Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida

I live in NJ and bought vacant land in florida. The so called friend/investor who sold me the lot had a real estate attorney do the closing, escrow and title. Anyhow I got my warranty deed and it was recorded and the lot was paid in full on the closing date. After a few months I receive my Title Insurance policy. I noticed that the date was different from my closing date after investigating I noticed in the recorders office that the previous seller had a mortgage on the lot that was sold to me and this was only satisfied a few weeks after the closing and warranty deed was issued. How come escrow closed when there was a mortgage on the property? I paid the property tax for the whole year as well. Is this legal to do in Florida?


Asked on 2/09/13, 3:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Barry Stein De Cardenas, Freixas, Stein & Zachary

Did you sign a closing statement? It should show the payment of the prior mortgage. It is not unusual to have a mortgage paid off and it take a few weeks for the mortgage to be satisfied of record. Did you get a title commitment and did it reference the mortgage having to be satisfied? If the Title Policy does not have an exceptions for any mortgages you are covered. The date of the title policy will always be the date of your recorded deed which is after the closing. If you have any questions, have an attorney review the papers.

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Answered on 2/09/13, 4:48 pm


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