How can I get a old propery lien released?
In June of 1983 I took out a mortgage with Colonial Mortgagee Corp. Unknown to me at the time, while Colonial continued administering this mortgage, the mortgage was assigned to Chase Manhattan Bank in November of 1983. I paid off this mortgage in full in 1986 when I refinanced through Midlantic Home Mortgagee Corp (formerly Colonial Mortgagee Corp).
In 2003 when I refinanced again I was informed (the first time I was aware of this) that Chase Manhattan holds a lien against my property from that mortgage assignment in 1983. My problem is; I have no paperwork to show the original mortgage was paid off or that any lien was released. To make matters worse, Colonial & Midlantic mortgage corporations no longer exist. I tried for 18 months to get Chase to release this lien and got nowhere with Chase. I hired a law firm who has been working on this for almost 3 years now with no success so far. Do you have any advise on how I can get Chase to release this lien and/or what are the consequences of doing nothing about this lien?