Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: state of ca

Couple of questions need to be answered. First, was the Deed of Trust not previously recorded? If it has been recorded, there is no need to re-record it just because you lost the original. Second, if it was not recorded prior to being lost, then you have an issue. The County Recorder's offices in most Counties will not record a copy of a document, so you will either have to request a replacement from the borrower, or contact the local County Recorder's office and see if they will, as Attorney Linden suggested, accept a copy with a declaration. This, however, leads to several issues including perfection of your security interest. I would strongly encourage you to contact a local real estate attorney to buy a few hours of time to research the possible consequences of losing the original deed of trust. As mentioned above, if it has been previously recorded, you are in much better position, but it sounds like it may not have.

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Re: state of ca

You have a copy of a missing Deed of Trust securing a note that you want to record here in CA, am I reading your question correctly?

Can you not get the borower to issue a new deed of trust?

You may be able to if you include a declaration explaining that the original was lost, but I am not certain without doiing some research on it.

I'd suggest starting with calling the County Recorder's office and asking them the same question as I posed it at the beginning of this. They should at least be able to put you in the right direction.