Big foot,
the abominable snow man and the Loch Ness monster. All myths and legends that I
am sure you are familiar with. But have you heard the story of the original 40
year deed found by a home owner, a document that would help to establish
property ownership.
As a real
estate attorney, I have heard of such lore, but never believed it existed. I am
here today to tell you that it is not a fairy tale.
Recently, we
had a client come to us in extreme distress. She had been living in her home
for over 40 years. While it had been established that she owned her house,
there was a dispute as to whether an adjoining parcel, one she had been
treating as her own all those years, belonged to her The client was adamant that there had been a
deed conveying that parcel to her many years ago. However, a search of the
registry of deeds confirmed that was not the case. This posed a serious problem
for the client. The record owners of the subject parcel had long since passed
away and establishing ownership, if at all, would surely cost extensive time
and money.
We discussed
the potential courses of actions, and advised the client to search her files
for any paper work regarding this matter.
By some miracle, the client found the original 40 year old deed sitting
in her file cabinet. The deed did in fact convey the parcel to her but for
reasons unknown, had never been recorded at the Registry of Deeds. To answer
your question, yes the document can legally be recorded 40 years later,
therefore establishing her ownership and solving her problem.
The moral of the story, if your missing that
precious original document, check those cabinets, drawers and book cases. You
never know, you just may have it and like all good fairy tales, have a happy
ending.
