Posted by L.G (Buc) Alboucq on 10/5/09 10:29am
Msg #306198

when one is deceased

Late Friday night I had a signing. When I arrived I was told one of the signers was deceased. His name was on the DOT, TIL and NTC.
We left without completing the signing as there was no one to call for advice after 5 on Friday,
What would you have done?

Reply by Teresa/FL on 10/5/09 10:35am
Msg #306200

I would have completed the signing

and asked if the borrower had been requested to give me a death certificate for the deceased party.

I have had this happen a couple of times and the TC has to record the death certificate before the new mortgage can be recorded.

If you can't contact your hiring party, at least you have made an attempt to complete the transaction. This may or may not work for you.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 10/5/09 10:36am
Msg #306201

I confirm availability of all parties during the confirmation call - this info would have come out before I went to the signing..at the least the LO should have known and title could have dealt with this ahead of time.

Reply by L.G (Buc) Alboucq on 10/5/09 10:38am
Msg #306202

I was not aware of a second signer until I arrived at the address. And, the brother had been dead a number of years. The borrower wa shocked to find his name on the deed.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 10/5/09 10:47am
Msg #306207

Didn't you look at the documents ahead of time?

This is something you could and SHOULD have determined in advance - during your confirmation call. What I do is confirm availability, confirm acceptable ID and ask how names appear on ID - then I know if I'm going to have issues on that front.

There may well be an issue of law of descent...depending on how title was vested the first signer may NOT have gained title to the brother's share of the property upon his death - his heirs may have. And this is something for title to deal with.

I think I agree with Therese - I might have had the single signer sign away - title may well have all the info they need to correct it and you just weren't made aware of it. At least it's an effort to save the loan. Too bad your hiring party didn't feel it necessary to provide you with an after hours contact number for table issues.

Reply by jba/fl on 10/5/09 11:20am
Msg #306217

Message Deleted

This message has been deleted by a forum moderator.

Reason: Generally Inappropriate

Reply by L.G (Buc) Alboucq on 10/5/09 11:42am
Msg #306223

Now that was really constructive and helpful

Reply by CT_Notary on 10/5/09 12:12pm
Msg #306227

Re: Did you check docs? LOL

If her clients are anything like mine, these days I am lucky if they hit "send" by the scheduled appointment time! It is rush, rush with no time to check.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 10/5/09 12:20pm
Msg #306229

Re: Did you check docs? LOL

Should always make time to check and see who's signing...sorry, there's no excuse for not knowing who you're meeting with.

MHO

Reply by SueW/Tn on 10/5/09 12:26pm
Msg #306231

Bob's advice is spot on

I have had only one experience with this situation, docs sent to BO, called and confirmed with no probs. Of course I didn't have a reason to ask if there was hubby, confirm was one BO only. When we opened the package (BO didn't bother to check it herself) we found hubby on docs and he had been gone 28 years! She still had a cert copy of DC and I just signed her and sent the DC with the docs. Too late to get anyone on the phone but called first thing the next a.m. to let them know what we did prior to shipping back docs. Everything worked out just fine. Sometimes no matter how hard we try to dot all the i's and cross all the t's one slips by us. It's the learning curve in action....

Reply by Stamper_WI on 10/5/09 10:39am
Msg #306203

Sounds to me that you had 2 options. Complete the signing with the one borrower and end up going back to do it all over, or do what you did. There should have been a release of decedents rights recorded when that person died. If not the TC should have requested it....if they knew about it. There is apparently some fault with whoever collected information on the borrower.
This happened to me a couple of yrs ago. I knew the borrower was a widow since 1959. I was told to go ahead with the signing. Then I had to go back and do it all again. Seems she was reliant on her small town bank's attorney at the time of her husbands death. He told her then that the husbands name would be removed from the title.
If and when you go back, you may well be collecting a certified copy of a death certificate.

Reply by Cari on 10/5/09 11:13am
Msg #306215

TC should have caught this when running the title search..

IF there was a release of decedents rights recorded. However, it's up to the BO to notify the lender and provide them with a certified copy of the death certificate.

Perhaps the BO forgot about this part or was not told to do this. Probably why they were surprised her bro was still on deed.

Reply by Bob_Chicago on 10/5/09 11:00am
Msg #306211

In this situation, the worst that could happen if you

have the living bwr sign, is that the loan will not fund .
If nobody signs then you are sure to have the loan not fund.
Usually in these cases, the loan will fund with a death cert, which
they may have already sent in.
No sign could have blown a rate lock.
The dox are usually computer generated, and the deceased signer's name was
on "legals" because it was on the title.
Deceased name was not on note, 1003 and other "non-legals" so lender
was not looking at credit of deceased.

Reply by Teresa/FL on 10/5/09 11:09am
Msg #306214

You're right Bob

Going ahead with the signing would at least give it a chance to fund. His decision definately forces another trip and may have lost a rate lock.

I would normally know about this issue before going to the signing because I always call and confirm that all parties will be present to sign. Occasionally, a name shows up unexpectedly when the docs are late in arriving, forcing a last minute call to reconfirm before I head out the door.