selling my house

[abmitch01]

the buyers discovered that the man I bought it from 12 yrs ago, his bank never closed out his loan. So the buyer can't get title insurance until this is resolved. The problem is that his bank only keeps records for 7 years and it's been 12 since I closed. Does anyone know how these usually turn out? I really need the equity from this house.

 

[bdcp]

the buyers discovered that the man I bought it from 12 yrs ago, his bank never closed out his loan. So the buyer can't get title insurance until this is resolved. The problem is that his bank only keeps records for 7 years and it's been 12 since I closed. Does anyone know how these usually turn out? I really need the equity from this house.

This is why people have to get title insurance. You should still have your mortgage and title paperwork including the "free and clear" title that was issued. You need to contact the title company that you closed with and talk to their lawyer. They cannot take your equity. You acted in good faith and closed with a title. What do you mean they never closed out the loan? If they received the money, they should have record of that. They also should have records going back farther than 7 years. I'm pretty sure by law they have to retain mortgage loan info longer than that. An "open" loan may not mean anything other than a paperwork error.

 

[dawnball]

Usually it turns out fine. Your title insurance ought to take care of it - call them up and get them in the loop if your Realtor didn't already.

 

[abmitch01]

thank you. this all happened when I was young and naive. As I refinanced twice, I didn't keep the old title insurance, I'm not sure who it's with. Argggh, I could kick myself.

 

[tvguy]

I'm no title expert, but I don't understand how your escrow closed 12 years ago because you escrow company would have paid off the previous owners mortgage and that lender would have released any lien before your could close escrow.

 

[abmitch01]

that's what I thought but the bank never finalized the papers. I'm so frustrated. I will now keep every single piece of paper for this house as long as I live in it

 

[JoanneDisFan]

Check with your local County office. All titles are recorded they and they can give you a copy. I did this after we closed our mortgage so I had an extra copy with proof it was clear.

 

[manning]

The county recorder is your friend.

I had this happen to me years ago. Luckily I had all the paper work.

I refinanced to get a lower rate then took out an equity loan. The bank called to ask why I needed three loans.

The original bank never filed a mortgage release with the recorder.

Lesson learned. The loan officer was nice enough to do all the leg work for me and made sure I got a copy of the release and recorded it.. He also recommended that in the future when you get the release from a bank to walk it to the recorder office and record it.

Also when I refinanced I found out I was three days late paying my tax bill. The original bank took the tax escrow money and applied it to the loan instead of paying the taxes. The new bank said we trust you and continued the closing. The first stop after the closing was the county treasurer. And the old bank paid back the penalty.

Needless to say St Paul Savings and Loan was bought out a long time ago.

 

[abmitch01]

thanks for the advice, everyone! Needless to say, I will be so much more careful in the future

 

[bdcp]

thank you. this all happened when I was young and naive. As I refinanced twice, I didn't keep the old title insurance, I'm not sure who it's with. Argggh, I could kick myself.

You should always keep every piece of paperwork from your mortgage closing forever. We still have everything from the first home we bought in 1982 and sold in 1985 and also for the next 3 homes we have purchased. When you close, they give you copies of everything. File them or box them up and store them, but keep them.

 

[3boymthr]

If the county records office doesn't work and if you had a lawyer handle the closing find the lawyer. They probably have copies of the paperwork. I worked for a real estate law office for a while and I learned quite a bit about real estate while I was there. They have to keep it all for many years (in MA at least 10 but longer if they feel like it) and the lawyer I worked for scanned everything into a digital copy before they destroyed it.

Oh, and don't necessarily blame it all on his bank the law office I worked for had gone thru a bit of turmoil a number of years ago and as I was cleaning paperwork out of my office I found a number of really old closings (8-9 years) that weren't finalized because of the paralegal working on the accounts walking out in the middle of the day one day and never coming back and she'd been slacking off for quite a while. It was a mess. I found actual checks that should have been sent to mortgage companies.

ETA - and you'd be SHOCKED at the number of checks from closings that don't get cashed. Every month there were two or three checks that didn't get cashed and years later one of the IOLTA accounts had several thousand uncashed checks.