Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Defective Deed

Bob wants to buy a piece of real estate from Andy, but discovers a problem with the title:

1.Andy bought the property from Alice, but a mistake was made in the deed's land description when sold to Andy.

2.Alice had purchased the land from Tom, but the same mistake had been made in the deed when it was sold to Alice.

3.Tom had bought the land from Mary. Mary's original deed had been correct, but her conveyance to Tom contained an error, the original mistake.

4.In other words, the erroneous land description originated when Mary sold her property to Tom. Thus the error propagated through three subsequent transactions, from Mary to Tom, from Tom to Alice, and finally from Alice to Andy.

One lawyer has offered to draft an affidavit declaring that an error had been made in the sale from Alice to Andy, and detailing the corrected land description. But no new deed. Furthermore, this affidavit would merely have Andy as sole signatory; none of the other parties involved in propagating the original faulty land description would be signatories.

Bob feels that the value of such an affidavit is dubious, in part because it excludes any participation of the parties who originated and transferred the error.

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