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I recently purchased a condominium and am now in a situation where my ownership of the condominium is being questioned.

The sale was a probate sale where the previous owner passed away and the sale was being handled by the administrator of her estate. It turns out that the estate of the deceased was not the sole owner of the property, there was a trust (established with the same surname, so I assume it is for relatives of the deceased) that had a 33% ownership of the property.

We do have title insurance so I believe we are "protected" to some extent (though I don't understand if that just means financially protected at this point; there's a lot of other considerations than just finances if we don't actually own this house).

My question is, who's responsibility was it to make sure that the person selling the property has the authority to sell it? This seems like a pretty big mistake and I don't know who I should be angry with.

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    ISTM that the person who did the title search really cocked up. – RonJohn Nov 8 '17 at 1:39
  • In Canada, that would be the notary. – ApplePie Nov 8 '17 at 2:19
  • In England & Wales it would be the solicitor who did your conveyancing. But the English/Welsh system is much more thorough than in most other countries, at the price of slowing down transactions and causing a delay of several months between an offer being accepted and becoming binding. – Mike Scott Nov 8 '17 at 6:03
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    If the ownership interest of the trust in the property was never properly recorded, then the trust could be out of luck. It could be that the title search was done right, and the lawyer who did the trust seriously messed up. – gaefan Nov 8 '17 at 13:43

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