Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Hi,
Great information here! My problem is a little unique in that the Grantee never existed...
Specifically, my mother created an irrevocable trust, which we will call the "Good Trust" and conveyed property into that trust through trust documents. However, the grant deeds were filed incorrectly conveying ownership into another entity, the "ABC Trust", an entity which NEVER EXISTED. It was a simple error in that we didn't know which name would be chosen for the trust at the time so two sets of documents were created and notarized and the wrong ones were filed by my assistant.
Two years later, when we discovered the error, we filed a "new grant deed" with the correct grantee. This deed conveying property to the Good Trust which was signed and notarized on the day the Good Trust was created. We handwrote "This grant deed rerecord to correct the Grantee."
Is this sufficient to perfect ownership and title? I am reading that ABC trust should probably have conveyed ownership to the Good Trust instead but since the ABC trust never existed, we weren't sure who would sign and whether this was even proper. We got advice form a filing service and should have gone to an attorney at that point. At some point, the Good Trust will want to sell or refinance and I will need clear title.
Help!
1 Answer from Attorneys
This is not something you want to deal with based on an internet Q&A. You need to have a discussion with an attorney in which they can gather information about the details and history of this situation that you have summarized here, before the best way to clean up title can be determined. In particular you say the ABC Trust never existed, which may or may not be so given that property was deeded into it. It will depend on the exact events and sequence. This shouldn't ultimately be a big problem, but it can be turned into one by doing something wrong in an effort to correct the mistake. A few hundred dollars in legal fees for some sound advice and maybe a little document preparation would be really good insurance to take out at this point.
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