Title Insurance

[bigmikeszuk]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Arkansas

My husband and I bought a home in Arkansas 3 years ago. We got a great deal and paid cash for the property, but got title insurance for ourselves through the abstract company that closed the sale for us. Now 3 years later, we decided to sell our home. We had a buyer and moved everything out of our house until everything was final. Right before everything was supposed to be a done deal, the abstract company found a problem with the title. One of the previous owners (not who we purchased the property from, but a previous owner) still has ownership of the house. We informed the title insurance company, who had the abstract office who originally did the title search trying to get it straightened out, but these previous owners have left the state and are either dead or can't be found. Meanwhile, our buyers have backed out of the deal as soon as they heard there was a title problem and we are stuck with a house we can't sell that, at this point, we don't even really own. I'm not sure what our options are or what we should do at this point. I have read over my title insurance policy, but it is very confusing to me and real estate is not my expertise, which is why I paid the abstract company and the title insurance company to take care of all of this so there should be no problems. I'm no longer in Arkansas, we had to move out of state to be with family so I can't physically go into any of these places or see an Arkansas attorney in person. Also, we have very limited resources right now as we were counting on the sale of our house and now that has fallen through. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Is your title insurance covering this? I would expect so. Odds are this will require a "quiet title" action to resolve - a lawsuit asking a court to declare that you're the sole, lawful owners of the property.