My ex-girlfriend purchased 40 acres of land (site-unseen) with her
credit card for $5000 on the internet. She wanted me to place my name
on the deed, so I complied. I have never had a copy of the deed, and
now that we are no longer witheach other she wants me to sign a
quitclaim deed and send it to her. I have asked for a copy of the
original deed and she will not comply and has threatened legal action.
 What are my rights? What can be a resolution?  I only want a copy for
my records, incase she neglects to pay taxes.

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Clarification of Question by cawa-ga on 02 Feb 2005 08:17 PST

FYI:

The land is located in Hudpseth county Texas.

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Clarification of Question by cawa-ga on 02 Feb 2005 18:44 PST

sorry!  The land is located in Hudspeth County, Texas.

To start with I suggest you contact the county in which the land is
located. Many can be accesses through the internet, and pull up the
records on the land. You also have the right to ask the court in which
the deed if filed for a copy of the deed, as it is public record.

I would love to help you find information out about your rights in
this matter. Please provide the state and county in which the land is
located. Also, there are two different actions that can be taken to
claim a deed from someone else- given there are legal rights to the
deed by the person taking action. The first is a quite title action,
the second being a quick claim action. Although they sound the same,
they are in fact very different- and I would like to have a bit more
information on the situation before I give you the wrong one. I have
personally just been through a quite title action as I bought a home
with some land that the seller did not actually own and because of
which I have researched a great deal on both actions. Both cases would
have to be filed in a court of law.

But if as you say you only want a copy of the deed- then you should be
able to obtain one from the county records department in which the
land is located. If you would further like to gather information- it
will help to have the state/county and for search purposes parcel ids,
addresses or first and last name of person on the deed.

lrulrick,

Please, let's not confuse cawa.  Here's the correct terms:

QUIT CLAIM
QUIT TITLE

The word "QUIT" is quite a bit different than "QUITE," although they
are spelled nearly the same...

Actually it is the way I said it. In Ohio at least


Although I see I made a horrible typo in which I exchanged the "e" and
the "t", in "quiet"


QUIET TITLE ACTION A court ordered hearing to determine the actual
ownership of real property.  This type of proceeding would be
conducted to transfer title to an adverse possessor.


QUIT CLAIM DEED A deed that conveys all interest in a property which
the grantor may or may not have, and gives no warranties as to the
condition of title.  Its primary use is to remove clouds from the
title.

In Ohio, the quit claim is refered to as a "quick claim" because of
the lack of warrenty for the deed by persons granting it. It does not
clear the title of all claims to ownership by others.

However I did ask for county and state in order to better investigate
this issue in regards to that states laws.

***As a side note, we had to go through both processes in order to
maintain ownership over our home, in said order- first with decendents
of previous people who had possession of it but did not actually have
title/deed to it, and then  we had to quick claim it clearing a mess
involving seller who again never actually owned it. 200 years of
people "having" this land and not one good title was ever recorded.

To answer your specific questions:

?What are my rights??  She cannot force you to sign a quit claim deed.
She can buy your interest from you for a fair price and you could give
her a quit claim deed, or she could sue you under some type of common
law marriage or palimony theory and ask a judge to force you to quit
claim the property over to her, but otherwise, you have no legal
compulsion to sign it over.  Why won't she buy your interest from you?
 I do not think she has grounds to sue you, frankly.


?What can be a resolution??  Why don't you call a title company in
Hudpseth County and ask to speak to a title officer.  Explain you
situation and tell them that you want a copy of the deed that was
recored when your girlfriend bought the property.  Do you have a legal
description of the property?  If not, you will need her full name and
the approximate date it was recorded.  The title officer can locate
the deed for free or for a small fee and fax it to you.  Happens all
the time--I have done it myself many times.  Then at least you have a
copy of the deed, which presumably shows you as a grantee of the
property, and you can monitor the county assessor records to make sure
the taxes are current (assuming you do not want to simply quit claim
you interest to your girlfriend).

Note?if the title officer cannot locate a recorded deed showing you
and your girlfriend as grantees of the property, then she has likely
been swindled out of her $5K.

That would be great if she was swindled out of $5000!  That's less
than what she swindled out of me!

After searching I was unable to pull county records for Hudspeth
online.  I did however find phone listings for the clerk of courts-
who would be able to issue a copy of the deed. (915) 369-2301; fax
(915) 369-2361,

Hudspeth County 
Hudspeth County Clerk
P.O. Box 58 
Sierra Blanca, TX 79851 
Telephone: (915) 369-2301 

Am dissapointed to not be able to find the record listed online- but life goes on.

As for signing the deed over, let her take you to court for it. If the
deed in fact is in your name, contact the tax department and have
taxes mailed to your address. In most cases, because you have legal
possession of the title in your name, paying the taxes will reinforce
your ownership of said property. She may even come to realize that the
cost of taking this action to court is not worth the $5000 she is
already out.

But do at least contact the court for a copy of the deed, it is public
record and there should be no conflict in them providing one.

Thank you very much lrulrick!

I have already contacted the court!  For a whopping $6 I can have a
certified copy of the deed.  How funny is that?  I seriously doubt if
the land is worth it's weight of $5k...  just wanted to teach a lesson
in law to a paranoid child, and show her I'm not afraid of her idle
legal threats.