Pg 57 Flashcards
Is it possible to prevail if there was a conveyance or interest outside of the recording acts?
Yes, you must search other places than the recording office such as probate court for wills/transfers, government agencies for eminent domain takings, bankruptcy court, etc.
What are situations where there is no document so there is nothing to record?
Title by adverse possession, adjustments to boundaries of practical locations, etc.
Must a short term lease be recorded?
Most statutes protect leases of 1 to 3 years without needing to be recorded because the idea is that the tenant’s possession gives notice of the lease to subsequent buyers
How does a mechanic’s lien work?
Most statutes say that if it is recorded within 60 to 120 days after the right to payment arises, priority relates back to the date that the work was commenced. The buyer might be bound by the lien even if a record search during the relation back period showed nothing
Why can conveyances by or to the federal government not be defeated by state recording acts?
Because of the supremacy clause that says that federal law preempts state law
If there is a chain of title problem where an adverse conveyance is impossible to find in the records, what usually happens?
It is treated as unrecorded, so there was no constructive notice
What are the four types of chain of title problems that could arise?
– wild deed
– deed recorded too late
– deed recorded too early
– common owner of two or more parcels
What is a wild deed?
DEED RECORDED OUTSIDE THE CHAIN OF TITLE.
When you own land and you make an unknown or unrecorded deed to someone else who then deeds it to another person, and that third person records it. When another person searches or looks through the records under your name, they would not find anything, and they wouldn’t know to look for that second or third person.
This is why there is a duty to record your own deed and the deed of your grantor.
- Anna makes an agreement on June 1 to sell land to Burke on June 30,
- then on June 15, Burke sells land to Clark and Clark records.
- Then on June 30 there is a delivery and acceptance between Anna and Burke
– on July 15, Burke sells the land to Dan.
What happens here?
On June 16 Anna still had title, and hadn’t conveyed anything. This means that the deed from Burke to Clark is a wild deed because even though it is recorded, it is not in the proper chain of title. Burke didn’t have an equitable interest in the property because he sold to Clark, so Clark was Burke’s assignee of his equitable interest. In the grantor-grantee index, nothing would appear because Anna had legal title. Although a tract index would show the equitable interest.
Bonus points on essay: the notice you get from a tract index is different because you are aware of the conveyance. On July 1, Clark would be the legal and equitable owner under estoppel by deed/after acquired title. But in a grantor-grantee index, under the majority rule, Dan would win because he is a BFP without notice because it was a wild deed. Under tract, Clark would win
What happens when a deed was recorded too late?
The deed is recorded after a later purchase of the property has occurred.
- Majority: potential buyer must do an extensive search because the deed is properly recorded
– minority: treats this deed as not recorded
Ie: Bob makes an adverse conveyance to X who doesn’t record, then another to C who does record, but isn’t a BFP. Later, X records. C wants to sell to D who does a title search. To find everything, he would have to search to the present date, which is possible, but onerous.
What happens when a deed is recorded too early?
This happens when someone deeds land to someone else BEFORE they actually get title and then that second person records, then at some point the first person does get title. This is called estoppel by deed and it instantly passes title to the second person once the first person gets title.
The problem is that if that original person tries to later convey the same land to someone else, this new conveyee would technically be able to find the deed, but would have to look under the first person’s name for a long period of time, so most cases say that that deed is considered to be unrecorded
What happens when there’s a common owner of two or more parcels?
This occurs when the seller includes in the conveyance of one parcel language to encumber a second parcel.
Ie: alpha has two adjacent plots, he sells one plot to X with a promise that the second will be single-family dwelling only, then he sells the second without that restriction.
It is hard to find the Alpha – X deed, so there is an even split in the courts about whether a recording has happened
What is the uniform marketable title act?
This limits how far back a title searcher has to go in the record chain of title when he’s doing a title search to 30 years, or whatever the requirement of the individual statute is. If there’s an unbroken record chain of title for that period of time or more, title is marketable. This requires that you find the root of title
What is considered to be the “root of title“ under the Uniform Marketable Title Act?
The conveyance or transaction in the record chain of title of the person most recently recorded as of the date 30 or so years before the time that marketability is being determined. If the transaction happened exactly 30 years previous, that is the root of title. If not, root is the conveyance that happened before the 30 year mark. Once the root is established, anything before that that is inconsistent is eliminated
What is the title search procedure?
– go to the GRANTEE BOOK to check if that person can sell the land by finding out when he got title and looking for any conveyance that lists him as grantee. Once you find it, note the date of the conveyance
– Then go to the GRANTOR BOOK and check from the date that person got the property to the current date to be sure that that person hasn’t fore-sold the property to someone else. You are checking to make sure there are no conveyances from that person regarding that property between those dates.
– check the person that the seller bought the land from and do the same thing. Continue until you find the original land patent.
***You will not find deeds that are recorded too early or too late here
