So I just ordered a title search from an abstractor on a property I"m trying to close on. I have done a few self closes but it's been a few years back. I had a questions about a few things I'm seeing on the previous deed.
The owner I'm buying from (and her deceased husband) bought the land back in 1979 from a power company. They list the price as $1 but the county lists the sale price as $5100. Does this create any issues or is this a common thing that is done for tax purposes or something else?
The deed says in addition to the .51 acre property, they are getting 1/645th access to all those lots designated on access lots on a certain survey done - any idea what this is referring to and is there anything I need to be aware of here.
Lastly in one part of the deed it states that the power company has the right to flood and backwater over any portion of the land. Anyone ever seen this or know what it means? (it is near a pretty big body of water btw, not in a flood zone from what I can tell but next to a flood zone)
Thanks to all and anyone who can give me some help here. Much appreciated!
Hi @wes - I wouldn't worry too much about the difference in sale prices. That is a little strange, but it doesn't sound like a title issue exactly.
As for the other issues, when you say "they", are you referring to the power company that was listed in the chain of title? It sounds like it's basically an easement so they can use these properties - including yours - if they ever need to... which is probably highly unlikely, but it's one of those "just in case" things because they're probably servicing power to the entire area and this property is part of the land they would need to use. Is there a hydro-electric dam nearby or something? I can't imagine why else they would ever need to flood a property.
Of course, my thoughts above are purely a non-legal, uneducated opinion. if you want an official answer on any of this, you should talk to an attorney or title company.
There may be dam, I'm not sure, but there is a large lake near the property.Yes actually now that I'm looking again this was sold from the power company to another company in 1959, and that is the company the current owner bought from in 1979. So the original agreements were between the power company and the other company they sold to.
Which brings up another question - do I need to include all this in my warranty deed I'm making up. The current deed says the warranty deed is subject to the following and then lists 7 things, some of which are pretty long and complicated including the previously mentioned things. The deed templates I"m seeing don't include any of that.
@wes - it sounds similar to a mineral rights issue, or any type of deed restriction, where a historical owner sells a property EXCEPT for certain rights to it.
My understanding is that when an owner sells a property with certain exceptions like this, they can basically retain those rights forever going forward, unless/until they explicitly transfer those rights to a future owner. This happens a lot with energy companies, because they may want to drill beneath the property in the future without having to buy back the property.
In these cases, the future deeds (like the one you're doing right now) wouldn't need to continually re-state that these rights are being held back, because those "subject to" issues were already stated in the past. I'm not a title expert, so if someone else is reading this and knows better, I hope they will step in and correct me.
@donyost Perfect thank you. I'm including a short sentence that basically alludes to the previous agreements and says they are still in effect. Seems like that will do the trick.