Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Missing Grant Deed

If a deed seems to be missing from the records, the two most likely possibilities are (1) that it was mis-filed by the recorder in the first place because of an error by the recorder's staff, or, more likely, because the information contained within it upon which the recording and indexing was dependent was misleading or downright erroneous, usually the result of the deed being prepared by an amateur; or, (2), the search being conducted is erroneous (using incorrect search criteria) because the searcher is an amateur.

When the preparation, recording and subsequent searching is done by people who are well trained and do these functions for a living, the error rate (misfiled and "missing" deeds) is extremely low.

The best corrective action is to have a records search done by a professional, full-time records searcher, usually someone who does abstracts of title as a full-time occupation in the employ of a title insurer.

Re: Missing Grant Deed

You can purchase a copy at the county recorder's office in Santa Ana.