Quiet Title Process and Timeline - YouTube

the most common questions that we get asked when  people are contacting us about quieting title is  

how long how much will this get done and the  answer is usually a pretty simple answer to  

all three of those questions but unfortunately  there are so many factors that can dictate the  

length of time in the process and I get asked  to go into great detail and explain the process  

so we're going to make this video specifically on  addressing the questions of how long how much what  

to expect through the process a quiet title action  is a lawsuit it is not a review of a Freedom of  

Information Act file it is an actual lawsuit and  the reason that the timeframe associated with a  

quiet title action is so important to answering  the questions that are posed to us every day is  

that in every quiet title action it's different  the fact pattern is different the history on the  

chain of title is different for example is there  one defendant or are there 30 defendants is there  

one defendant who is a business entity that'll be  quite simple to remove or on the other hand are  

the people dead and we have to deal with probate  estates or an individual that's alive and we have  

to publish these are huge factors that can dictate  the length of time in the process and I'm holding  

up here a timeline that you can't see at the  moment but will be available through my website  

I'm happy to send it to anyone that contacts  us and it specifically addresses the time frame  

associated with most quiet title lawsuits that  are filed so let's walk our way through it the  

first thing that happens is that I as an attorney  review the title history now that title history  

may come from a title search that has been done  by a title company or they may provide me with  

all the deeds that make up title but we're gonna  do our own title search even if we get that title  

search from a title company and I'm going to  build essentially a chain we've talked about  

this at many video person a to person B to C to  D to e to F and so on and we're going to look at  

the totality of how those deeds stack up where  are their defects where are there gaps in the  

chain of title gaps such that we need to get a  court order to correct or quiet and that's why  

it's called a quiet title action to correct or  quiet than interest once we build out that chain  

we're then going to identify all the potential  defendants those defendants are going to be people  

or entities that have an undischarged interest  interest that are affecting the quality of the  

title interests that are affecting your ability  to get title insurance or your ability to sell the  

property or maybe it's an interest that's a lien  holder with a mortgage or a claim of lien that  

has been filed on title and what we do is we cast  a wide net we want our net to be wide enough such  

that all the potential interests are going to be  cleaned our quiet time collection is only as good  

as the net that we cast so for example if we miss  one fish in that net that we're casting the title  

is not going to be resolved through a judgment of  quiet title we're going to have that one fish that  

one defendant that has been left and that needs  to then start the process all over again to get  

rid of that one so we cast a wide net to identify  all potential claimants that are in that chain of  

title that are causing a defect or a problem with  title and then we build a lawsuit and we name any  

of those defendants in that lawsuit and we build  the lawsuit and it gets filed in the circuit court  

in which the property resides so for example  if the property sits in Detroit my shirt that  

would be filed in Wayne County a lawsuit is filed  filing fees are paid and then we begin to service  

process and service a process is a legal word  that basically means how are we going to give  

notice to these owners due to these interests  that must be discharged or terminated from the  

chain of title and due process our Constitution  both state in our United States Constitution as  

well as our court rules dictate exactly how you  have to give notice of a lawsuit and you see that  

many times people process server goes out and  serve somebody it says you've been served or  

there are other ways you can serve people for  example we can use certified mail there may  

be a court order that allows us to publish by  what we call alternate means so for example in  

individuals who is missing long gone we can't find  them we can't serve them personally we may go get  

a court order that allows us to serve I alternate  means which would include potentially publishing  

in the legal news as well as mailing the last  known addresses and attempting in various ways  

to give notice of the lawsuit to the people that  we can't find anybody that we can personally serve  

we're going to personally serve now there may be  a business entity for example and that business  

entity is defunct it's out of business has been  dissolved for years there's a process of a rapport  

rule to give notice to that dissolve or defunct  business entity there could be a probate estate  

somebody gets died and a personal representative  is appointed there are many different issues to  

address with service and service a process  is often the most time-consuming aspect of  

the quiet title action that's why I started this  presentation by saying that one defendant was easy  

to serve makes the lawsuit go much faster versus  many defendants many undischarged interests after  

that lawsuit has been served upon all of the  defendants that big net that we cast in that  

lawsuit they have time to respond to answer they  have an opportunity to defend in the lawsuit now  

in most quiet tunnel actions these are procedural  in nature and many of our defendants do not in  

fact the vast majority do not respond or consent  to the relief that's being requested but there are  

times that people will defend file a responsive  pleading and answer to the lawsuit and then we  

have to address that defense in proceedings that  occur within the court and assuming that none of  

them defend and they all default we then file a  document with the court that says they have failed  

to respond within appropriate time and we want to  enter a default and that default gets served again  

and then eventually we get to go in front of the  circuit court judge and say judge we have filed  

a lawsuit here are the defendants that we named  here is how we served each of those defendants  

we have given good notice under Michigan law or  Ohio law depending on where this is occurring  

nobody has responded within the statutory time  frame that they are permitted to do so we want  

to enter an default judgment a judgment that  resolves the title issue now this would only  

occur when there's a default scenario in the  scenario upon which defendants have responded  

or answered we may have to file motions what  we call dispositive motions these are motions  

saying judge we have the right to the ownership  of this property even though they defended the  

lawsuit their defenses meritless our plaintiff  in our lawsuit has the absolute right to title  

so we may proceed various ways with the court  to get a judgment and then when we've got that  

judgment that document gets served again we  give the opportunity for the statutory appeal  

period to expire before we have what we call  a perfected judgment and that judgment would  

get recorded in the Register of Deeds just like a  mortgage just like in deed or any other documents  

that are recorded and it done correctly and I'm  going to repeat if done correctly that judgment  

will clean or quiet the title perfect title in the  plaintiffs name now I can't tell you how often my  

office gets called in which a judgment government  by another law firm or another law firm began the  

process and then they need us to come in and fix  it the lawsuit and a judgment is only as good as  

the quality of the work that I just described  so when we hand this document over to a title  

company down the road they're going to look at  all the work we did before to make sure that  

we followed the laws and that week afforded due  process and we did everything right because if  

you get a judgment and the work done behind it is  not correct it is suspect and subject to be turned  

over by a subsequent court so it's critical that  you do all the steps correctly now to the question  

of timing often we can do quiet title actions in  90 120 days but there's no perfect answer to that  

because we're dependent on the judges schedule  we're dependent on the number of defendants and  

there's no one answer to it because it's not  as if we started and a clock starts ticking  

and then upon the clock ending the lawsuit comes  to a close so each quiet title action is its own  

lawsuit it's not like a factory where we stamp  out lawsuits each one has its own story its own  

issues and each one has its own time frame we  tend to quote people about a hundred and twenty  

days just to give a rough idea and the lawsuit  if we're dealing with a tax reversion or a very  

procedural action we often will put a flat fee of  $1400 plus costs a more complicated matters we may  

charge different fees if you've got questions  or want to learn more or have specific issues  

you'd like me to address in videos please let me  know contact us at our law firm at 877 your firm  

or from quiet title comm I'm Darrin Finley and I  hope you've enjoyed this presentation thank you