In recent months, Pennsylvania appellate courts addressed the issues of title insurer’s liability for deed drafting errors, as well as a municipality’s ability to collect fines for illegally constructed structures during the pendency of the property owner’s appeal.
In Michael v. Stock, 2017 Pa. Super. 99 (2017), the Pezzola family were the owners of property situated in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The property was comprised of two parcels: “Lot A,” on which a three-story hotel/restaurant and free-standing garage were constructed, and “Lot B,” which was vacant. The Pezzolas had taken title to Lot A and Lot B in separate transactions and, although the parcels were merged into a single parcel for real estate tax purposes, the metes and bounds descriptions of the parcels were never updated to reflect this merger.
