Common Title Problems That Can Delay a Pennsylvania Real Estate Closing

Few things are more frustrating than having a closing date pushed back after you've scheduled movers, given notice on a lease, or lined up your next purchase. One of the most common reasons for delay is a problem with the title, and most of those problems were created long before the current seller ever owned the property.

What a Title Search Actually Does

When a buyer closes a purchase with us, our title team performs a title examination. They review the recorded documents in the chain of title, which is the history of who owned the property and how it passed from one owner to the next. We typically search back 60 years. Sometimes we have to go further when something in the records doesn't add up.

Anything wrong in that history has to be fixed before closing. If it isn't, the problem passes to the new owner along with the property.

The Problems We See Most Often:

• Deeds that were never properly signed. Sometimes a prior owner didn't sign a deed, or a spouse who had an ownership interest never signed off. In other cases, the deed wasn't properly notarized. Any of these can leave a gap in the chain of ownership. Fixing it may mean tracking down the person who should have signed, or their heirs if they've since passed away.

• Estates that were never settled. This is one of the most common issues in our area. A property owner dies, and the family keeps living in the house or holding the land, but nobody ever opens an estate or records anything. Twenty years later, a grandchild tries to sell and discovers that the title still sits in the name of someone who died decades ago, and there may now be a dozen heirs spread across several states who all need to be involved.

• Unpaid Pennsylvania inheritance tax. When real estate passes to an heir, inheritance tax is owed. If it was never paid, the unpaid tax can remain a lien on the property. It has to be resolved, sometimes with interest, before the property can be sold with clear title.

• Old mortgages that were never marked satisfied. A prior owner may have paid off a mortgage years ago, but the bank never recorded the satisfaction. If that bank has since merged or closed, tracking down the right party to sign off can take time.

• Judgments and liens. Judgments against a prior or current owner, unpaid municipal or sewer bills, and tax liens can all attach to real estate. These need to be paid or released at or before closing.

• Rights-of-way and conveyances of part of the land. An earlier owner may have granted a neighbor a right-of-way, sold off a small piece of the property, or signed a pipeline easement. If the current deed description doesn't reflect those changes, the buyer may not be getting what they think they're getting.

• Severed mineral rights. In Indiana County, coal, oil, and gas rights were often separated from the surface generations ago. Pennsylvania even recognizes a separate "support estate," which relates to the right to have the surface supported above mined areas. A seller may honestly believe they own the gas rights because their family has always owned the farm, only for the title search to show those rights were sold off in the early 1900s. Buyers need to know exactly which of these rights they are acquiring and which belong to someone else.

How These Problems Get Fixed

Most title problems can be cured. The fix depends on the issue. It might mean recording a corrective deed, opening an estate that was never administered, paying off old inheritance tax, getting a lender to record a satisfaction, or, in harder cases, filing a quiet title action in court. Some fixes take a phone call. Others take months, which is why finding these problems early matters so much.

That's also where title insurance comes in. Even the most careful search can't catch everything, such as forged documents or undisclosed heirs. An owner's title insurance policy protects the buyer against covered problems that surface after closing.

Why We Handle Title Work In-House

At Delaney & Fritz, we take title examination and certification seriously. Our own abstracting staff does the searching, and our attorneys review what they find. When a problem turns up, we don't just flag it and send it back to you. We can fix it, whether that means preparing a corrective deed or handling an estate that should have been opened years ago.

The goal is simple: when we help you buy property, you get what you paid for.

If you're planning to buy or sell, or if you've inherited property and aren't sure the title is in order, call our office at 724-349-2255.