I'll try to be brief with my question.

We bought a house in 2002 & decided to put it up for sale in March of this year. We found a buyer in August & had a closing date of August 30th. 1 week prior to closing, we were notified that an error was made with the deed to our land. Our home was built between 2 existing properties and a portion of our land is deeded to the previous resident next door.

After weeks of tracking down the previous owner, he was located in New Mexico (we reside in Mass). He agreed to sign the deed over to us but 3 weeks later, he has not sent the papers back & will not take our calls now.

I have contacted our title insurance company (First American) and they "are working on it". I can't get any real answers from anyone. In the meantime, we have a new offer on the house (lost our previous buyers) and are expected to close on the 27th of this month. We accepted another offer because we thought we'd have the deed back by now but it looks as if that won't happen. To add insult to injury, we are now 3 months behind in our mortgage payments and may be pending foreclosure soon.

My question is, what can the title insurance do to correct the issue with the deed? They aren't giving me much information & my lawyer definitely isn't. Also, how long does this process usually take? I'm afraid we'll lose another buyer & we can no longer afford our home, which was the reason for putting it on the market in the first place.

Thanks!

When you purchased the land, did First American do a title search and did they state that the previous owner had clear title? If so, then you need to read the title insurance policy to determine what liability First American has. This is the purpose of title insurance. It warrants to the buyer that the seller has clear title to the property. It indemnifies you if it turns out that wasn't true.

To what extent they will make you whole is spelled out in the policy. I would suggest having your attorney go over the policy.

Get a RE attorney involved who will build a fire under First American, title company you had when you purchased the property AND the NM neighbor. Borrow money and pay the mortgage.