Expert: liznarr - 4/8/2009

Question
Hi

my question is this: i was the co-signer on a mortgage with my Aunt whom passed away in '05. when i went to the bank to transfer everything solely into my name they told me that someone else's name was listed as the sole owner of the property. is it possible that the home could have been sold without me knowing about it and without my signature signing off on anything? it seems that if i had a vested interest in the home home such as co owner and co signer on the mortgage i would've had to have been notified in some way, at least telling me the property had been sold and the date of sale. did i have a house stolen right from under me? and if so what can i do about it?

Answer
Hi Sean,

You’ll have to do some research to see if your Aunt’s home was sold on the up-and-up.  There’s so many scams going around now, I am not surprised at anything I hear.

If you co-signed on a mortgage with your Aunt, you need to confirm whether or not you were also added to her DEED (title) at that time.  If you were not added to the deed/title, you were not a co-owner and have no ownership rights.

If you were never on the deed/title and ownership of the property changed, there is nothing you can do.  You would not necessarily have had to be notified IF the mortgage you co-signed for was paid off.

If you do not know how to check to determine if you had ownership interest, you can go to the RMC Office or Clerk of Court in the county where your Aunt’s property is located.  There are employees in these offices who will assist you in looking up this information.  If you were, in fact, a co-owner, get a copy of the deed while at the county office which established your ownership interest.  This will be a helpful document for an attorney you visit to help you reclaim the property.

As information for you, before property changes ownership, an attorney or title company should have an abstractor do a title search to check for any outstanding liens/mortgages.  If there are outstanding liens/mortgages, they need to be paid in full prior to any transfer of ownership; otherwise, the outstanding liens/mortgages will convey (by law) to the new owner.

If the mortgage was, in fact paid off, you should make sure that a SATISFACTION was filed recording the payoff so that any future public record searches will not show any unpaid mortgages in YOUR name.  The employees in the county offices can also check this for you.  

If the mortgage was NOT paid off and there was still a balance owing on the mortgage at the time your Aunt’s property was conveyed to another person, the mortgage would have conveyed WITH THE PROPERTY TRANSFER TO THE NEW OWNER (by law) as of the date of their ownership.  This fact, however, will not excuse you of any liability with the lender if the mortgage was not paid off, because the lender had nothing to do with the ownership transfer.  So be sure and check all this out to make sure your credit is not at risk.

Finally, if you determine that you were a CO-OWNER of your Aunt’s property and ownership has changed to another person; or if ownership changed and the mortgage was NOT paid off; you need to contact an attorney ASAP for legal advice on what steps you need to take to reclaim the property and/or getting the mortgage paid off.

If you were a co-owner and ownership changed without your knowledge, you should also visit the Probate Court Offices in the County where your Aunt’s property is to find out who was the Personal Representative of her estate.  This is also information an attorney will want to see.  

I hope the above is helpful to you.  Good luck to you, and feel free to write again if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Elizabeth