Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Normally, the recorded "interspousal transfer deed" should be sufficient for the title company. I can only speculate why they want an additional deed. Is there a misspelling? Is the legal description erroneous? Was it misindexed at the County Recorder's Office?

If you are confident that the interspousal deed is correct, I would at least bring a certified copy of the instrument to the title company/ escrow office.

I answered the later version of this question at some lenght, but want to add that it is possible that an interspousal transfer was not appropriate so long after the judgement, especially if that transfer was not called for in the judgment. As I've been thinking about this, you also may have an underwriting issue if the deed was not in place on the effective date of the title insurance to the refi lender. As in many industries and jobs, title officers don't reinvent the wheel every time they write a title report. They tend to trust their colleagues to have done things right the last time. So if they can search back to an insured transaction without hitting any uninsured conveyance, they will always consider their job done if their company was the last to insure, and usually will accept it if they trust the last company to insure. If the deed from your ex was after the insurance to the lender went into effect, it is a rogue deed to the title officers and they are looking for confirmation that they should insure the title it conveys.