Can I be sued for a real estate title discrepancy?
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Can I be sued for a real estate title discrepancy?
I’m being sued for 230K for a piece of land I sold for 6K in FL a few years ago. The person that bought the land took out a loan for the 230K to build a house on it. When he went to get the building permits the building department rejected his request/application saying that there was a title discrepancy. Can this person come after me even though we had a title company involved with the sale?
Asked on August 8, 2011 Alaska
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
If there was a title insurance policy issued with respect to your sale of former land for $6,000 several years ago, then you should be in good shape in defending this lawsuit. If there were problems with title, it should have been picked up in the preliminary report assuming one was issued in conjunction with the title insurance policy.
The person suing you should be asking questions of the title insurance carrier about the situation.
It makes no sense that a building and permit employee would be making a decision on rejecting a building permit request based upon title discrepancy in that is not that person's job. I suspect that the buyer was denied a permit to build on the raw land due to zoning or some other building issue.
The most you can be sued for under the laws of most states is the total amount of the purchase price which is $6,000.
Good luck.
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