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Tax parcel number vs description
Posted by jph on May 17, 2022 at 5:15 pmI have a situation where the 2016 deed from the town calls for Lot 4 on tax map 10, but refers to a prior deed for description, which is actually for Lot 5 on tax map 10 instead. The town took both lots in the early 2000’s, and owned both when it made this conveyance.
The town just recently sold Lot 5, and it refers to the prior deed for Lot 4 instead.
So, legally, which holds?
aliquot replied 1 year, 9 months ago 12 Members · 18 Replies- 18 Replies
IMHO, both deeds are invalid due to ambiguous descriptions. We have a problem in this area where the descriptions for parcels sold at tax sales are the tax parcel number & S/T/R, usually without reference to the previous owner or conveyance. I’m currently working on a 60 acre ALTA where several adjacent tracts were acquired in this manner and described by only the tax parcel number. FRUSTRATING for me…not too much hair left to pull out…
My immediate thought is that the M/L description would hold, and the deed reference was just a clarifying description, which wasn’t. A confirmatory deed would probably be nice, though.
Take the discrepancy to the Chancery Clerk to iron out since it started with the City. Have all of your concerns clearly spelled out in bullet format so it would be impossible for anyone to misinterpret your concerns. If that doesn’t work, drop it in the lap of the City Attorney.
In my opinion, all you can do is retrace the lots from the historic descriptions, show lots 4 & 5 accurately as a simultaneous conveyance (portion excess & deficiency accordingly), and annotate ownership as unresolved due to clerical errors.
$0.25 due to high gas prices.
The town created the problem. The town needs to fix the problem. Drop it in their lap.
I’m not sure what the issue is, but they should issue a corrective deed. Title insurance will pay for this one. I’ve seen similar issues. The title company will have a new deed made up and they won’t be out much money since they will do it in-house. If there wasn’t title insurance, the the city attorney should take care of it.
Tax parcel numbers shouldn’t even be referenced in my opinion, they are getting more and more into documents of all kinds.
I some cases, tax parcel numbers may get changed. That would really mess up the trail if that’s all you had to go on.
.This is a rural town of 700 people. The parcels we’re sold at auctions for about $5k each. There’s no title insurance, and probably no getting the part time officials to do anything about it.
I’m just letting the client know about it. And surveyed the boundaries of the lot he asked us to do.
@jph I hope you somehow annotated on your Plat of Survey that there was a discrepancy with the conveyance instruments….
@kevin-hines I see the original poster is in Vermont, as am I. I’m not a land surveyor, I’m a justice of the peace, and my connection with land matters is hearing appeals of property valuations for property tax purposes (not by myself; as a member of a board).
There’s no such thing as a chancery clerk. A place with a population of 700 is certainly not a city. Most likely it’s a town, slight chance it’s a village. A town of that size will not have a full time attorney.
My main point being, the OP needs to address the situation with the municipal office that created the issue. If that approach doesn’t work, he should approach the legal advisor for the municipality, be they an attorney on the City/Village payroll or a subcontracted attorney that bills only for time spent on municipal issues.
I mentioned the Chancery Clerk because the Chancery Court is the court that decides all non-criminal land related litigation in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas, four of the six states in which I am licensed. I can only assume that in Vermont, you have some similar court for non-criminal land related litigation is resolved.
Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. This is just another example of the difference in terminology across our great nation.
Surveyors aren’t the title police. We can identify problems which the OP has done.
I would use the lot description called for in the conveyance.
The Tax ID numbers are best thought of as catalog numbers to use for taxing purposes but they hold no meaning for conveyances since they aren’t part of the chain of title (well not before inserting them anyway).
I balk at using them for much of anything although some regulators are requiring references for them on drawings.
The conveyance of the lot is primary, the incorrect references have been noted by the OP and related to the client, at that point without some physical evidence on the ground that the OP is staking the wrong lot his job is completed.
The surveyor can’t force the landowner’s to fix it.
……And this is why know-it-all behind the desk clerks should never be able to change alter update legal descriptions for real property and if they do so it should be a criminal offense… especially because they’re being lazy and don’t want to type up 15 pages of legal descriptions but they can just go type “ tax parcel A”…..
- Posted by: @jph
So, legally, which holds?
You haven’t mentioned anything about occupation, or the position relative to the other holdings of the respective owners. I agree with Kevin that the deeds are void for ambiguity. Hopefully the 2 owners can agree on what they thought they were buying and agree to exchange QCs with better descriptions. They will eventually have to do that if they intend to do anything with these lots and it will be easier to do it now than 20 years from now.
- Posted by: @mightymoe
I’m not sure what the issue is, but they should issue a corrective deed. Title insurance will pay for this one. I’ve seen similar issues. The title company will have a new deed made up and they won’t be out much money since they will do it in-house. If there wasn’t title insurance, the the city attorney should take care of it.
Tax parcel numbers shouldn’t even be referenced in my opinion, they are getting more and more into documents of all kinds.
Exactly this ^^^^
Encourage your client to push the town to issue corrective deeds for the two lots. It will bite him in the tookus later when he tries to sell, if he doesn’t.
I ran into something similar recently, my deed called for the lot to start at the northwest corner of lot 12, the problem with that is what they thought they purchased was lot 8. Even worse is the neighbors deed where lot 12 is states that there is no warranty on lot 12. Suffice to say I kicked this one back to the clients and their attorney and told them to call me when they figure out what exactly they purchased.
Yes, I’ve let him know, but I don’t think that he really understood what I was saying. He was fixated on the iron pipe up the road, that the next abutter onward told him was his corner, and that his (client’s) corner was 400′ measured from that, which would make the lot have 150′ more frontage than the deed call. Whatever
I’ve had the good fortune of working around the globe, including a good number of US States. The most horrific and widespread issue with deeds is the use of tax parcel numbers in the description. I suggest the use of stocks and public flogging to discourage such practice.
@bill93 I have experienced tax lot numbers changing in two different tax jurisdictions. Neither had records of the changes. In one I was able to get hold of the tax bills going back 30 years to coorelate with the address. In the other case we could never prove which parcel it was, and a judge ruled that the deed failed to transfer anything.
Tax id’s have no place in a deed.
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