Real Estate attorneys and other real estate professionals certainly remember the first time a title commitment was issued by their friendly neighborhood title company with the commitment showing an unexpected former owner of record/seller. It can be disconcerting and typically leads to some difficult discussions with the seller and/or borrower.

This happened recently in, of all places, New York. Imagine the level of surprise and disbelief by everyone when Madison Title issued a title commitment indicating that no one had previously owned the property! Actually, we reported that there were no documents of record indicating ownership of any kind – no deeds, no tax records, no easements, no letters patent. We chose to report that the owner was the “People of the State of New York.”

What’s interesting is that this particular property was not in some remote, unattended part of New York State, visited by an occasional lost cow or a wayward Canadian tourist. Nor was it on the border of Canada or one of the five states that surround New York and mistakenly part of another set of property records. The property was in Westchester County!

Savvy real estate sleuths might theorize that the property was under a river or body of water. Close… but almost a century too late. It turns out the property is and has been occupied by businesses for industrial uses for generations. It was once under the Hudson River along the shores of Westchester County. It was filled at the beginning of the twentieth century, a time when real estate regulations were lax if they existed at all. The occupiers of the property began using the newly dry land for open air functions such as parking but did not construct any improvements on the parcel other than paving and a bulkhead. Nor did they file any documents with the state, county or local municipality indicating ownership or the desire of ownership of the property.

Fortunately, the buyer – a Madison Title client — took the time to understand the issues and took the proper steps to obtain a letters patent from the State of New York. Patience was needed for the process. Obtaining a letters patent granting ownership took our client the better part of a year. There is now an owner of record for that land.

Land records hold many secrets. Every so often, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be a part of the process of uncovering one!