Representing Sellers and Buyers of Homes and Other Real Estate

Wills, Trusts, Living Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Other Estate Planning

Law Offices of James B. Spina, Ltd.

Experience Counts

Serving the Chicago Metropolitan Area since 1979

DO I REALLY HAVE TO KEEP ALL

THE PAPERWORK FROM MY CLOSING?

             The answer, of course, is that it depends. 

             You just completed the closing of your real estate transaction when somebody handed you a big envelope full of papers and says, “Here are your copies.”  What do you do with it?  The easiest thing to do is just put every piece of paperwork relating to your transaction in that big envelope and store it with other papers that you keep for a long time. 

             “But that thing is huge.  There must be a hundred pieces of paper in that envelope.  Do I really have to save them all?”  Not necessarily, but this is where the “It depends,” part comes in.

 THE OPTIONS.

            Your could sit down with all those pages, go through them one by one, and pick out the ones that you don’t think you will need, and get rid of them.  How do you decide which ones to discard?

             You could keep the really important stuff, and use the rest to start a fire for tonight’s barbecue.  At least you got some heat out of it.

             You could dump the whole thing in the trash, and you would be finished with it.  Your deed must be recorded with the County, so possession of a deed is not necessary in order to prove ownership of real estate.  Good riddance.

 DUMP IT ALL?

            Trashing the whole envelope, while extremely satisfying, is not a great idea.  Whether you bought or sold, that transaction was probably one of the biggest of your lifetime.  Any problem that might come up after closing could be as enormous as the transaction itself, and there might not be insurance coverage to deal with it.  Not many of us as individuals, including many attorneys, can afford to pay a lawyer an hourly rate to defend us in court.  Losing might mean a judgment against you for thousands and thousands of dollars or even take your property away from you.  While this stuff almost never happens, it does happen to some.  What if you are one of those unlucky few?  The risk of a problem coming might be very small, but the damage if it does happen could be very, very large.

 SELECT WHAT TO KEEP?

            “OK, I guess that means that I have to separate the paperwork I might need from the ones I don’t need.  It will only take a little time, and then it will be over.”  Great.  How much is your time worth to you?  It would almost certainly take an hour or more of major aggravation just to wade through all those documents.

 KEEP IT ALL?

            “That’s OK, I have the time, and I don’t want to keep that whole big envelope.”  Congratulations.  You have time to do whatever your heart desires.  Most people would rather face a firing squad than read through a vast ocean of lawyer talk.  (This group also includes some lawyers.)

 SELECTING DOCUMENTS TO RETAIN.

            “OK, I have all the papers out of the envelope on the table in front of me.  How do I tell which ones I should keep?”  Bingo.  They all look alike, don’t they?  You probably have no idea how to pick the good from the bad.  (Most lawyers probably fall into this group, too.)

             An incredible number of factors must be considered in deciding what documents from your real estate transaction you should keep and what can go in the trash.  If someone is angry about something from your real estate transaction, of if they think that they could get money, they can file suit.  Statutes of limitations tend to be long when it comes to contracts, deeds and real estate.  Title defects can lay undiscovered until the property is sold again.  I personally had to deal with a title defect due to something that happened in 1918.  Unless you happen to be the reincarnation of Nostradamus, you cannot accurately predict the future.  There is simply no way to know in advance what piece of paper might get you, or keep you out, of trouble.

             Real estate law can by amazingly simple or ridiculously complex.  The only certainty is that if you are sued over real estate, there will be surprises.  You just never know what might save you or sink you in the court room.  Sometimes the most seemingly-worthess item can tip the balance in your favor.

 MY RECOMMENDATION.

            Just keep the whole thing.  The time, trouble and storage space you might save by cutting twenty or even fifty pages out of your file is simply not worth the risk of trashing the wrong document.  Don’t take that chance.

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