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nadine71

Guest
What is the name of your state? NY

My mom passed away in 97. I contacted a lawyer to handle her estate closing being she had a house. I was appointed administrator of the estate.

Now I am in final stages of selling the property and attorney I have now alerted me that I have two outstanding liens against the house. What I don't understand is why the lawyer who handled the estate closing didn't bother to run a title search. How can you transfer a property without doing a title search?? That way the new owner knows if there are any outstanding debts and decide if it's worth keeping the property. I never received any letters from the creditors saying x amount dollars is owed. Is there anything I can do legally do to this laywer? Being totally totally mispresented me.
 


JETX

Senior Member
"Is there anything I can do legally do to this laywer?"
*** No. And since we don't know what services you had the attorney do, we can't tell if it was even in his 'scope' to do a title check or otherwise be involved in the sale of the property. Pay the liens, clear the title, sell the property and move on.
 
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nadine71

Guest
The lawyer was hired to name me adminsiatrator of my mom estate being there was no will and to transfer her house into my name. That was all done except for the title search. Which I don't think after 7yrs is fair to be sprung at me out of the blue. I assumed the house being free and clear. I did not know these liens were in place. The attorney knew my mom had excessive debts - so why not run the title??
 

JETX

Senior Member
"The lawyer was hired to name me adminsiatrator of my mom estate being there was no will and to transfer her house into my name. That was all done except for the title search."
*** Though I agree with you that a title search would have been nice to do at the time, there is no legal obligation to do so. The transfer of ownership that you described does not require one.

"Which I don't think after 7yrs is fair to be sprung at me out of the blue."
*** 'Fairness' has nothing to do with this. You hired an attorney to do something, he/she did as you hired.

"I assumed the house being free and clear."
*** And there is your mistake. You should not have assumed, you should have asked.

"I did not know these liens were in place. The attorney knew my mom had excessive debts - so why not run the title??"
*** Because the attorney had/has NO obligation to do so. My question to you is the same...... Since YOU knew that your mother had all these debts and YOU were the executrix of her estate.... why didn't YOU do a title search?? It WAS your obligation to do so... and not the attorneys.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Please stop blaming this attorney--it's not his fault and he actually did you a favor by notifying you about this. Under normal circumstances, one or both parties to the real estate transaction should have hired a real estate attorney to review the documents to make sure everything was in order and it is frequently the real estate attorney that would have uncovered the liens.

It is still possible for the sale to go through, but I'm sure you may have already found out that if the home is sold, the liens will be paid off first and then you will get what is left.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

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