CDP Customer Stories: Stan Does a Good Deed

Real estate titles can be tricky indeed, as Stan learned after waiting for 16 years after his 

divorce to remove his ex-wife from the ownership records of his home and then adding his new 

wife to the deed 14 years after his re-marriage. Oh… there was also that little matter of the 

incorrect property boundary description that needed cleared up after 25 years. 

But yes, it can and does get worse: The first wife had unfortunately long since passed away in 

a distant state and so was no longer available to sign paperwork removing her name from the 

title. Could all this ever be fixed?

It was one of the more unusual and challenging cases that CDP had recently seen—one that 

required a good bit of investigation and a thorough understanding of multiple aspects of the 

paperwork bureaucracy. 

The good news is that a settlement agreement had been filed with the court in the divorce, 

which stipulated that the real estate was to go to Stan. That agreement was also filed with the 

county, so there was a recording of the change of property. But CDP’s investigation found that 

in 1989 another deed was filed based on the original 1960 deed and it missed a 10 by 150-foot 

strip of land that was part of Stan’s property.

Here is how CDP assisted Stan in untangling this Byzantine dilemma: 

1. CDP filed an affidavit of death of joint tenant, taking the first wife off the title. The 

daughter in Ohio supplied the necessary death certificate.

2. CDP then did a grant deed clarifying the property description, adding to the original 

property acquired in 1960 the 10-foot strip added in 1989.

3. Third, CDP created a deed adding the new wife to the property, specifying husband and 

wife as community property owners with right of survivorship.

CDP cut through the confusion and helped Stan do a good deed, ensuring that his current wife 

will have clear title to the property should anything happen to him.