Buying, seller didn't disclose joint ownership

[bakar]

What is the name of your state? New Mexico
My story goes like this, we are in escrow for the house with closing date approx 2 months from now. Seller, when the purchase agreement was signed, signed it solely and didn't acknowledge presence of a co-owner. Now, title company sent a title copy to us along with other documents where there is a former partner listed on the title. Then we discovered that title company with selling agent knew about this and taking steps to fix it (but nobody informed us about that). What they are trying to do is seller is preapproved for a home equity loan and will get money in about a week (refinancing after signing purchase agreement) and will pay agreed amount to the former partner upon which seller will receive sole rights to the property and title will be adjusted at this moment. I guess, from that point it should fine, even though we have to really trust now that this will happen and go smoothly. My question is whether it is illegal to refinance while you're in escrow and signed a purchase agreement, and whether there is an implication of having purchase agreement signed by one owner when there were two legal owners at the moment and fixing title later with the official date on corrected title few weeks after purchase agreement was signed. It all seems to be Ok, but I am just worried there is a culprit somewhere in here.
And, of coarse, it messes up our plans to proceed with final loan application with appraisal, etc because we don't want to invest anymore money in the process when outcome is contingent upon seller fixing title. It is not reflected in the agreement as we were just notified about this whole thing with the co-owner.
Thank you very much in advance.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by bakar

What is the name of your state? New Mexico
My story goes like this, we are in escrow for the house with closing date approx 2 months from now. Seller, when the purchase agreement was signed, signed it solely and didn't acknowledge presence of a co-owner. Now, title company sent a title copy to us along with other documents where there is a former partner listed on the title. Then we discovered that title company with selling agent knew about this and taking steps to fix it (but nobody informed us about that). What they are trying to do is seller is preapproved for a home equity loan and will get money in about a week (refinancing after signing purchase agreement) and will pay agreed amount to the former partner upon which seller will receive sole rights to the property and title will be adjusted at this moment. I guess, from that point it should fine, even though we have to really trust now that this will happen and go smoothly. My question is whether it is illegal to refinance while you're in escrow and signed a purchase agreement, and whether there is an implication of having purchase agreement signed by one owner when there were two legal owners at the moment and fixing title later with the official date on corrected title few weeks after purchase agreement was signed. It all seems to be Ok, but I am just worried there is a culprit somewhere in here.
And, of coarse, it messes up our plans to proceed with final loan application with appraisal, etc because we don't want to invest anymore money in the process when outcome is contingent upon seller fixing title. It is not reflected in the agreement as we were just notified about this whole thing with the co-owner.
Thank you very much in advance.

**A: where is your Realtor? The contract, if wrtiten correctly should contain a "seller has and will transfer good title etc." clause. If two owners are on title then there really is no title problem, there is a communication problem between the two sellers.

[seniorjudge]

bakar, what you are describing happens frequently.

The lesson to be learned is not to be in a hurry when buying land.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by seniorjudge

bakar, what you are describing happens frequently.

The lesson to be learned is not to be in a hurry when buying land.

**A: and make sure ALL individuals on title sign the sales contract.

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by HomeGuru

**A: and make sure ALL individuals on title sign the sales contract.

And make sure you know who has ownership of the joint....