03/04/2019
Errors in public records – As crazy is this sounds, sometimes clerks in the county land records office make mistakes. True story, a title search came back clear, the transaction closed, and later, a previously unknown lienholder comes collecting on an old debt. But how could this have been missed? The seller had a judgment on the property, which listed an alias with the name. For example, John Doe, AKA Jim Doe. In land records, however, the debt was indexed as “AKAJIM DOE” meaning that unless the title searched specifically searched “AKAJIM” instead of multiple iterations of the seller’s actual name, the judgment would never be found. Buyer is protected with title insurance.
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