When Do You Need a Quiet Title Lawsuit?

If you own real estate and are not secure in your title to the property, a quiet title lawsuit can settle you quickly. This is because litigation over real estate title can be long-drawn and highly contentious.

So, it is in your best interest as an owner of real property to settle your title and extinguish other claims before they become a real mess and threaten your own title.

When Is a Quiet Title Lawsuit Appropriate?

While it’s generally good to assure yourself of title to your real estate, there are other instances when you should be actively looking to initiate a quiet title lawsuit to assert your title. These instances include the following:

Assert Your Title Against a Rival

Adverse claims over the same piece of real estate you own may arise in a lot of situations. How do you respond to these claims, especially when you are certain that you own all the genuine documents and title?

With a quiet title lawsuit, that’s how. As part of the lawsuit, you can request for an order of the court that’ll prevent that adverse claimant from further claiming the land for himself or representing herself as the owner.

Perfect Your Title

A quiet title lawsuit is good for protecting a title which, although valid, suffers issues with respect to legal formality. So, if you have a deed of mortgage or transfer of real estate that was not properly executed, then you would need to quiet your title.

Instituting an anticipatory quiet title lawsuit will help you establish your title against the defect and protect you from adverse claimants that may try to raise the defect against you later.

Dispel Grey Clouds

Instituting a quiet title lawsuit can also be a good means of dispelling grey clouds of previous ownership or title over the real estate property. This is especially applicable if you have acquired your title by claiming over another person’s prior title.

Quiet Your Tax Deed Title

Tax deeds can be a bit unreliable. This is because they can be declared invalid even several years after acquiring your title if it is found that the tax deed proceedings by which you got your title are invalid.

Due to this, tax deed titles can be problematic. So, if you own real estate by virtue of a tax deed title, you should really look into quieting your title in order to settle any possible future issue. However, if you have had the title for over 20 years, you may not have issues with this.