Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Selling a Land Parcel's Interest Without a Deed?

An important detail missing from your question is WHY you agreed to have your distant cousin on the deed in the first place. It makes no logical sense.

Assuming you can prove everything you've alleged, you are going to need to file a "quiet title" lawsuit against your counsin. No person in their right mind would buy the property from your wife until this situation is resolved by the courts.

You can't just put a "lis pendens" on a property unless a lawsuit is pending. If you already have an attorney, direct your questions to him or her. If you don't have an attorney, you should get one right away because a judge must aprove your lis pendens if you don't have an attorney.

Re: Selling a Land Parcel's Interest Without a Deed?

What do you mean, "implementing a lis pendens?" An unrepresented party cannot record and file a lis pendens without (1) filing a lawsuit, and (2) obtaining a judge's prior approval.

When the consideration for property is paid by X but title is taken in the name of Y, and no gift is intended, the law presumes that X was intended to take the beneficial interest, and that Y holds interim title as an (involuntary) trustee for X, who paid for the property. This is known as a purchase money resulting trust, and the involuntary trustee must convey (deed) the property to the intended beneficary upon demand.

The proper suit to bring is indeed a quiet title action, but the theory upon which the plaintiff should assert title is the resulting trust.

You should not expect any quick results. This will probably take 12 to 18 months to straighten out, depending upon how backlogged the courts are in the county (San Luis Obispo?) where the property is situated, and therefore where the suit must be brought.

In the meanwhile, your wife can certainly quitclaim her interest. Nothing legally wrong with that, whether or not she is the owner of record. There are two problems with that. The first is that although she could probably get good title to the land by being patient and filing a quiet title/resulting trust lawsuit, until she actually has title "of record," she will be lucky to get ten cents on the dollar. The second, probably less serious, problem is that there would still be a slight possibility that your wife could become embroiled in a future legal struggle between the cousin and the quitclaim buyer, possibly for fraud, non-disclosure, or who knows what?

I don't know all the circumstances, including why you're in such a dadgum hurry to sell, why the cousin was placed on title in the first place (very suspicious, I might add!!!), or how you think you're going to get a lis pendens. If you want, write me directly with the missing details and I'll see if I can give more particular advice.

Re: Selling a Land Parcel's Interest Without a Deed?

A quitclaim deed is just a deed that transfers whatever interest your wife has in the property. For example, she can sign a quitclaim deed to transfer the White House. The recipient will get whatever interest your wife has in it, which is zilch. Thus, don't count on too many buyers of your wife's interest.

If the cousin is refusing to transfer title, the only remedy you have is to file a quiet title lawsuit and record a lis pendens on title to the property. It's a rather simple process. (Or you can try to give him some cash for the transfer.)

Let us know if you would like our assistance. Although we practice out of Newport Beach, we have many real estate cases similar to yours.