Spouse unsure about home ownership documents
Q: After my husband’s death, my daughter went to pick up the deed to our house. There was a quitclaim deed that our old mortgage lender put in place with my signature on it. Also, I can’t find the transfer on death (TOD) instrument. All records and insurance on the house are gone. Where should I start looking? A: Oh, boy, do we have questions. For starters, when you said that you found a quitclaim deed that your old mortgage lender had you sign, did you mean that you signed over your interest in the home to your husband and he became the sole owner of the home?
There are times when a lender simply can’t approve a loan to a husband and wife when the credit of one of the spouses is so bad. In this situation, the lender will have the spouse with the bad credit convey their share of the home over to the other spouse. Do you recall if this is what happened to you?
If you had terrible credit and signed the quitclaim deed, the usual thing is to have the owner spouse convey the home back into the name of both spouses. Did that happen? From where we sit, it looks like a second deed wasn’t signed.
But you mentioned something about a TOD. Did your husband sign the TOD and file or record in the government office that handles real estate documents? That would be a lucky break.
So, that’s where you should start. Go to that government office (or if they have an online site, go there) and see if the TOD was recorded or filed. If you go in person, you might find someone to help you look it up. You’ll need your property address and the property tax ID number. This identification number is assigned to your home by the local taxing authorities. You’ll find this number on your property tax bills.
Take all of this documentation with you when you go to your local recorder of deeds office. If you go online to the recorder of deed’s official site, you should use that tax identification number to find all documents that have been recorded to that number.
(A warning: Make sure you go to the official site and not a site set up by third parties that require you to pay.)
Scroll through the documents and see if you find the TOD. If you do, see if you can download a copy. Some government websites may require you to pay a fee to download the document. Again, ensure you are dealing with the official site for your local recorder of deeds or other government office.
Once you download the document, see if you are named as the person who will receive the property upon the death of your husband. We hope you find the document and it names you. That means that upon his death, you’re the sole owner of the home.
On that same website or with that same government office, while you are looking for the TOD, you can see if there is another deed that put you back as coowner of the home with your husband. Whether your husband signed a deed putting you into title or signed a TOD to put you in title after his death, the effect would be the same: you’d be the sole owner of the home upon his death.
On the other hand, if you don’t find a TOD, and it appears your husband is the sole owner of the home, then we hope your husband had a will. If his will names you as the heir of his estate, then you can work with a local estate attorney and probate court to have the home put into your name.
If your husband died intestate, or without a will, then the estate laws of the state in which the home is located would control who would own the home after his death.
It’s complicated, and there’s a lot riding on documentation that may have been signed a long time ago. Unless the right documents pop up easily, and you know for certain that you’re the sole owner of the home, it might be time to get some professional help.
Good luck.
Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, Thinkglink.com.