Expert: Dick Dennis - 8/1/2006

Question
In 1998 my husband purchased a home and the original warranty deed was written granting the property to him solely.  The deed of trust at that time was written as the trustor being both my husband and his parents who were living with him at the time.  They have since moved out.  Then in 2000 my husband and his ex-fiance refinanced the house and at that time she was listed as a co-signer on the mortgage.  When the deeds of trust were written up, my husband signed one deed with him listed as a single person, and the banker had his ex-fiance sign a separate deed of trust for the same amount of money listing her as the trustor and a single person.  Currently we are trying to refinance our home and get her off the mortgage, my main question is why would there be two separate deeds of trust written on the same day, in the same amount, by two different trustors?  The ladies at the registrar of deeds office told me that I should look into this as the way they are written she still could have a legal stake in the property.  Is it possible to have the deed in her name to be void?

Answer
Based on how you phrased it, Andrea, just as your husband and his ex were able to refi the property without his parents being around, so would it be possible for him to refi it without his ex around.

Except (I had to read your note several times to make sure I understood it the way you wrote it), if the ex was given title along with your husband, then you may have a problem. You're going to need her to sign off (quit-claim deed) on the title in the whole process.

You don't say if you're on title now. So, what you may have to do is to take your situation to a title company and see what they would say about all this. The new lender might be able to take care of the whole mess for you in refinancing the property.

As for the any and all mortgages on the property, the lenders don't care who signs off on those as long as their mortgages (deeds of trust) were paid off. I am sure somewhere in the ex's deed of trust it says something like, "this is a duplicate or simultaneous note and TD, etc." Take a look at the trust deed AND the accompanying note.

I do wish you well, Andrea

Dick Dennis            dixiedee13@aol.com