Quiet Title??

[Jay Wright]

My friend is looking for a survey of his 1.3 Acre property so I pulled his deed and had him get a prelim.
He bought his property in 1973 and is going to move, wanted some visual aids for his real estate agent to show the property lines.
Parcel One is a long metes and bounds, portions of three (10ish acre) lots on a map from 1923.
It closes perfectly, then.......

Excepting therefrom a 40' strip of land for road purposes, beginning at the (unspecified point on) southerly line of Doc XYZ (parcel to north) to the northerly line of the portion of Lot 42 not already conveyed, to be located above the creek bank, to the satisfaction
of both parties as excepted in the deed,Book and Page, jj to xx in 1926.

Had the title company pull the 1926 deed and xyz deed and the underlying docs to them. The exception in the
1926 deed is identical to the current, no help. I asked them to look for anything that would give a description of
the exception that could be located on the ground.

There isn't now and there has not been any physical road.

Title Company came back with a couple more docs then quit and said it was not interested in insuring title until it
is surveyed and someone writes a new legal. They will not help with any more docs.
City and County Roads departments have no record of a road. None of the neighbors deeds mention the strip.

Would you have him try a Quiet Title action? We have no defendant and no described piece of property we are quieting title to.
County Surveyor's office is helping to go through unrecorded maps from the time which may help but I'm not hopeful.

Jay

[hellsangle]

Hmmmm smells like it could be unmarketable title?

Quiet title could cost $$$$$$s and mucho time.

Good luck . . . keep us updated as to how this turns out.

Phiil

[David Kendall]

Try a different title company?

What could be risky about insuring an unlocatable road to nowhere that no one owns that doesn't exist?

Can't you at least locate the creek?

[LS_8750]

Time for some research.
Look at old USGS maps and aerial maps.
If this old "road" is excepted out, then somebody owns it? It's not just an easement?

[ekparian]

Is there a visible top bank of a creek?
You could do chain of title on Doc XYZ to see if anything pops up from the past.
You could try to try researching to see what portion of lot 42 wasn't conveyed around 1926.
Maybe research the names of the parties imvolved.
Then if nothing is found, maybe you could argue the parties never agreed to an exact location and the agreement should be void.
I would talk with a land use attorney for thier advice.

[Jay Wright]

There is a creek inside the property. I can't be sure which side of it the doc is talking about.
Research is still going on.
Aerial photos then and now just show forest.
USGS hasn't been tried yet.
We are getting an attorney and new title co soon I hope.
Thank you all

[Randy Mayer]

Have you checked the aerial photo database at UCSB?

https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_indexes/FrameFinder/

Randy

[Jay Wright]

I have now. Very cool and user friendly.
I found three photos from various times. No info for this project but good site to bookmark.
Thank you