In this Elder Law Minute, Paige Fox explains why younger couples need estate plans, including powers of attorney and guardianship provisions for minor children.
Lost Deed in Illinois: What You Need to Know
Hi, I’m Kaye DeSelms Dent with Dent Coulson Elder Law here with an elder law minute for you. These videos are intended to educate you about the elder care journey which begins earlier in life than you might think. We hope that you find them useful and if you have further questions, please call us at Dent Coulson Elderlaw.
Common Misconception About Lost Deeds
Today I’m going to explain um something about deeds like to real estate and titles like to your motor vehicles and how they are different because that’s frequently a misconception I hear from people is they’re worried because they’ve lost the deed to their house.
Vehicle Titles vs Ownership
Now, if you’ve ever lost the the title to a vehicle, you know, you’ve got to apply for a lost title with the Secretary of State. Um that’s in Illinois anyway, and it can kind of be a pain. Not not the biggest thing in the world. It happens all the time.
But with your car, the title is your indicia of ownership. It is what says, “I own this car.” And if you have a loan on the car, when you buy a vehicle and you finance it, you don’t get the title until you pay off the loan because the loan company, the lender, doesn’t have any way in our system of telling the world that they have a lean on this.
So, you could go sell the car and not pay them and there wouldn’t be anything they could do to get their collateral back.
How Real Estate Deeds Work
Real estate is different. When you buy real estate, you know, for most of us, our primary residents, you get the deed at that time.
While you’re at the closing, the seller signs the deed over to you or and then the title company usually records the deed with your county clerk and recorder and you’ll get a copy of that recorded deed back saying what what book and page it is in the local land records and you will have that deed.
You should keep that in a lock box in a safe at home, a fireproof safe.
What Happens If You Lose Your Deed
But at the end of the day, if you lose it, guess what? The original is in the land records at the clerk and recorder’s office.
And when you buy the property, it’s not like somebody can just steal your deed and have it and then sell it to somebody else.
Because part of the closing process when this is properly done is that the title company searches the records and makes certain that there aren’t any leans or other incumbrances on that real estate so that you can legitimately pass it to your buyer.
This is really important because people forget that when they um went through the closing that they later on got that filed deed back and it is probably buried somewhere. It might be lost.
But it’s very common for people to lose that and then talk to me about the the panic that has set in that oh my gosh, what do we do? We lost our deed.
You get a copy from the clerk and recorder’s office.
Role of the Mortgage Lender and Title Company
the mortgage lender doesn’t need to hold on to that deed because they have recorded their mortgage in the land records.
So when the title company later on goes to look and says oh Mr. and Mrs. Smith want to sell their house, one of the things that they’re going to see is, “Oh, Bank ABC has the mortgage on the house.”
And so they get a payoff from Bank ABC and Bank ABC says, “Yes, once we get paid, we’ll sign a release of mortgage.”
And all of that is taken care of as part of the closing process.
Key Takeaway
But the bottom line is that don’t worry if you can’t find your deed because it’s there in the county records.
The mortgage company doesn’t have it. and all is well.
Closing
So deeds and car titles are quite different and it’s important to understand how those records are kept and how they might affect your transactions and even your estate planning frankly.
So if you have questions about ownership and especially as it concerns your estate planning and how you might be passing things along to other people and what evidence and what records you have or need.
That’s part of what we do here at Coulson Elder Law and we’re happy to help.
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“Your Trusted Advisor on the Elder Care Journey”
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.