Fidelity National Title & Escrow of Hawaii

From: [redacted] Sent: Friday, August 14, 2:PMTo: [redacted] Cc: Info [redacted] ; [redacted] Subject: Revdex.com Complaint - [redacted] [redacted] To Ms [redacted] , Please see attached my letter in response to the Revdex.com complaintThank you, Will William *T***, EsqVice President & General Counsel Dear Ms [redacted] : I am the in-house legal counsel of Fidelity National Title & Escrow of Hawaii (“Fidelity”)I amwriting to respond to your complaint with the Revdex.com dated July 24, 2015regarding the sale of your property located at [redacted] ***(“subject property”).In your complaint, you raised an issue regarding a mortgage that did not belong to you in thisescrow transactionI have researched and investigated this matter, including the review of thefiles and communication with our escrow officer who handled your transaction.By way of background, when we opened escrow and performed the title search, our preliminarytitle report reflected two mortgages of record:$35,Mortgage recorded on August 6, 1999, with [redacted] as mortgagor and [redacted] as mortgagee(Please see enclosed: Document No [redacted] )$340,Mortgage recorded on March 16, 2001, with [redacted] as mortgagor and [redacted] as mortgagee(Please see enclosed: Document No2690158)The reason these two mortgages were shown on our preliminary title report was because therewere no satisfactions/releases recorded in the public records, even if they were mortgagesbelonging to a previous owner, [redacted] ***When mortgages are recorded, they becomesecured liens on that subject property and remain of recordUntil these secured liens aresatisfied and formally released off the public record, then they will remain as liens against thatpropertyIt is not only custom and practice for the title insurance industry to perform and reflectthe secured liens in our title reports, but under Hawaii law, title insurance companies arerequired to conduct a reasonable search and examination of title to determine insurability of titleto the subject property[redacted] Although the two mortgages may have been paid off and satisfied in full by the previous owner,the releases of the mortgages were never recordedTherefore, we had a duty to disclose theoutstanding mortgages of record to the parties in this escrow transaction.In your escrow transaction, we requested necessary underwriting documentation from other titlecompanies which handled the previous transactions involving the payoff of these two mortgages.After several weeks, we were able to obtain confirmations from the other title companies and/orapprovals from our underwriter that although the mortgages were not released of record, thatthey were in-fact paid in fullAs a result, our underwriter made the determination to remove thetwo mortgages of record from our preliminary title report and insure the new owners free andclear of these mortgages.I have confirmed that we followed our underwriting guidelines to properly show the twomortgages in our initial preliminary title report, and after obtaining the necessary underwritinginformation that we removed these mortgages of record in order to issue title insurance policiesto the new owner and the lenderIn addition, we did not require these two mortgages to be paidthrough this transactionWe closed the transaction on February 23, and you received theentire net proceeds.As a title company, we were required to show any liens and encumbrances affecting the subjectpropertyThrough the investigation and confirmation of the full payment of the mortgagesreflected, we were able to close your transaction without concern of the aforementionedmortgages.Please feel free to contact me at [redacted] or email at [redacted] Thank youfor your time and understanding.Sincerely, Will

Dear Ms. [redacted]
I am the in-house legal counsel of Fidelity National Title & Escrow of Hawaii.  Iam writing to respond to your complaint with the RevDex.com dated February 16,2015 regarding the purchase of your property located at [redacted]...

[redacted].  First, I sincerely apologize that you had an issue with our transaction and felt compelled to file a complaint with the Revdex.com.I have researched and investigated this matter, including the review of the files and communication with our escrow officer,PearlG[redacted],who handled your transaction.  On February 13, 2015, the check in the amountof $3,778.67was delivered to [redacted] (your property manager).In this transaction,we were notified that the pro-rated rent for $3,778.67 was to be handled outside of escrow. Pursuant to our corporate policy, and as a neutral third­ party,we would have required receipt of mutually-agreed upon written instructions from both yourself and the seller in order to handle any pro-rated rent disbursements within the transaction. I understand that your complaint has now been fully resolved with the receipt of the $3,778.67 by your property management company. Please feel free to contact me at [redacted] or email at [redacted]. Thank you for your time and understanding.[redacted]

From: [redacted] Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 2:32 PMTo: [redacted]Cc: Info [redacted]; [redacted]Subject: Revdex.com Complaint - [redacted]...

[redacted] To Ms. [redacted], Please see attached my letter in response to the Revdex.com complaint. Thank you, Will William *. T[redacted], Esq. Vice President & General Counsel
Dear Ms. [redacted]:
I am the in-house legal counsel of Fidelity National Title & Escrow of Hawaii (“Fidelity”). I amwriting to respond to your complaint with the Revdex.com dated July 24, 2015regarding the sale of your property located at [redacted](“subject property”).In your complaint, you raised an issue regarding a mortgage that did not belong to you in thisescrow transaction. I have researched and investigated this matter, including the review of thefiles and communication with our escrow officer who handled your transaction.By way of background, when we opened escrow and performed the title search, our preliminarytitle report reflected two mortgages of record:1. $35,000.00 Mortgage recorded on August 6, 1999, with [redacted] as mortgagor and[redacted] as mortgagee. (Please see enclosed: Document No. [redacted])2. $340,000.00 Mortgage recorded on March 16, 2001, with [redacted] as mortgagor and[redacted] as mortgagee. (Please see enclosed: Document No. 2690158)The reason these two mortgages were shown on our preliminary title report was because therewere no satisfactions/releases recorded in the public records, even if they were mortgagesbelonging to a previous owner, [redacted]. When mortgages are recorded, they becomesecured liens on that subject property and remain of record. Until these secured liens aresatisfied and formally released off the public record, then they will remain as liens against thatproperty. It is not only custom and practice for the title insurance industry to perform and reflectthe secured liens in our title reports, but under Hawaii law, title insurance companies arerequired to conduct a reasonable search and examination of title to determine insurability of titleto the subject property.[redacted]Although the two mortgages may have been paid off and satisfied in full by the previous owner,the releases of the mortgages were never recorded. Therefore, we had a duty to disclose theoutstanding mortgages of record to the parties in this escrow transaction.In your escrow transaction, we requested necessary underwriting documentation from other titlecompanies which handled the previous transactions involving the payoff of these two mortgages.After several weeks, we were able to obtain confirmations from the other title companies and/orapprovals from our underwriter that although the mortgages were not released of record, thatthey were in-fact paid in full. As a result, our underwriter made the determination to remove thetwo mortgages of record from our preliminary title report and insure the new owners free andclear of these mortgages.I have confirmed that we followed our underwriting guidelines to properly show the twomortgages in our initial preliminary title report, and after obtaining the necessary underwritinginformation that we removed these mortgages of record in order to issue title insurance policiesto the new owner and the lender. In addition, we did not require these two mortgages to be paidthrough this transaction. We closed the transaction on February 23, 2015 and you received theentire net proceeds.As a title company, we were required to show any liens and encumbrances affecting the subjectproperty. Through the investigation and confirmation of the full payment of the mortgagesreflected, we were able to close your transaction without concern of the aforementionedmortgages.Please feel free to contact me at [redacted] or email at [redacted]. Thank youfor your time and understanding.Sincerely,
Will