Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts

probate real estate

I am a real estate broker and procured an offer on a piece of property..the title has an issue. 43 years ago two unmarried sisters, the owners, deeded the property to each other as joint tenants from tenants in common, without a 3rd party (straw) involved in 1965..on June 2,1966 one of the sisters died, on June 28 1966 the remaining sister , deeded the property to her nephew at that time there were sister and a brother with children of the deceased sister. When the seller of the property was purchasing it she signed an affidavit acknowledging this issue, because her attorney told her there was a statute of limitations of 3 years and that the deed would be good in that time. She knew the family from which she was buying it, and felt quite confident no one would contest anything, as all was done legally. Now the new buyer's attorney will not advice him to buy this property because of the title issue...Is there any truth to the 3 yr statute of limitations? is there some way we can resolve this so we can close within our 30 day time frame before the buyer loses his good financing? The crazy part about all of this is...we are all on the same page...the Seller wants to sell, the Buyer wants to buy...thank you for your time~laura


Asked on 3/20/09, 6:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: probate real estate

First did the Seller Buy Title Insurance? if so contact the title insurer.

Second, the Seller should contact his closing attorney and ask him about the information he provided and demand he fix the problem, since it is now more than 3 years after the closing and the title issue is a problem.

Absent, these two solutions, your client should file a Petition to Clear Title based on the facts and ask the court to issue an Order. This will either be fast or slow depending upon the issues involved in clearing the title.

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Answered on 3/20/09, 6:51 pm


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