[WSBARP] Contract for Deed Issue

[John J. Sullivan]

Carol:

Not really my area of expertise, but I’ll take a wild guess. Maybe the actual dirt attorneys would tell you the widow and the seller’s estate should bring an action against the buyer to enforce the REK and quiet title. 

Has the SOL run on enforcing the REK? Maybe there’s a case that would impose a constructive trust on the QCD until the REK is performed?

If it was CP there would have to have been joinder by the wife, not?

Closest mess I’ve had to clean up that this reminds me of was where there had been two commercial parcels sold twice on REKs that had both been fully performed and a fulfillment deed given and recorded on one sale but … none of the transactions transferred title in the Torrens System, all but one of the eight parties originally involved had died and their heirs were unknown. 

Finally figured out how to quiet title. 

John J. Sullivan 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 8, 2021, at 8:58 AM, Carol Li <li.carol1004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Thank you all so much for answering the QCD question! 
> Now here comes a weird one( to me) but I am assuming a lot of you have run into it before: There is a contract for deed, with the terms requiring the buyer to fulfill the obligations in the agreement(pay all the installments full) before the seller fully sign/deliver the warranty deed. Now, found out, the seller signed the contract for deed and the warranty deed and notarized (unrecorded)both documents at the same time before the buyer even started any payment. The seller now passed away, the buyer, of course, did not pay more than $100 on the house and now is claiming they own the house because they have a notarized warranty deed from the seller. Is there a way to argue the buyer has only equitable title not the real title even though they already have a notarized deed in hand, or the seller's estate should just eat it because he gave away his title too soon? Would the court still consider the terms of the contract if the Warranty Deed was already signed and appearing to be legit. 
> * On top of all of these, the seller jointly owned the property with the wife as community property. The wife outlived the seller. Does this fact help to make the deed invalid because the co-worker did not sign off on it? 
> Thank you in advance! 
> 
> -- 
> Carol Li
> Phone: 425 232 0316 
>  "When you think positive, good things happen"
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