I ordered a full title search - 60 years, not a property report.

The abstractor did not provide a copy of the mortgage. The abstractor reports the factual data from the mortgage document. If we need to see the mortgage, we request a copy. In this case, we saw no need to review the document ourselves.

If the abstractor had reviewed the mortgage, they would have noted the incorrect address. I did not mention that there was also an incorrect tax parcel number on the first page.

The seller in our transaction owned two properties on the same street. We insured the purchase of one. The other was lost by the seller in foreclosure.

The two mortgages in question were executed on the same day by the same borrower for the same lender. The two properties were on the same street. The legal descriptions were switched in error.

The mortgage lender's servicing department when they set up the two loans in their system did not check the legal descriptions and so they assigned account numbers to the property addresses shown on the first page of each mortgage.

We followed proper procedure in requesting payoff. In addition to the account number and property address, we included the recording info.

We followed proper procedure when sending the payoff check.
In addition to the account number and property address, we included the recording info.

If the lender had checked the recording info, they would also have noticed a problem, however they did not.

Our check matched the payoff letter which had been issued by the lender. Upon receipt the lender applied it to the account number matching their records and satisfied what they thought was the mortgage against our property.

The HELOC lender ordered a property report from the same abstractor who had done our original full search.

How could this have been avoided? If the abstractor had looked at the mortgage carefully the first time, and noticed the address was wrong, she might have also noticed the other mortgage. In 2004 the same lender owned both mortgages and we could have gotten it straightened out. After we paid off the one mortgage, the other was sold to GMAC who later foreclosed. The mistaken legal description was clearly found in the foreclosure search and the court order correcting the instrument cleared the cloud.

As for indexing, I think the first error would have been easy to catch. As for missing the court order, I am relying upon the response from the abstractor who said she should have got it when she did the property report for the HELOC lender.

I realize this is a confusing scenario. Anytime we run across a problem, I think it's good to talk about it because we all learn to be more careful.

I know there is lots of talk about title agents who won't pay a decent fee or want the abstractor to give only partial searches.

I paid $150 for a full search. I think that's reasonable and I believe this abstractor will be more careful in the future.

I think the entire experience was a great training opportunity, and it had a happy ending.

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