Patriot Title, Blacksburg, VA
70+ Ways to Lose Your Property
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1. Forged deeds, mortgages, satisfactions, or releases
2. Deed by person who is insane or mentally incompetent 3. Deed by minor (may be disavowed) 4. Deed from corporation, unauthorized under corporate by-laws or given under falsified corporate resolution 5. Deed from partnership, unauthorized under partnership agreement 6. Deed from purported trustee, unauthorized under trust agreement 7. Deed to or from a "corporation" before incorporation, or after loss of corporate charter 8. Deed from a legal nonentity (styled, for example, as a church, charity, or club) 9. Deed by person in a foreign country, vulnerable to challenge as incompetent, unauthorized, or defective under foreign laws 10. Claims resulting from use of "alias" or fictitious name style by a predecessor in title 11. Deed challenged as being given under fraud, undue influence, or duress 12. Deed following nonjudicial foreclosure, where required procedure was not followed 13. Deed affecting land in judicial proceedings (bankruptcy, receivership, probate, conservatorship, dissolution of marriage) unauthorized by court 14. Deed following judicial proceedings subject to appeal or further court order 15. Deed following judicial proceedings where all necessary parties were not joined 16. Lack of jurisdiction over persons or property in judicial proceedings 17. Deed signed by mistake (grantor did not know what was signed) 18. Deed executed under falsified power of attorney 19. Deed executed under expired power of attorney (death, disability, or insanity of principal) 20. Deed apparently valid, but actually delivered after death of grantor or grantee, or without consent of grantor 21 . Deed affecting property purported to be separate property of grantor, which is in fact community or jointly owned property 22. Undisclosed divorce of one who conveys as sole heir of a deceased former spouse 23. Deed affecting property of deceased person, not joining all heirs 24. Deed following administration of estate of missing person who later reappears 25. Conveyance by heir or survivor of a joint estate who murdered the decedent 26. Conveyances and proceedings affecting the rights of service member protected by the Service-Members Civil Relief Act 27. Conveyance void as in violation of public policy (payment of gambling debt, payment for contract to commit crime, or conveyance made in restraint of trade) 28. Deed to land including "wetlands" subject to public trust (vesting title in government to protect public interest in navigation, commerce, fishing, and recreation) 29. Deed from government entity, vulnerable to challenge as unauthorized or unlawful 30. Ineffective release of prior satisfied mortgage due to acquisition of note by bona-fide purchaser (without notice of satisfaction) 31. Ineffective release of prior satisfied mortgage due to bankruptcy of creditor prior to recording of release (avoiding powers in bankruptcy) 32. Ineffective release of prior mortgage or lien, as fraudulently obtained by predecessor in title 33. Disputed release of prior mortgage or lien, as given under mistake or misunderstanding 34. Ineffective subordination agreement causing junior interest to be reinstated to priority 35. Deed recorded but not properly indexed so as to be locatable in the land records 36. Undisclosed but recorded federal or state tax lien 37. Undisclosed but recorded judgment or spousal/child support lien 38. Undisclosed but recorded prior mortgage 39. Undisclosed but recorded notice of pending lawsuit affecting land 40. Undisclosed but recorded environmental lien 41. Undisclosed but recorded option, or right of first refusal, to purchase property 42. Undisclosed but recorded covenants or restrictions, with (or without) rights of reverter 43. Undisclosed but recorded easements (for access, utilities, drainage, airspace, views) benefiting neighboring land 44. Undisclosed but recorded boundary, party wall, or setback agreements 45. Errors in tax record (mailing tax bill to wrong party resulting in tax sale, or crediting payment to wrong property) 46. Erroneous release of tax or assessment liens, which are later reinstated to the tax rolls 47. Erroneous reports furnished by tax officials (not binding local government 48. Special assessments which become liens upon passage of a law or ordinance, but before recorded notice or commencement of improvements of which assessment is made 49. Adverse claim of vendor's lien 50. Adverse claim of equitable lien 51. Ambiguous covenants or restrictions in ancient documents 52. Misinterpretation of wills, deeds, and other instruments 53. Discovery of will of supposed intestate individual, after probate 54. Discovery of later will after probate of first will 55. Erroneous or inadequate legal description 56. Deed to land without a right of access to a public street or road 57. Deed to land with legal access subject to undisclosed but recorded conditions or restrictions 58. Right of access wiped out by foreclosure on neighboring land 59. Patent defects in recorded instruments (for example, fai lure to attach notarial acknowledgment or a legal description) 60. Defective acknowledgment due to lack of authority of notary (acknowledgment taken before commission or after expiration of commission) 61. Forged notarization or witness acknowledgment 62. Deed not properly recorded (wrong county, missing pages or other contents, or without required payment) 63. Deed from grantor who is claimed to have acquired title through fraud upon creditors of a prior owner 64. Deed to a purchaser from one who has previously sold or leased the same land to a third party under an unrecorded contract, where the third party is in possession of the premises 65. Claimed prescriptive rights, not of record and not disclosed by survey 66. Physical location of easement (underground pipe or sewer line) which does not conform with easement of record 67. Deed to land with improvements encroaching upon land of another 68. Incorrect survey (misstating location, dimensions, area easements, or improvements upon land) 69. "Mechanics' lien" claims (securing payment of contractors and material suppliers for improvements) which may attach without recorded notice 70. Federal estate or state inheritance tax liens (may attach without recorded notice) |
