Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Wow...you paid $500k for a house and wouldn't pay an attorney a couple hundred bucks for a closing. Penny wise and pound foolish. Hire an attorney immediately, before you lose everything. It may be too late.

You need to hire a lawyet to represent you on this. According to what you said, this is a quiiet title action and involves issues beyond your skill level.

I agree with the earlier answers recommending you hire an attorney. You need a reputable litigation attorney with experience in real estate to take a very careful look.

Unfortunately, from the facts as they seem to be described, you may not have a case. Your deed was not recorded. So, even though it established your title, there was an innocent party out there who relied on the public record and did not have access to the private record (deed in someone's possession). In this case, that party was a mortgage company who lent money after reviewing the recorded documents, received a mortgage to secure its loan, then had to foreclose on the property. The mortgage company was out money based on the incomplete record, which ultimately comes back to you.

There may be other things that should be considered. If you obtained title insurance when you purchased the property, as you absolutely should have, the title policy should be considered, as well as why the deed was left unrecorded. If you had an attorney, then you need to question how well the attorney considered the title insurance and why the deed was not recorded.

As stated in a previous answer, if you did not spend a few hundred dollars to hire an attorney and buy title insurance for a home purchase, which for most people is the biggest financial investment of their lives, you may now be answering for the risk you took. If a real estate agent was involved and discouraged you from either using an attorney or purchasing title insurance, then have an attorney consider whether there may be a case against the agent.

In any event, act without further delay as each day is jeopardizing any case you may have, either in the case being barred by a limitations period or in an attorney finding that too much time has passed to present an effective case.

Are you correct: NO WAY TO TELL!!!! I agree with the others that you need an attorney IMMEDIATELY. The first two sentences of your post are the most crucial because you do NOT say why you didn't learn of fact that the deed was not recorded for 2 years. If the sale was handled through a title insurance company and the company was responsible for recording and issuing a title insurance policy, you have a huge claim against the title insurance company. If you simply failed to record, or didn't get a title insurance policy, or both, you definitely have a huge problem and may only have a fraud claim against your seller. Everything else in your post is really irrelevant to the key question. Based on additional information such as continuous occupancy, payment of property taxes, etc. for 7 years, and other salient facts, may put you in a better legal position.