Not a Fairy Tale

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.