[jojo2227]

I bought a house with cash, it was owned by the mother and father who paid off their mortgage, but the son cannot find the deed. How do I get the deed in my name now?

All I got is a purchase agreement and a recept.

[cdad]

You can go to the court of records or where they have them at the county seat and deed the property. But you need everyone to sign paperwork and the bank has to sign off on the loan. You should have done this through a title company. There could be anything going on and you just bought it.

[ScottGem]

The son doesn't need the deed. He can get a copy from the county recorder any time. That's who keeps the original deeds, the individual owners just have copies. That's what a closing is for. At the closing the buyer pays the money and the seller signs a NEW deed transferring the property.

So what you do now is two fold, first you go to the county recorder of deeds and check who is on the title to the property or you hire a title search firm to do that. If the property is titled to the parents, then you demand that they sign a deed transferring the property to you. Preferably a warranty deed, but at least a quit claim deed.

If you find the owners are not who the son claimed, then you go to the police and have him arrested for fraud and hope you can recover your money.

[cdad]

The other thing too is that if a bank is on the deed as an interested party they will have to be shown as satisfied before the property can be transferred.

[Fr_Chuck]

First the house is not "owned" by who pays off the loan, it is owned by whose name is on the deed. And you never ever pay for a house until you have done a title search to know there are no other loan or liens on the property.

And you never give them the money till they sign a deed over to you.

And they don't lose a deed, the deed if they really own the house is filed at the court house.

What they do, is write a new deed ( or have a title company or attorney do it) and sign it over to you, you then take the NEW deed and file it at the court house.

At this point you don't own the house, and you are not even sure you paid money to the people that actually own it

[AK lawyer]

The ... county recorder ... keeps the original deeds, the individual owners just have copies. ...

What state would that be in? Any place I am familiar with, a copy is recorded and the original is returned to the grantee.

But in any case, as others have said, it doesn't matter whether the original of the deed can be found; assuming it was recorded.

If the people OP bought the property from never recorded their deed when they bought the property, OP definitely has a big problem.

[ScottGem]

what state would that be in? Any place i am familiar with, a copy is recorded and the original is returned to the grantee.

Ny