Is the deed goofed up or what?

Hi Diane,

I saw your blog and thought you might be able to point me in the right direction. Here's my situation (located in PA):

About 10 years ago the previous owner agreed to transfer 1000 sqft of land to the neighbor. From my understanding, this should have been done by sub-dividing and then the neighbor re-joining the parcels. However, the land in question was too small to be sub-divided. Instead, a corrective deed was issued—basically an addendum to my deed—carving out a portion of my land and assigning ownership to the neighbor. 

Is that a legitimate use of a corrective deed? It doesn't seem right that my deed has an owner of record (me) with another owner of a sub-parcel specified within.

Some extra bits: SOMETHING was recorded at the county but it doesn't seem to have been done right. The transferred portion does not have a map# assigned to it and is not part of the neighbor's deed either.

My desire isn’t to increase the size of my property. However, this has been a sticking point for getting a proper survey and I’m concerned there could be liability if an accident happens on that land. Additionally, property taxes were never adjusted to take this change into account.

Does this sound like an improper deed modification to circumvent the subdivision minimum? Would a title company get involved in something like this?

Thanks

J

Hi, J

It's a bit hard to know what you mean by an addendum to your deed because it sounds like the deal with the neighbor pre-dated your deed. 

It is possible that subdivisions may not have been required in your county ten years ago [some counties have a casual way of dealing with subdivision] or perhaps the local authority considered this was an incidental boundary change.  In that case a subdivision may not have been required. So, let's say it was properly done but in an unusual way that just seems odd but your title agent may be able to explain the logic of it.  I would call them and request that they review your file and explain how they dealt with it when they did your title examination.

It is also possible that there is a mistake and that your title agent missed it.  If they cannot explain it to your satisfaction, consider making a claim against the policy.  That would move the file into review by a title company attorney who might be able to resolve a problem or at least make sense of it.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Diane

query: I have subdivided the property i have a Line of Credit against. what now

You need to get approval from your lender before you sell any portion of that property.  What you need is called a PARTIAL RELEASE.  This will remove the mortgage lien from the part you sell.

the case of the revised subdivision

This isn't a matter which has been resolved but I thought I'd mention it as an example of how things can get royally confused in a real estate title.  ;)

In early 1979 a developer got formal planning authority approval for and recorded a subdivision.  Later that year, the developer revised the subdivision.  I can't tell why.  I can't tell whether the developer submitted the revision for formal planning authority approval and was rejected.  All I can tell you is that the revised subdivision was not recorded.  

So, for reasons which remain clouded, the developer seems to have deeded some lots based upon the original recorded plan and at least one lot, if not more, based upon the unrecorded revised plan.

What makes this case especially irksome is that many - if not most - of the recorded documents in the two chains I reviewed reference the recorded plan, but also use the word revised.  I think it's just all screwed up.

Now my insured buyer has a neighbor who recognizes the lot lines described in the original approved plan.  My insured buyer wants to use the lot lines as revised.

It's a classic boundary line dispute and I post it just to show how a sloppy developer is causing grief even close to 20 years later.

Our insured buyer will find no relief in title insurance for this dispute.  In PA there is no boundary line dispute coverage in an owner policy.  We did recommend that he get a survey and he chose not to.  A survey may have raised the issue.  I have reason to believe that the neighbor did approach the buyer and raised the issue prior to closing so I do not think he went into the transaction without a heads up.  Also, the owner policy does not insure subdivision approval.

If the dispute ever goes to court, it will be interesting to see if the unrecorded revised plan has standing.