Proving Second Mortage is paid off

When I purchased a house I took a second mortage from the owner. This was a baloon mortage for $15,000 as suggested by the Real Estate broker and agree to by our lawyer. I paid off the mortage and gave the checks to the broker who gave them to the seller's lawyer. Not knowing the real estate law in NY state I assumed that as long as I had copies of the payment and a signed copy stating that the mortage was paid nothing else was necessary. It turns out these copies are worthless.
Now I'm refinancing and the title company says that they cannot authorize since the second mortage is registered in NYC as being open. I mus obtain the original 'satisfcation of mortgage' or I should have registered with the City that the mortage was satisfied.
Should the seller's attorney who had the mortage deed have registered the satisfaction since he recieved the payments. Should he have given us the original documents notarized and notified me to register the satisfaction of payment?
How can I go about clearing this mess since the lawyer is not cooperative and the seller passed away a year ago?

[HomeGuru]

Those cancelled checks are not worthless for they are your only evidence that you paid the mortgage.
Hire your own attorney to help resolve the issue.
Anytime a recorded mortgage is paid off, a release or satisfaction of mortgage must be recorded on title to remove the lien from the title.

Thank you for your reply.

Is the seller's lawyer liable or negligent for for not recording the satisfaction of mortage payment or is this something I should have known. ?

[HomeGuru]

I dont know if his client instructed him not to or maybe his client did not pay him.

don't know if this is relevant but it seems to me the broker who gave the lawyer the checks needs to be addressed-or did he just deliver the checks without any interaction?

[HomeGuru]

The broker in this case with respect to the checks acted as just a messenger, a delivery person if you will. Now if the broker deposited the checks into the company account or client trust account, then that would be a different story.

but still,should'nt the broker have at least told the buyer,who's paying him,that he needed to make sure and ,either register the mortgage with the city or get proof the payment had been satisfied and if he was'nt who was?

This is where my frustration comes from. Since the broker is intimately involved in real estate deals he should have known what was required in order to make this legal.
The broker did not only deliver the checks, he obtained and gave me the copies of the documents and checks that 'proved' that the mortgage had been paid off.
It angers me that he should have known this and should have told me to follow through.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by LLeon7777
This is where my frustration comes from. Since the broker is intimately involved in real estate deals he should have known what was required in order to make this legal.
The broker did not only deliver the checks, he obtained and gave me the copies of the documents and checks that 'proved' that the mortgage had been paid off.
It angers me that he should have known this and should have told me to follow through.

My response: was this broker your broker or the broker for the Seller?
If the broker represented the Seller, broker is under no obligation to you. On the other hand, if the broker represented you, then I would agree with curtisd.