By Kenny Smith
A number of years ago, Wrangell St. Elias News reported upon the unfortunate circumstances involving the title to property owned by our neighbor and friend, Calvin Ward. Cal learned the title to his beautiful homestead on the south side of Fireweed Mountain had never been recorded and somebody else was saying they owned it.
In the early 1950s Cal had purchased this property from Wes Kennedy, an hotelier from Cordova, who later founded the Chitina Hotel. Cal thought that he had recorded the warranty deed from Wes with the State Division of Lands (or more accurately, at the time, its Territorial predecessor) as he went through what he thought to be the required recording process.
Wes died in 1958 and his sister, Louise Nance, inherited all his property, which included the Chitina Hotel. Louise had been working with her brother at the hotel up until his death. Soon after, she sold the hotel and moved to California. As the years rolled by and Louise grew older her nephew helped her out. One day he was looking through her legal papers and discovered a copy of the deed to the Fireweed Mountain homestead. It was in Wes Kennedy’s name. Since Louise didn’t recall any detail, the nephew checked with the recorders office in Alaska and found that no title to the property was recorded. The nephew then assumed, that the property rightfully belonged to his aunt. Over the next few years the nephew inspected the property and became concerned that the Wards may have mistakenly encroached upon his aunt’s property. After hiring an attorney and surveyor he discovered that the Wards had indeed developed upon the property in question.
Eventually, this mess all turned out okay for Cal, since the nephew was an honest person and agreed to honor the deed from Wes to Cal. It did cost Cal a tidy sum though, since he reimbursed the nephew for his expenses. Cal’s biggest regret was that he never took time to double-check the records.
So what happened? I think I have an idea because the same thing could have happened to my wife and me.
In early 1972 we made the last payment to the state on our property originally acquired in February 1963 at the state land auction in Copper Center. The state sent us two patent documents (very impressive and pretty pieces of paper indeed). These were proof of ownership giving us unencumbered title to our property. Having learned a little, very little, about property ownership, I at least knew we had to record it. I called the Third Judicial District in Glennallen and asked what to do. They sent us some forms, which we completed, had notarized and turned in. Afterward we received copies of the forms, which were stamped with the “recorders date stamp” that indicated, time, date, and newly assigned recorder serial numbers for our patented land. The forms were titled “Statement of Real Property Ownership.” We also received a receipt for the four bucks in “filing” fees we had paid.
At this point, a bored reader might ask, what’s the big deal about recording property anyway? The answer is: it might not mean much, depending upon the situation; on the other hand, you might lose everything you have in that property if you didn’t record.
Here is the legal mumbo jumbo: Recording— “The act of entering into the book of public records the written instruments affecting the title to real property, such as deeds, mortgages, contracts for sale, options and assignments. Proper recordation imparts constructive notice to the world of the existence of the recorded document and its contents. It protects both innocent purchasers for value who act in ignorance of an unrecorded instrument and the grantee if the deed is altered or lost. Any conveyance not properly recorded is generally void as against any subsequent purchaser, lessee or mortgagee in good faith and for a valuable consideration who, without having actual notice of the unrecorded conveyance, records his or her subsequent interest in the property. From a practical point of view, the recording act gives legal priority to those interests that are recorded first.”
Now, in most jurisdictions in the U.S. there are methods of listing property ownership registration in addition to and other than, the traditional recording process described above. Most significant of these are the tax rolls. As far as I can determine, if someone has been registered on the tax inventory for a particular property and has paid those taxes for a number of years, there is very little chance of somebody else coming in and claiming the property regardless of who happens to be first on the recorded list of owners. More accurately, if no taxes had been paid, the government probably has already taken ownership of the property without much debate. After that, government usually sells it at auction and provides a clean and dominant title to the subsequent owner.
But here in Alaska, in the unorganized portions of our state, there exists no other local government but the state. And here the state imposes no real property tax. Consequently, no tax records. So, having your property recorded with the State Recorders Office in an unorganized area of Alaska, is most important.
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