Someone Filed Deed with My Property's Legal Description

[vexed in TX]

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

I own my own home in Texas. I looked at my county clerks website and noticed that someone has sold a home in a neighboring town that has the same physical address as my home, but with a different city. Unfortunately, for me, on their documents they used my property's legal description instead of their property's legal description. This occurred about two weeks ago and has since been recorded in my county. I contacted the person that sold the property and found out that his company is an investment company that "flips" properties and that the person he sold it to is simply an investor that provides the funds while the property is fixed up for a 'real' sale. In any case, when I made contact with the investment company, they assured me that they would correct the problem. In fact, what they did was take a copy of the EXACT same document they had already filed and simply crossed through the legal description that matched my property and wrote in their own property's legal description. They filed this 'corrected' form at the county. A few days passed and it was online for my viewing. When you search according to legal property description, their property shows this new 'corrected' deed filed. When you search according to my property's legal description, it only shows the erroneous deed that they previously filed and there is no mention of a correction. Any advice on how to resolve this issued would be greatly appreciated. Thank in advance!

[jk]

Not sure what you are looking for. A corrected deed has been filed. The original deed is not valid but since it has been recorded, it can't just be erased.

[vexed in TX]

jk - greetings and thanks for your reply!

My concern is this: when someone searches my property's legal address, the 'corrected' deed doesn't show up. Other than the documents from my legal purchase of the home, the only thing that shows up is their erroneous deed. However, when you search their property's legal address, the 'corrected' deed shows up. I don't know about all areas of the state, but in my area the appraisal district takes all of their information from the county clerk - thus, they will take this erroneous information. Next, the property tax office will take this erroneous information from the appraisal district. I understand that once a document is filed at the county clerk's office that it cannot be erased. I just want to know what needs to happen so that when my property's legal address is searched it shows that the deed these people filed is erroneous and hopefully this will stop the appraisal and taxing districts from picking up false information. Any ideas/advice? Thanks for any and all responses.

[jk]

the corrected deed shouldn't show up because it has nothing to do with your property. The errant deed isn't supposed to have anything to do with your property but due to the erroneous information in it, it does get associated with your property.

Other than the documents from my legal purchase of the home, the only thing that shows up is their erroneous deed.

then you are doing a very short sighted search. There are deeds associated with your property that go back to the time of the first sale to an individual from the government after the state was created.

Any ideas/advice?

Yes. You can file an action to quiet title. That is where you seek the courts intervention to "clean up" the chain of title for your property.

[vexed in TX]

jk - thanks again for your reply.

I suppose I was hoping for some simple solution for the errant deed NOT to be associated with my property. I guess there must be some method that I will find to make certain that the appraisal and taxing districts don't change me off of the property and add the erroneous names as the owner.

As to the short-sighted search, what I meant to write was that SINCE my legal purchase of the home the erroneous deed is the only thing that shows up. Certainly before my purchase there are several transactions that were performed and show up in the search.

If you have a moment, could you expand on the 'quiet title' idea. Would there be any benefit of asking the other parties for a quitclaim deed? I was also curious if I could copy their document and write up some paperwork to add to it saying that this is the corrected deed and was being used to correct the error on my property - that way the clerk would file the document on my property too. Just some thoughts that I had.... In any case, thanks again for taking the time to help me. This has been very frustrating and I appreciate the help.

[jk]

If you have a moment, could you expand on the 'quiet title' idea. In any case, thanks again for taking the time to help me. This has been very frustrating and I appreciate the help.

here is the wikipedia page for a quiet title action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_title

a bit more more specific reading:

http://www.houston-opinions.com/law-...itle-suit.html


You might also be able to sue the grantee or grantor (not sure which would be the proper defendant) of the deed for slander of title. That is where the actions of another create a cloud on your title (such as you have now) I do not know if this sort of error would qualify for such a claim though as it does appear to be completely innocent.

You should speak with an attorney to determine which action would best serve your purposes.

[LandSurveyor]

Not exactly sure about Texas, but if it is possible for an attorney to file an affidavit of fact regarding title explaining and clarifying the situation, that would be placed in your chain of title and appear in a title search of your property. That would only involve the attorney fee and a recording fee.