My parents, in 1991, purchased a lot from a lady neighbor adjacent to their home and I obtained a variance in order to build a new home on lot and when I went to get financing I found out that the neighbor only owned title to half the property and her brother owned the rest and he is now deceased and we cannot locate his children. What do we do about this?

Obviously what you need to do is obtain title from the heirs of the seller's brother. If the seller is still around, you should inquire of her as to why she sold the lot to your parents. It may be that her brother had given her deed to his interest and it was never recorded. If that were factually so, you could record an affidavit by her at the Registry of Deeds and then bring an action to remove a cloud on title caused by the failure to record the deed from the brother to the seller. Another alternative would be to wait two more years and bring an action to quiet title based upon the fact that your parents have adversely possessed the property for a period of 20 years. Assuming they have paid the real estate taxes and have maintained a lot from that time on an  uninterrupted basis, they should prevail in an action to quiet title based upon their adverse possession for a period of more than 20 years. Another alternative would be to bring an action in the probate court for partition to cause the property to be sold and to set off to your parents the value of the real estate taxes they have paid for the last 18 years and the increase in value as a result of obtaining the variance. The court will require that you, no matter which avenue you pursue, use reasonable efforts to discover the whereabouts of the heirs which would include hiring an investigator to try to track them down. If that fails, then the court will require publication of notice of the pendency of the action to obtain service on them in that manner. Before you bring any legal action you should probably hire an investigator to try to track down the heirs of the deceased brother. You may have to pay them something for a deed of their interest but that will probably be a lot less expensive than bringing a legal action to try to establish title in one of the ways suggested above.

If you have questions about this or any other real estate matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.