Ever find yourself tangled in the web of property ownership disputes? Greg McIntyre of McIntyre Elderdoll is our guiding light in the murky waters of quiet title actions. This episode is an eye-opener into the world of real estate law, where Greg unravels the complexities of 'cloud on title' issues, and uncovers the reasons why someone might need a court's help to affirm their property rights. It's a treasure trove of knowledge for property owners, potential buyers, or anyone with a zest for understanding the legal details of property disputes.
Listen closely as Greg illustrates common problems leading to quiet title actions, including deeds signed under duress or with questionable legality. We're talking real-life scenarios that could happen to anyone—a mix-up in property descriptions or a deed signed without the proper mental capacity. This conversation is not just about the dry aspects of law; it's about protecting what's yours and ensuring that your property rights are crystal clear. Whether you're knee-deep in a property quagmire or just want to ward off future disputes, this episode is a must. Join us for a session that promises to clarify the often-overlooked but critical part of owning real estate: the title.
Speaker 1:
Hey, I'm Greg McIntyre, with McIntyre Elderdoll and I'm Greg the Beggar. We're going to talk some litigation today. This is part two in our litigation series on quiet title actions. Shh Quiet, what's a quiet title action?
Speaker 2:
That's cheesy but it's a good way to remember what is a quiet title action. Yeah, so you know, if there's an issue with title two property, okay, so the action is to quiet the title.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to say property. Are we talking about a watch or my?
Speaker 2:
car. We're talking about real property. Real estate, the house and the things on the dirt. That's right, the things to the dirt. Yeah, okay, sorry.
Speaker 2:
But, you know there could be issue with title to the property, what is typically referred to as the deed. The deed's not necessarily the title. It just shows you what the title okay to the property is. Right, so the deed is a record of title. But there could be issues with title to property. For example, someone could claim an interest in the property that you own and if you want to sell that property, do something with that property. Well, there's a cloud on title if they're making that claim. So you need to get that issue quieted. Okay, so that's a quiet title action and you know there's many reasons why there may be some type of issue as to the title to property. There's reason why there may be a cloud on title.
Speaker 1:
What is a common issue? A common issue. What is a common issue where I might need to seek a court action, a quiet title action or bring that against someone else?
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
To say hey, the way the deed's set up, the way the registered deeds has this set up, the tax records. Everything else GIS is displaying this property is incorrect.
Speaker 2:
I actually should have a property interest here and I'm asking the court to clarify that. Yeah, so a lot of times we end up doing quiet title actions as a result of someone coming in to an attorney's office or acquiring a deed somehow and having an individual who owned that property sign a deed, okay, and so that's not the only reason why we do it, but most of the cases that we have that end up, you know, result in a quiet title action is if mom comes in to an attorney's office, signs a deed. Or mom signed a deed at some point and, you know, gave somebody the property, okay, and it was supposed to go to somebody else. Then we might want to, you know, could there be a common?
Speaker 1:
issue. Could capacity be an issue?
Speaker 2:
Exactly when the deed was signed. So you could challenge hey, you know, mom didn't know what she was doing when she signed it. She was tricked into signing it. She lacked capacity to sign it. It was an example or a result of fraud or forgery, things like that. Those could all be issues as to the title to property and the reason why you want to set aside a deed and do a quiet title action. Another thing is the deed is wrong, Could be wrong, Could give somebody right. You could have a deed.
Speaker 1:
Maybe the description is wrong, that gave somebody a piece of property, maybe instead of giving the. Maybe I have 50 acres and I was meaning to give someone else one acre, yep, but I give that person accidentally, because the deed was drafted wrong and nobody caught it. I give them 10 acres or maybe all 50.
Speaker 1:
And the person that I gave it to is refusing to sign back over 49 of those acres back to me, which is we've seen that happen before. It's a real life thing, right? So you have to sue through a quiet title action to have the court determine the intent when the 50 acres was given away and argue that it just should have been one acre, Right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, A lot of people don't know that you know you may have a loved one who puts you on the deed right In some capacity to receive that property upon their death. Okay, so, whether that's the whole thing or part of the property, and if you know, let's say mom does that, and then someone commits his mom to sign another deed maybe she didn't know she was doing Okay, At that point you have two people who would own that property at mom's death. Okay, and there's an issue there because originally, when she signed the first deed, she intended for this person to have it right Person number one and she's executed another deed which may or may not be valid, leaving it to person number two. So that gives rise to an issue as to the title of property.
Speaker 1:
So my question to the Lydia that second deed mom's competency when she signed that second deed, things like that, right? So all kinds of issues surrounding quiet title, some of them similar to other litigation issues that we see right, the signing of legal documents, and you talked about. You know you talked about wills.
Speaker 2:
Okay, and you might. You might think yourself well, why in the world isn't the will the problem here? Well, you know, as I pointed out, if the property is being left via deed, it's the deed that controls it, not the will. So some people will falsely think that they need to challenge the will to solve that problem and in fact, the deed is the issue, because the will has nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1:
That's right. It's not a will. Caveat action, which is part one of that I did yesterday of the latest series, is actually the quiet title action is where you need to bring that Exactly. So it depends on the vehicle, the legal mechanism for passing the property, whether it's the will, a trust, the V as the what type of legal action or litigation action would need to be brought?
Speaker 2:
Exactly, yeah, I mean, if it's a trust, we may want to do just an action against the trust. The declaratory judgment action, something like that Right. Yeah, you know which we will get into. Yeah, that's, that's upcoming. It is upcoming.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I very much appreciate you. Attorney vaguely handles a lot of litigation cases in our office. He is our lead litigation attorney, our chief legal officer, and I appreciate you coming on and sharing your wisdom with us regarding quiet title action. Thanks, appreciate it. I'm state team for our next part in our litigation series. Thank you for watching the L law report.