Services not rendered

[Moonlady]

Jurisdiction

Pennsylvania

My husband and I recently paid off our mortgage. I was told by the mortgage company that the Title Company who handled the closing and were paid at closing never recorded my mortgage, never revised my deed to my married name and never provided any finalized title documentation or title policy to my mortgage company or myself.

I paid a little over $1,300 out of our proceeds for the closing, title insurance and recording fees in 2002 and the company is still in business. I am planning on submitting their claim form to them tomorrow requesting they return the money they were paid, for services not rendered. One of the reps in claims that I spoke to laughed and told me that I wasn't entitled to a refund of the full amount and stated my request was like asking for a refund on an insurance policy because I never used it.

We were so excited about paying off our mortgage and now between all the calls having to be made to the mortgage company asking for at least a paid in full letter to be sent to us and the treatment from title company, we just feel disgusted and disappointed.

What course of action do you think we should take? Are both the mortgage company and the title company liable or at fault? Please advise. Thank you!

 

[army judge]

What course of action do you think we should take? Are both the mortgage company and the title company liable or at fault? Please advise. Thank you!

As you recently discovered, entities enjoy laughing at us, the wee people.

Not much more you can do, except try to bring a small claims lawsuit.

To avoid the annoyance of answering some lawsuits, some entities will throw a bone or two at you to make you go away.

Others will laugh even harder while spending thousands of dollars to teach you a lesson.

Good luck.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

In the age of the Internet where social media can be as damaging as a lawsuit, you should write to them and demand whatever you wish. You can see what they offer in return. If it's an insult then you might consider asking them how they would feel if you shared this true story at the most popular places online where home buyers seek such information. I find that much of the time people sober up pretty quickly when they realized they could be publicly humiliated for a bad act which cannot be swept under the carpet. I don't know if you'll receive a full refund, especially if the insurance policy was valid. But you should receive something more than a token for such negligence. Good luck to you.

 

[adjusterjack]

What course of action do you think we should take? Are both the mortgage company and the title company liable or at fault?

I don't see the mortgage company being at fault because your contract for the processing of the paperwork was with the title company.

Unfortunately, in PA you only have 4 years to sue for breach of contract so a lawsuit isn't going to get you anywhere.

Besides, this is something so important to you that you should have checked on it with the county recorder after you bought the house and kept on checking until the paperwork was properly done and recorded.

Personally, I think you have some culpability here for not doing your due diligence.

However, if you get no satisfaction from the front lines I suggest you write to the president of the title company.

By the way, there's no reason you can't record all your original documents along with the mortgage company's release and reconveyance.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I think she wanted to sue the title company for not following through on its obligations, not the mortgagee / bank. Agreed that it's not worth suing but certainly worth writing and obtaining some measure of satisfaction if that is what is sought. Fortunately no harm, no foul.