the purpose of the corrective deed. For instance you could say, "The purpose of this corrective deed is to correct the spelling of the last name of the Grantee."

If you do not have the original deed in hand you can type a whole new deed and have the parties sign and acknowledge it before a notary public. You'll still want to type the words CORRECTIVE DEED across the top of the first page and add a sentence or two explaining the correction. You'll also want to recite back to the deed that was previously recorded that you intend to replace.

In both circumstances, in Pennsylvania, you need to attach duplicate statement of account forms to cover the transfer tax exemption.

The Recorder of Deeds may also require that you attach a copy of the recorded document you are correcting.