It’s almost difficult to figure out where to begin on this one, but it’s rather entertaining, if you are either not involved, or a complete masochist. It all started innocently enough. The house we purchased is in a neighbourhood undergoing revitalization efforts and to spur that onwards, the city is offering a rather juicy long term tax abatement for residential homeowners who will commit to making significant property improvements in a three year time period. The abatement is 100% for 10 years and 50% for 5 years after that. Effectively, this would, the city hopes, keep a stable homeowner in place for 15 years as it is not transferable to a new owner if the property is sold.
To complete the application, you have to detail the work you wish to do and what you believe is needed. Then you pay a fee, have an inspector come out and detail what work qualifies and if there is other qualifying work you’ve missed. If this rises to a certain dollar level investment and you complete the work in the three years, you get the abatement retroactive to the application. Well, we put in our application and the nice lady from the city called me to tell me of the fees which weren’t mentioned on the website, so I referred her to Ellen since she would have to schedule everything around her schedule. They had a nice chat and Ellen updated me on the situation. That’s when all Hades broke loose.
Ellen received a phone call the next day advising the city could not find record of our title to the house with the county. Perhaps the lady with the city just didn’t look in the right place, so Ellen checked with the county, sure enough, no one in the registrar of deeds, the assessors office, or anywhere else in the county could find anything. According to the county, the people from whom we purchased the house still owned it and they had no record of the sale, the transfer of title, or anything. Wait, come to think of it, we’ve never received a copy of the deed either, so something isn’t right in Independence.
Ellen asked me to call the title company, as the county indicated to her this is their responsibility and I have all the contact information. I had been in touch with them when we were trying to see where the close was going. They had been very helpful then, especially considering I was doing the realtor’s job for her and they wanted information that I had. This time I called and got voice mail. So I emailed and was informed, the gentleman I started working with wasn’t working my file any longer and his associate was. A few more days go by and all I hear is we’re looking into it. I call again and I finally learned this Monday that the submission of our title was rejected and it was being resubmitted that day and would be registered by Tuesday. That’s nice to hear.
Wednesday comes and we check with the county, nothing had happened or been received. Now I’m mad. I call, but no voice mail, I ask for the senior manager on duty. I start with who I am and the property in question. You know the basics. She comes back after pulling my file and says this isn’t unusual, there was a mortgage which needed to be cleared on this and then the seller has 3 days to review the contract, etc. I stop her in her tracks and tell her that I have a canceled cheque for $22K which says I should have already bought the property and ask if I am illegally squatting on this house. She freaks, asks when this closed, I tell her August 4 and she places me on hold to see what’s going on. Turns out, she claims she pulled the wrong file, even though it’s mine. She grabs the "right my file" and sure enough, she records that we do, indeed, own said property. However, she admitted that she did see the filing had been rejected by the county and that it had been sent out on Tuesday and was out for delivery at that moment. Hmm, guess that they weren’t exactly setting records for their speed. At this same time, we received a cheque from Fidelity in Texas as a refund. Well, that doesn’t seem right. We don’t even know how Fidelity became involved, nor who Veracrest financial was, but the cheque mentioned an account with them. Ellen checked and was told by Fidelity the cheque was correct. This is when I learn that Fidelity was involved. According to Paramount Title in Florida, even though they were the title company requested by the seller, they passed the work over to another title company, Fidelity, who was issuing the title insurance as well. Apparently, they included a cover sheet on the seller’s POA and the county rejected that. This was removed and the docs shipped back out and were out for delivery. Well, I asked how this happens and I was told they subbed out work against this manager’s better judgment because it was more economical for them.
Thursday came and the first of the capers hit. Fidelity called. They confused our file with another file and we were given a cheque that should have been given to the seller. Now the seller was short the amount of the cheque to us and could we kindly return it. Apparently, the people who owned the property before it was foreclosed used Veracrest and this was the excess from the final settlement with them. Well, we’d already cashed and used part of that money, so we had to make reimbursement arrangements. I called Paramount at the same time, since the county said they didn’t receive anything from Paramount, nor Fidelity. Ellen spoke with the lady who signed for the documents according to UPS. (I’m abbreviating some redundancies here, so bear with me.) Then she remembered she did sign for some paperwork for our address, but they came from US Recordings out of St. Paul, MN. Sure enough, when Paramount checked, Fidelity had subbed this out to US Recordings. So the subcontractor subcontracted this. Rhea was told by Fidelity the rejection was because there was an extra cover sheet on the POA and that it had been rejected again Wednesday and returned to MN. Apparently, they filed this with the wrong county the first time, then they added the sheet the second and third times. So when they receive it, they are supposed to re-submit it with the cover sheet removed and all will be well right????? It also turns out the money to the seller we received actually came from Paramount since the seller was shorted when the Escrow was released by Fidelity, so Paramount had to pay Fidelity to pay the seller. However, Fidelity confused our file with another one from the same broker, and they sent it to us instead. Are you still with me sis???
But wait, there’s more. I called Rhea from Paramount this morning and she advised that she assumed the county would send it back to MN by Fed-Ex since it was being sent to them this way. However it was mailed and US Recording would receive it today and should be removing the cover sheet and sending it back, rather than sending it, yet again, back to Texas for Fidelity to turn it around and send it back to US Recording to re-file. If this isn’t fixed by next Friday, the county will send out the property taxes to the seller, Mercury Investments in OK. Can you imagine their surprise to get a tax bill for a property they sold two months ago??? It will be no bigger than the surprise US Recording gets if they just remove the offending cover page and re-submit it only to be rejected again. You know why? Well, they can’t remove what isn’t there. The rejection is really because at least 4 different people at Fidelity have written on the POA making it invalid. This comes from the county who is going out of their way to tell us everything so we can get this done and recorded properly. But Fidelity is swearing to Paramount it’s only about an extra piece of paper. I guess they don’t want to approach the seller and tell them a new POA is needed because that will likely upset the seller. At this stage, it seems the seller and the US Congress are the only entities not involved with the recording of the warranty deed and real title to the property.
It could be funny when the fit hits the shan Monday on this one. I’ve left a voice mail for Paramount telling them it appears, according to the county, that the POA is still DOA. No one can explain what’s happened or why it took two months and no one knows how many hours of work on Ellen and my ends to chase this into the corner we’re now leaving it cowering in.
I will update you on our progress, such as it is. However, I will say this, it seems that the seller’s agent started this mess rolling by telling the seller and the title company the hold up was because we were working on financing after we had given the cheque to our agent. After that and the fact I was in touch with two different title companies on this, while the seller’s agent was trying to change her commission from the listing broker to the new broker she was working for that the wheels came off. We’ve noticed this because all our paperwork shows the close August 4, but everything submitted to the county says August 5. I’m thinking the Chicago song "Does anybody really know what time it is?" is coming in handy.
Word of advice, if you sell your place and get a new one, if you hear Chicago Title, Paramount Title, Fidelity (FNAS) or US Recording is involved. Run the other way, FAST!!!!!