[WSBARP] Torrens Wind Down

[JOHN J SULLIVAN]

Listmates:

Over the course of my 37+ years in practice I've had about a dozen situations where I had to interact with the Torrens land registration system. I hated it. My practice had been to strongly recommend withdrawal every time I came into contact with it, and to rant about the need to repeal it every change I got.

Well, my prayers have been answered. 

But I have one hangover from it. I have clients who owned a commercial parcel in Burien they purchased on a real estate contract back in the 1960's. They died a few years ago and now their son wants to contribute the parcel to a family LLC. Problem was the parcel had been transferred twice before via real estate contracts and nobody had given a thought to transferring the Certificate of Title for two generations. 

So I had to do a quiet title action with service by publication. I got my Order, ran it through the Beresford firm and got a judgment. Then I ran into one last speed bump: for various reasons we do not need to get into my client fell behind on his property taxes. Under the Torrens system the Registrar will not cancel and reissue a Certificate of Title without a clean report from the Assessor. 

Well now I've read the bill repealing the system. Can anyone riddle me this? If I'm reading it right, I should be able to get the Registrar to withdraw the parcel from the Torrens system. Then I should be able to convey the parcel from the estates to the family LLC without waiting for the property taxes to be paid current. Anyone read that differently? Know something I don't know?

Best regards,

John J. Sullivan

Attorney

Lyons | Sullivan
10655 NE 4th Street, Suite 704
Bellevue, WA  98004
425·451·2400 tel 425-451-7385 faxhttp://www.dljslaw.com/

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