‘Title Matters’

Having read Evelyn De Wolfe’s article entitled “Title Matters: The Deed May Not Be Done” (Aug. 4), I am compelled to respond. De Wolfe devoted one sentence of her article to the documentation necessary to obtain a “reconveyance” and the process whereby the “reconveyance” is issued.

A minimum of three documents are necessary to induce a trustee under a trust deed to issue a “reconveyance.” Those documents, which must be surrendered to the trustee, are: (1) the original promissory note; (2) the original recorded trust deed; and (3) a properly signed request for reconveyance. The request for reconveyance is often found on the back page of the trust deed, however it may be a separate document.

It is noteworthy that many institutional trustees now require the signatures on the request for reconveyance to be notarized. The notarization requirement is fairly new, is not required by law, and appears to be made in an effort to minimize a trustee’s liability for acting upon forged or fraudulently procured documents.

Once the trustee is satisfied that it has complete documentation, the reconveyance is issued. It is a separate, new document which must be recorded with the appropriate county recorder. Although the submission of three seemingly simple existing documents to the trustee may seem a simple task, in my experience, a very large percentage of packages of documents submitted to a trustee for reconveyance are deficient or defective, causing the trustee to refuse to reconvey.

The most common problems are failure to submit the original documents and failure to submit a properly executed request for reconveyance. The task, then, is not as simple as portrayed; and, given the liability for wrongful reconveyances, an underpaid trustee is not necessarily negligent.

One final point. The obligation to provide the reconveyance, or the documents necessary to induce the trustee to reconvey, rests solely with the lender whose loan has been paid in full.

THOMAS J. RUHRUP, Assistant Vice President, Orange County Branch Counsel, Continental Lawyers Title Co.