Can a Defective Deed be “Cured” in Florida?

Florida law imposes specific requirements for executing deeds transferring title to real property. For example, the deed must state the identity of all grantors and grantees (i.e., the persons transferring and receiving ownership, respectively). It must contain an accurate legal description of the property conveyed. And it must have the notarized signatures of the grantor and at least two competent witnesses.

The Five-Year Rule

Suppose a Florida deed that lacks one of the required formalities is nevertheless recorded. Does that automatically invalidate the deed? Not necessarily. Florida has what is known as a “cure statute.” Codified in Section 95.231(1) of the Florida Statutes, this law states that five years after a deed is recorded, it “shall be held to have its purported effect to convey” title even if it was not properly witnessed or notarized. Unless there is “fraud, adverse possession, or pending litigation” involving the transaction, the deed is automatically “cured” of these defects after five years.

A recent decision from the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, Hi-Land Properties, LLC v. Gantt, illustrates how the cure statute functions in practice. This particular case involved a complex interaction between real estate and probate litigation. In brief, a mother and daughter jointly owned a piece of Florida real estate. In 1996, they executed a deed conveying this property to the daughter and her three siblings, with each owning a separate 25 percent share. For some reason, the deed lacked any witness signatures.

Two of the four siblings later died and their respective shares eventually passed to a limited liability company, which was the plaintiff in this case. A third sibling died in 2006. This left just the sibling who originally co-owned the property with the mother.

After the third sibling’s death, the personal representative of her estate signed a release declaring that the decedent’s 25 percent interest in the property passed in equal shares to her two heirs (one of whom was the personal representative). Both heirs then conveyed their shares to the plaintiff.

The plaintiff subsequently filed a partition action seeking a forced sale of the property. At this point, the plaintiff alleged it owned a 75 percent interest in the property, i.e., the shares that belonged to the three deceased siblings. The defendant, as the surviving sibling and co-owner, challenged the plaintiff’s ownership of the third sibling’s share. She maintained there was no effective transfer of title due to the fact the 1996 deed was not properly executed.

The Fourth District, however, said the Florida cure statute “automatically cured” that problem after five years, or in this case sometime in 2001. Furthermore, the personal representative’s signed releases were sufficient to establish the third sibling’s title automatically passed to her heirs upon death. Given this, the plaintiff had sufficiently established its 75 percent ownership of the property.

Contact a Davie Partition Lawyer

Having more than one owner of a piece of Florida real estate can lead to a situation where judicial intervention may be required. Our Davie partition attorneys can represent you in such matters. Contact Valero Law today at 305-607-7011 to schedule a free consultation. We serve clients in Davie, Broward County, Coconut Grove and Miami-Dade County.

Source:

flcourts-media.flcourts.gov/content/download/2485155/opinion/Opinion_2025-1354.pdf