Gary R. Zwillinger Zwillinger Greek Zwillinger & Knecht PC 2425 E. Camelback Road, Suite 600 Phoenix, AZ 85016 Direct: (602) 224-7890 Fax: (602) 224-7889 Main: (602) 224-7888 Email: [email protected]: Gary Zwillinger [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 2:48 PM
If I understand your facts correctly, your client owns the 100 X 100 acre parcel to which it received a deed (and should have title insurance covering such ownership) unless it has been lost to an adverse possession claim by some third party. Your client has also likely accrued to ownership of the property on which it built its house by adverse possession, assuming state law conditions to an adverse possession claim have been met. Is someone saying that your client doesn’t own the 100 X 100 strip they purchased but on which no house has been built?
From: Orlik, Randy P. [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 8:57 AM
What was the legal description on the deed. The property the house was on or the 100×100 parcel? In other words did everyone just think the house was on the property being conveyed? From: Peter Ojala [mailto:[email protected]]Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 8:25 AM
Does general exceptions save Title Insurance Company in WLTA 1976 policy where insurance states it is insuring that title is in a certain person, when that person was (very likely) not in title by adverse possession (or not in title b/c the deed should be reformed)?
i.e. there is a distinction between title and possession.
General Exception refresher: “Encroachments or questions of location, boundary and area, which an accurate survey may disclose; public or private easements, streets, roads, alleys or highways, unless disclosed of record by recorded Plat or conveyance, or decree of a Court of record; rights or claims of persons in possession, or claiming to be in possession, not disclosed by the public records;â€
Facts: (altered but materially the same)
1925- farmer sells a small 100 x 100 parcel out of the corner of his section.
1925- purchaser builds house on geographically flat area next to the 100 x 100 parcel.
Property passes from purchaser to purchaser to purchaser/Seller then finally to my client in 1982.
2010- county assessor tells my client his house is not built on his legal description.
Aerial photos from 1960s and 1970Õs clearly show farming on the 100 x 100 parcel, and the house on a ~100 x ~100 area 200Õ from the deeded parcel.
1982 title insurance insures my client that Title is in the Seller in 1982.
My understanding would be first this claim comes within the affirmative coverage of the policy, but second, it may be excluded by the General Exception above.
I would argue that it is not excluded because the issue is whether title is in the Seller, not whether Seller is not in possession, not whether there are encroachments, not where the location of the lines of the parcel are, etc.
This is probably old news for a lot of you, but is fresh and new to me, a beginner.
Thanks,
Peter
Published by