This may come as a shock to some people, but in many states, your deed is for practical purposes, useless. What I said was that your deed might be worthless. Not that you don’t own what you thought you did, or maybe you really don’t own it. Let’s look first at one way that deeds are filed. Deeds are recorded and copied with a subdivision of the state, usually the county. That means two things. First of all, if you purchase a property, it is absolutely essential for you to record that deed with the county. If you do not, the seller could sell his interest to someone else on a quit claim deed, and that purchaser could then file that deed, and in many states, it would probably be a valid sale. Furthermore, how is the taxing agency supposed to know to whom to send the bill? If they don’t know that you own the property via a properly recorded conveyance, the taxes may not get paid and it may sell for taxes. You may lose it if you don’t file that deed.
A woman lost the property she had purchased a few years before. She had never recorded the deed. She didn’t think about the taxes. The state had no way to know she owned it. The property sold for unpaid taxes. In this instance, she was able to purchase the house back from the tax purchaser, for the taxes and interest and expenses, and a very small profit. It could have been a much more expensive lesson for her.
Well that seems to make the deed pretty valuable, not worthless. And it is for just so long as it takes to have it recorded. After that, we fall back on the above point that the first deed filed may be considered as the better title if both are of the same class of deed, such as both being quit claim deeds. If no one else has filed a deed on your particular property, then once you have recorded it, that becomes all of the legal proof of ownership normally required, and you could throw it away.
But don’t. There are instances where the courthouse has burnt down or been flooded, and the deed records were destroyed. Some property owners were required to submit proof of ownership to reconstruct the records. It is also a handy document for your heirs to clearly indicate the parameters of any real estate you owned.
In some states, there is an entirely different process in place with regards to deeds, and it might be of the utmost importance to maintain yours in a protected location. Still, in many areas, except for that short period of time between signing and recording, your deed may be almost worthless.
