Imagine you’re a real estate attorney. Years ago, you handled what appeared to be a routine residential closing for a mortgage loan. The title was insured, the deed of trust recorded, the funds disbursed, and the file long since closed.

Then you get the email.

Heirs Hiding In the Back Chain of Title

Your title company notifies you of a claim. An heir—someone who never signed a deed—has surfaced and is asserting an ownership interest in the property. Even worse, you learn that this is not the only outstanding interest. 

Suddenly, what seemed like a straightforward transaction is anything but. The title insurer is investigating, and the current owner is demanding answers.

Your closed file is open again.

A Real Title Examination Uncovers Big Problems

This scenario is not hypothetical. I conducted a title exam and encountered this exact issue silently lurking beneath a $200,000 mortgage loan. 

So how does this happen?  

In my title exam, a man acquired property from his mother and later conveyed it to himself and his wife as tenants by the entirety. Both deeds were clearly marked: “No Title Search Performed.”

That alone raised flags. No revenue stamps either. So I expanded the scope and did a full 30-year search.

What I found was significant.

When the Chain of Title Tells a Different Story

The mother had been one of four siblings who inherited the property from their own mother more than 30 years earlier. The other three siblings—or their heirs—had never conveyed their interests. In other words, the borrower never acquired full title to the property.

Whoever searched the title for the $200,000 mortgage lender simply traced ownership back to the deed from the mother to her son and stopped there, missing the broader chain of title.

Now think through what that means.

Are the other siblings still living? If not, who are their heirs? And, importantly in North Carolina, will their spouses join in conveying any remaining interests? Are there outstanding judgments or IRS tax liens attached to those interests?

Each unanswered question adds complexity, delay, and expense —and potentially more serious title defects or litigation exposure.

This kind of thing isn’t rare. In my 40 years of searching titles, I’ve seen similar issues arise from incomplete or careless work. 

Common Title Examination Mistakes That Lead to Claims

For example, I have encountered deeds and deeds of trust where the legal descriptions conveyed only a portion of the property. An owner may acquire a one-acre tract and later purchase an additional adjoining .15 acre strip—often to resolve setback or encroachment issues. Two separate deeds exist, but the tax office reflects only the most recent conveyance. 

The inept title examiner, who doesn’t know how to read or plot a legal description and has never looked at a tax map, pulls the most recent deed and searches from that filing date forward, oblivious to the landmine just a link back in the chain of title. 

A defect like this may not surface until a future sale, long after the original transaction. By then, prior owners may be deceased, their interests scattered among multiple heirs, and resolution far more difficult—and costly—than it ever needed to be.

Choose Your Title Searcher Carefully

I once knew a “title searcher” who stumbled into the business with zero formal training — his only credential was that his wife worked for a title company. He said that any monkey could search titles. I wonder how many claims the title company had to pay? 

The lesson is simple: a title search is only as reliable as the person performing it. In North Carolina, where heirship, marital interests, and long chains of title are common, it’s too risky to hire just any monkey. 

Instead, contact me. Forty years of examining titles in North Carolina is hard to replace — and in this business, experience is exactly what stands between a clean closing and a claim.