Video Transcript:
When is a mortgage not valid on real estate? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com. There's many scenarios where a mortgage may not become valid against a piece of real estate. One of the most common is if there's some error on that mortgage document. Maybe it's the wrong legal description. Maybe it's the wrong lender. Maybe there's a date missing or the wrong person signed it. That's something that an attorney will look at that document and be able to determine It was determined very clearly that this mortgage instrument doesn't very clearly affect or encumber the property. We had an instance where a property had a mortgage on it and the legal description had two numbers transposed, so it actually encumbered a property next door. The reason that was discovered is because we ran a title search on the next door property that presumably was owned free and clear with no mortgage. When that was done, this other mortgage with the legal description popped up that was placed on this property, and it actually created a cloud that had to be cleared up before this property could be sold. It was obviously an error. Obviously something that had to be handled. And it had to be handled pretty quickly because it was a closing pending on the subject property. How was that done in this case? It may be different for other cases. The property owner and the attorney requested from that mortgage company a release letter to release it off of this property. Even though it was an error, it was still technically encumbering that property as far as the insurer was concerned. Got a release letter, and now they probably had to go back and get a new mortgage sign with the correct legal to encumber the right property. But that was up to the lender to handle that at a later date. If there was any delay in getting that cleared off the property, there are legal remedies to clear a mortgage off a property. If the mortgage company is not cooperating in getting an incorrect mortgage off a property, there are some legal remedies that can be pursued. If you have questions about running a title search on real estate, you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.