Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois
My husband and I signed a quit claim deed for a property in dupage county, IL for his cousin who left the country in 2007. His ex-wife claims she got it as divorce settlement and has occupied the condo since then and now stopped paying the mortgage. The quit claim deed got recognised/registered in 2008 when the grantee was absconding on criminal charges. It still shows him as the owner. My surname is misspelt and only my husband was on the title when he bought the condo. What are our options?
1 Answer from Attorneys
There is not much in the way of options here. You quit claimed the property, therefore, you no longer own it, nor do you have any claim to it. It belongs, or perhaps belonged, to the cousin. Deeding the property to him while you were still responsible for the mortgage was a bad idea, and if your mortgage has a due on sale clause (which it probably does), your lender now has the right to call the entire loan balance due immediately. To know whether the property was awarded to cousin's ex-wife you would need to look at the divorce decree. But unfortunately that does not really matter, since the property is no longer your property. And even more unfortunate is that you still owe the money for the mortgage loan. The only good news which comes to mind is that cousin's ex-wife will eventually be evicted after the foreclosure is final. You need to contact an attorney in your area to discuss this matter.