I own a piece of vacant land which I inherited.  About 30 years ago
before I inherited it there was a deed of trust that was paid off but
it was not recorded.  I am in escrow to sell the property now and the
preliminary title report lists this trust deed as open. Although my
file on the property has letters of correspondence indicating the
note was paid the reconveyance was not recorded and it is missing from
the file.  I have no clue how to locate the parties to this
trancaction to have them sign off.  They are most likely deceased by
now anyway.  Is there a solution to this problem?  I discussed
"Bonding" it off with an insurance broker but the buyers are not
agreeable to this as they feel it would cloud the title after they
develop the property.

---

Clarification of Question by jimblue-ga on 08 May 2006 09:25 PDT

The property is located in Rosamond, California.  This is about 80
miles northwest of Los Angeles in Kern County.  Thanks for the
comments.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 08 May 2006 09:41 PDT

jimblue-ga,

Can you give us any additional identification for the land itself?  

A parcel number would be good, and/or the names on record of the owner
and holder of the deed.

Thanks,

pafalafa-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by hagan-ga on 11 May 2006 12:27 PDT

A court action to quiet title would put the matter to bed once and for
all, but it would take time.  Would a discussion of the rules and laws
applicable to a quiet title action in California suffice as an answer
to your question?

In which state and county is the property?  Maybe there is a way to
make a public notice calling for an open claim, so that if there is no
response, the matter will be considered settled.

The amount of the trust deed on vacant property from 30+ years ago
could be relatively insignificant, maybe support for your argument for
a bond.  Life is full of risks greater that a clouded title.

You can search on the Social Security's file to see if the the people
have passed on:
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

If they have, this would be a strong argument.

Hope this helps a bit.

@ Hagan-ga,
Glad to see you back

Instead of trying to locate people from such a long time ago, you need
to start shopping title insurance companies. If the title company
handling your transaction is insisting on an actual satisfaction of
the note, other title companies might not. Chicago Title Insurance
Company will often insure over such issues if you do have
documentation that the note was paid. Once you have a title company
willing to handle this, you then sell the property giving the new
owners a title insurance policy covering this old trust deed issue.
This is done all of the time in the real estate business, but you
simply have to find a title company willing to take the minimal risk
involved. Chicago Title is owned by Fidelity National Title, so I
would look for either Chicago Title or Fidelity National Title located
in your area. They also own Alamo Title too, so you might try that.

You also might want to research to learn the last title company to
handle the sale of the property. They, too, would have had to deal
with this issue and may have the old reconveyance in their files. This
is a common problem in the real estate industry--title companies not
recording documents as they said they would. We will often get the old
title company to issue a letter of indemnification to cover the
problem. As long as you are getting a new title insurance policy, the
new title company usually accepts the letter of indemnification and
issues a new policy.