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Quiet Title Center

The Quiet Title Process Overview

What are the steps involved in the Quiet Title Process?

STEP 1 : Identify the broken chains in the title

STEP 2 : Initiate a legal proceeding in Circuit Court

STEP 3 : Serve the defendants with the notice to appear in court

STEP 4 : Publishing the notice to appear in court may be needed

STEP 5 : Defending your claim to the title

STEP 6 : Obtaining a Judgement in your favor

STEP 7 : Fixing the broken chains in the title with the registrar of deeds

STEP 8 : Registering you as the rightful owner of the property

When does a property need a Quiet Title?

The Title of a property is recorded at the Registrar Of Deeds in the county that the property resides.
Each time the current owner (owner A) sells the property to a new owner (owner B), the title change needs to be recorded at the Registrar of Deeds. Owner B is responsible for this step.
Every once in a while the Owner B forgets to register this title at the Registrar of Deeds. When this happens, Owner A is still the registered owner of the title per the Registrar of Deeds. When Owner B sells the property to Owner C, it becomes Owner C's responsibility to register the title in Owner C's name at the county's registrar of Deeds. So Owner C goes down to the registrar's office and registers the title in their name. At this point, the registrar's records show Owner A and Owner C as the legal owners of the property. However this is not the true case. Per our example Owner B's mistake has made this scenario possible.
Owner C will now be refused Title Insurance and the title is considered clouded.
The property will now need a real estate attorney such as Kathleen Parakh to remove Owner A's ownership on the title.
This process takes a minimum of six month to resolve in Circuit Court.

What is the need for a clear title on a property?
Every property owner needs a clear title on a property. The reasons are simple
1. There is absolutely no doubt who the owner of the property is.
2. There are no surprises when you intend to sell your property.
3. Title companies have no reason to refuse title insurance on the property.
4. Defending the title is a slam dunk case if the title gets challenged.
5. The obvious peace of mind.

In our above example Owner A is the broken chain. This happened because Owner B did not file a change of title at the Registrar Of Deeds.

There are other instances that the chain of title gets broken.

* A foreclosed property : A property tends to get foreclosed when the current owners are not keeping up with it for one or more of several reasons. Their ownership gets terminated in one of several ways. A court proceeding being one of them.

In the event the court proceeding terminates the property owner's rights to the property, there may be a lapse in the process that does not file the relevant papers with the Registrar of Deeds thus causing a break in title.

* A Sheriff Sale : The property generally heads for a Sheriff Sale when the current owner's rights are terminated. As in the case of foreclosed properties, the change in ownership does not necessarily get recorded at the county's registrar of deeds causing a break in title.

How do we fix the issue?

Kathleen Parakh in her capacity as an attorney will

1. Identify all the breaks in the chain of the title
2. Petition the court to extinguish the ownership of the individuals identified in the break of title chain.
3. Issue the individuals a court mandated Summons and Complaint
4. Notify the defendants and in some cases this may involve publication of the notice in legal newspapers.
5. Defend your claim as the owner of the title if it is challenged.
6. Obtain a Judgment in your favor.
7. Fix the chain of title with the county's Registrar Of Deeds.
8. Record you as the sole owner of the property.

A word of caution.
The above outlined steps are painstakingly slow.

In general the court system is designed to be methodical and slow so the Plaintiff and Defendant have a fair chance to defend their rights.

You are strongly urged to start this process early.

If you own a property that
a. does not have title insurance OR
b. has been refused title insurance OR
c. was purchased at a tax sale OR foreclosure
d. was inherited
you are a strong candidate for a Quiet Title.

Call us now for a free consultation.

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