Common Title Issues

When we sit down to close a transaction, hopefully it’s a very smooth and simple event. What ‘should’ happen is the review of a LOT of documents, tons of signing, initialing and some witty banter around the closing table. The concept of ‘all the attorney did was shove papers at me and said sign here’ is actually somewhat how a closing should be—however, hopefully all parties walk out of my closing with some semblance of understanding what just happened and what they signed! What you may not know is how much that actually happens behind the scenes prior to closing. One major thing that I have to do is clean titles. Let’s talk about common issues (and some NOT so common ones!).

Open Loan Deeds. Open loan deeds are the bane of closing attorneys’ existence! The role of the closing attorney is to convey clear title to the buyer and insure that the lender is in the proper ‘position’ as it relates to liens. If a loan was previously closed out but not cancelled in the public records, we have to ‘get rid of it’ and get in cancelled, released or obtain clearance from our title company that we can move forward. This topic will be covered in a follow-up newsletter, but suffice it to say that this issue creates a lot of confusion with clients! As an example, you know, the bank knows, and even I know that a loan was closed out in the bank’s system—but regardless of that fact, if it’s open in the public records, it is not ‘closed’ for title purposes and we must clean it up prior to closing.

Tax Liens. Ah, death and taxes… If you don’t pay your property taxes the county gets fussy. They will file tax liens on your property and can even SELL the property in a tax sale. We have to get proper written payoffs and pay any liens to clear the title. Usually this is a simple situation; it’s a bit more work if the taxes have been sold to a collector. If you have Federal or State income tax liens, we MUST get a payoff from the proper Federal or State agency. Tax liens (both property and income) don’t ‘go away’ and have to be cleared.

HOA or Condo liens. What if you have a Homeowner’s Association and you owe them money? We have to get payoffs from that HOA. If it’s professionally managed, that can be a simple call or email. If you have to call Fred the treasurer, as long as someone can find out how to reach Fred (and if he calls back) then we can obtain a payoff or release. That can be troublesome at times.

Contractor’s liens. So you added on a bathroom and you didn’t pay the contractor. Guess what? They can slap a lien on your house! The good news for most owners is that the lien process is VERY detailed and if they screw it up, the lien is not valid. So pay your contractors on time and you shouldn’t have to worry! If not, then we’ll have to get a written payoff as well.

Divorce or other legal proceedings. These can be liens against property so we have to research to see confirm the status of any lawsuit. As long as something is ‘open’ we have to more or less ask ‘permission’ to close (ditto for Probate and Bankruptcy situations).

These are just a few items that we deal with on a daily basis, though it seems like new 'stuff' shows up every day! Even after 20 years, I am surprised to learn something new more often than you'd think. Someday I'll tell you about the gentleman refinancing who didn't own his condo... (it's a long story ; )

New Year, New Law

Here's my latest newsletter item; some of it is a 2nd look at a prior post on SB 346 but it's worth reading again!

It's 2011 and I wanted to make sure you were aware of a new law that took affect on January 1--there is a "new and improved" law relating to appealing the valuation of your property. I took a 39 page Georgia state Senate bill and tried my best to summarize it, ending up with a 3 page summary. Instead of putting all that info in this newsletter, it can be found using THIS LINK. Suffice it to say that if you haven't yet received your 2011 valuation from the county, you can still use the PT-50R form found HERE to get the process started, but as so much has changed it would be a good idea to take some time to read my summary. Click here to read a recent AJC article about using that form and gives some background about the property tax return process.
One other reminder--you do need to file your homestead exemption if you purchased your home in 2010 or if you did something to change the title of your property in 2010. For example, if you added (or removed) your spouse/ partner/ other, you may have jeopardized your homestead exemption--even if you didn't need to re-file, it doesn't hurt to do so as you'd hate to see your taxes go UP, right? Note--if you merely refinanced and signed only a Security Deed, there is no change in the title to your property and no change to the exemption is needed.
While I'm on the topic of exemptions, click on THIS link to find out all of your county's available exemptions--you may qualify for more than you realized!