CASE STUDY 2 : Cloudy History Made Clear

27 Aug CASE STUDY 2 : Cloudy History Made Clear

After buying a property from an “old friend” of his in a deal that included money, trailers, and repayment of the seller’s old debts, a man who we will call Mr. Right was then challenged by his “old friend,” who we will call Mr. Wrong. Mr. Wrong said he never agreed to the deal and the property was still his, after receiving his consideration for the deal. Mr. Right was later unhappy because he was unable to borrow against, improve, or even sell the property because the contested sale to him was challenged by Mr. Wrong. Mr. Wrong claimed he never signed the deed, and he was not present when the “fraudulent deed” was created and recorded. A title report was furnished to Mr. Right by a title company and resulted in a title cloud. A title cloud is when something in the title chain of ownership of a property is questionable and causes title insurance companies to refuse to insure the sale unless that cloud is removed, resolved, or ordered upon by a judge. Mr. Right came to ARP with a big mess. ARP spent considerable time and resources to query the notary who signed the deed where Mr. Wrong sold to Mr. Right. Through its investigation ARP later discovered a video footage showing Mr. Wrong entering the lobby of the notary as well as his signature left in the notary book. In an earlier Justice of the Peace hearing transcription Mr. Wrong admitted that it was in fact him who signed the deed. This was sufficient evidence to provide cure to the title cloud. ARP was able to provide sufficient evidence that Mr. Wrong was wrong and Mr. Right was right as the true owner of the property, thereby proving up the title chain was good. Mr. Right’s problem was solved and Mr. Wrong, well, he was just wrong.