Common Sense

A short sale I've been working on for the past 120ish days just reached a critical point.  The cash buyer had reached an initial agreement with Chase on a price.  Both parties expecting a deal moved forward and an appraiser was sent in to examine the house for deficiencies and required work to bring the property up to code in the neighborhood.  More than $30,000 worth of repairs would be required.

In addition there were two outstanding permit violations that the sellers had not been told about when they purchased the house nearly a decade earlier.  The Title was not harmed by the permit and code violations, but at closing the new buyers would have to sign a document holding the seller (and the lender) harmless.  Considering that the buyer would have $30,000 in repair work, a $110 permit expense was acceptable.

The buyer countered the Chase acceptance with a lower offer.  We're awaiting the response.

At the same time I made another excursion into the public records where I found a property which the owners had acquired following the divorce of the previous occupants.  Purchased in 1993 the owners took title  once the divorced property winner signed an affidavit declaring their right to sell the property in her own name.  Her married name had been changed back to her birth name causing a significant risk of cloud on title.  In this case the owners did things almost perfect from the point of conveyance through a significant sequence of events including three second mortgage and a series of home repairs over the past 17 years of ownership.

Take a look at their redacted record:

The common denominator of these to situations is the lack of the Land Trust Conversion.  In the case of the former, the benefit of the land trust to the seller begins to take shape in the complaint that were filed by Miramar.  Such code and permit issues can be compounded.  In other words the owner of the property had other properties in minor code violations with little or no fines to be imposed, but the city found all of these violations under the individual's name, both penalties, liens and fines could be imposed.  And if the second property owner had simply converted his property in 1993 he would have reduced the risk of liability having his name exposed in the public record has created against him.

Florida's Land Trust act is a common sense law that traces its history back nearly 500 years.  It is amazing that neither of the parties in my two investigations were ever explained the benefits of Florida's Land Trust.  It was just common sense then and it is even more common sensible today.

Nine Years and 28 Title impacts for this homeowner

This week we are looking at a Broward woman's public record with significant Title challenges.  In the course of just nine years Sara R is showing a public record indicating 28 property actions on her home as well as the risks and consequences of her name (in this case names) on those documents.

As is our normal method of search we began with an email, verified the address, then found the property owner to be one and the same.  (identity of name has been blurred-but this is a public record!).

I've highlighted all the property transaction entries. (Under Florida's Trust Law, Mortgages can also be stored in the trust), So every highlighted public record on the single property and its various mortgages, if held in a Land Trust, would have had a single entry back in 1996 transfering the property to the land trust under the Trustee.  All subsequent entries would have not been seen on the property owners record.  Of particular interest are the nine "Termination" activities.  These may reflect the ending of a lien or not.  If they do, then they to would not have shown up on this property owner's public record.

 

Once property is placed in a Florida Land Trust, it is "legally" in the hands of the Trustee, not the liability of the property owner, nor a record of borrowings and legal actions under the property owner's name.

 

One can, with forsight use your social security number, driver's license number, or mother's maiden name Florida offers a process for removing the images from the public record.  That benefit pales in light of the complete removal of everything pertaining to a property investment after the Land Trust is created.

 

This property owner was supplied with neither Land Trust option or the personal information option by her agent.  Ask your agent about the power of the Land Trust Act, and if they don't know the answer, then maybe you should give me a call at 954 465 6069.  And get your name off your Title!



An Issue of Title in Plantation

I am a Real Estate Agent Instructor here in Florida and qualified to write course for 39 other states.  My specialty course covers Florida’s unique Land Trust Act, FS 689.071. 

 In order to develop a better understanding of the law and its benefits I work my way through random Public Records in Broward County individuals who have “opted-in” at some time in the past 5 years for information about foreclosures and short sales.   I’m also a licensed real estate agent, but I’ll get to that later.

   

 An opt-in inquiry came from an individual giving an address in Plantation and led me to this particular set of public property ownership records.

The address given by the inquirer was the address of the property I researched this week in the Broward Public Records.  It was obvious from the transfer of Deeds that no one, not attorneys, property owners, transaction agents or their Realtor.

A property changed hands in 1991:

According to the recorded Warranty transfer activity in 1995 one might assumed that the 1991 buyers may have  divorced and the wife received the property in the settlement through a "strawman" company.

According to the record Pamela S and her husband passed the property on to a Grantee called Association Relocation Management Company Inc. and then it was passed to  “Pamela C” on the same day.  

According to the records one can make one of two assumptions.   Either Pamela is an accidental common first name between seller and buyer, or there was a divorce action. For purpose of our discussion of the Title either assumption is irrelevant.

My point is the fact that this sequence of title transactions is subject to interpretation and a cloud on the title is possible.  Four individuals and a corporation--Names were involved in the Titling of the property.   

 In Florida this exposure of private individuals to the property transaction is totally unnecessary.  Their seems to have been a transfer of ownership from one selling couple to another couple then to a corporation and then on to an individual.  Were Doc stamps paid by the Corporation?  Did the special warranty deed exclude lien issues?  Might there be liens on the property, in particular, a Mechanic, Attorney lien or a RICO notice?  If any lien existed but was excluded by the "Special Warranty" exclusions there could be a risk of Cloud on Title.

The actions taken under these different Public Record documents involved three parties on a single day.  More important, the deeds involved them as well.   Title risks to marketability need not occur in Florida under Florida's Land Trust Act.

In 1991 Florida's Land Trust Act was 29 years old.  It  could have been used to dramatically simplify and privatize the affairs of all parties involved.  Here is how it would have worked:    There would have been a single title issued in 1991 to a Land Trust Trustee for the buyers.  The purchasing couple would have become the beneficial interest holders of the property  under a simple direction to the Trustee by the original beneficial interest holders.  There would then be no further personal involvement on the public record because:

  

• All actions related to ownership of the property would have been under the Trustee.  
•  The 1995 ownership transfer would have occurred in private with the Direction to the Trustee to assign ownership to the “single woman”.    
•  The Relocation company would have not need to be involved.   
• Title to the property would have remained to this day in the name of the Trustee despite several 2^nd mortgage borrowing actions by the owner in later years.  
• Today the Beneficial interest holder could sell Her interest or give it away or trade it under IRS Code 1031.     
  
  There would never be a risk to Title clarity or marketability.

Today the property we examined and its equity is recovering nicely.  The estimated value from Realtor Resources is shown below:

Given the challenging issues and recording delays of public records at Broward County my analysis of the personal history of this property may be off base, or it could be right on the money.   That is the point here.   

Public Records are not always correct but they are ALWAYS PUBLIC and they are always the legal determinant of ownership privilege.  When your name is associated with a Title, it’s as if you’re receiving either a good or a bad credit report and there is nothing you can do about it.  When your ownership is placed into a land trust you are no longer liable, you avoid probate, the price of buying and selling is off the record and transfer of ownership is based on a signature, a trust relationship and Florida Statutes 689.07 and 689.071

If you are interested in converting your property into a Florida Land Trust, call me for an appointment.  It is inexpensive and you can do most of it yourself with a few forms I can provide to you.  And if you are interested in selling your home in the near future I’d appreciate the opportunity to work for you when the time comes.

Next week we'll look at another property case from the annals of Broward County.

Michael Belgeri, TRC, CDEi

Florida 360 Realty

American Real Estate License Law Organization

LinkedIn.com/in/mbelgeri

954 465 6069

       

Land in Florida-The Wealth of Generations

Miami's Spanish Monastery (circa 1152)


No great treasures were discover when the first Spanish soldiers arrived with Ponce De Leon in 1513.  Nor was their silver and gold to be had when the French came, or the English, or the Spanish again.  Actually there was wealth and untold riches to be had even back then in the form of the coastal properties and the vast inland peninsula called La Florida.  Celebrating both the native and the Spanish history of Miami today stands a quiet Spanish monastery as seen in the above video.  The video is a sort of metaphor to the overlooked wealth of South Florida that would for the next 500 years be fraught with the decimation of native tribes, revolutionary, civil and "indian" wars.

This blog is dedicated to the land of Florida, its wealthy position in the International community and the unique legal facility given to it in 1962, 449 years after the fateful day when Ponce De Leon step on shore somewhere near St. Augustine in search of the fountain of youth.  Why 1962?

In 1962 the Florida Legislature passed a remedial law "to make right" a law on the books that had been carried over from English Common Law.  Florida had adopted, as had most of the original states that preceded Florida Statehood, a "Statute of Uses" for Florida Property.  Property ownership in Florida was encumbered (and still is) by a stipulation of Florida Statehood in 1843 that allowed Spanish Land Grant holders to retain their property under the new United States rule.  Along with the Spanish Ownership addendum also came the Statute of Uses rule written in 1538 by King Henry VIII of England.  The short version of the law is this.  If you have both legal ownership and use of Florida property there is no other ownership that can exist.  Think about that for a moment.

If allowed to stand under Henry VIII then or in the new State of Florida at its inception no one would have the right to lease property because everyone who owned property was considered to have its personal use.  The Chancery Court of England did battle with the King over the "statute of uses" and overthrew the law over 50 years of courtroom rulings and battles.  This courtroom battle gave rise to what we know in England and the US as "Trust Law".  Since the Florida legislature was looking to correct the errors of Florida's Statute of Uses, they expanded the corrections to include a series of significant complementary benefits for Florida property owners based on the legal documentation found in Illinois' Land Trust Law.