Widow looking to obtain deed after paying off home
Q: My husband died a few years ago and had a life insurance policy. When I got the proceeds from the policy, I was able to pay off our home mortgage.
I never received the original deed from the mortgage holder, and querying the lender is getting me nowhere. I’m not sure what to do to protect myself against scammers.
Is there somewhere I can get a copy of my deed? A: First, please accept our condolences on your loss. One of the reasons we recommend that both spouses and partners keep a hand in managing family money is to avoid painful quests like this one.
But while your search for protection hasn’t been fruitful so far, the good news is you likely don’t have to worry about the ownership of the property. Typically, married couples own property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. When it comes to the primary residence, married couples will either own it as joint tenants or as tenants by the entirety.
In either case, you became the sole owner of the home upon your husband’s passing. You wouldn’t need to do anything to the title to the property for you to become the sole owner of the home. It happens automatically because of the way you hold title.
When you purchased the home, the settlement agent or seller’s attorney would have prepared the deed conveying the seller’s ownership in the home to you and your husband. That document stays in place and doesn’t change over time.
If you and your husband owned the home as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, you automatically and legally became the sole owner of the home upon your husband’s death. You don’t need to do anything more at this time to prove ownership.
When you decide to sell the home, you will simply need to show a copy of the death certificate to the settlement agent or title company to prove that you became the sole owner of the home.
If you want to check, look online at your local Recorder of Deeds office. If you look up the property, you should see that your name and your husband’s name are still on the title to the home. That’s quite normal. It doesn’t mean you don’t own the home on your own.
If you and your spouse happened to have a mortgage on the property at the time of your spouse’s death, you would now be entirely responsible for making those payments every month.
In your situation, you paid off the mortgage lender and the lender should have sent a release of the mortgage for recording or filing to the office that handles real estate documents in your county (typically, Recorder of Deeds).
Be aware that in some states, a lender takes a trust deed and not a mortgage as collateral for the loan. In general, a mortgage and trust deed work to provide the lender collateral and security for the homeowner’s loan. The one difference in the law is the trust deed gives the lender custody of the title until the loan is paid off. When a lender has a trust deed as collateral and the loan is paid off, the lender issues a release of the trust deed to give the property owner full rights to the property.
In your situation, you simply need to make sure that your lender released the mortgage or issued the release of the trust deed. You would do that at the local Recorder of Deeds office. You might call them and ask if they can help you look up the relevant records. You might also be able to get this information online (some areas do charge for access, but the cost should be nominal).
Of course, if you and your husband did not own the home with rights of survivorship or as tenants by the entirety, that will require a different set of steps; particularly if he died intestate, without a will.
Finally, your email mentioned that you’re worried about being scammed. The best thing to do is check your title from time to time, to make sure no additional liens have been attached to it. Also change your online passwords to two-step authentication.
Good luck.