Lowell Deeds

We often receive questions about paper streets. As the term suggests, a paper street is a street or passageway that was established on paper (either in a document or a plan) but that never came into existence on the ground. Abutters often ask us how they can have a paper street abandoned or dissolved, usually so the abutter can build something upon the land encumbered by the paper street. Like many things in the law of real estate, it’s complicated. Tony Vigliotti, the Register of Deeds in Worcester hosted a seminar a short time ago that featured representatives of Chicago Title Insurance talking about paper streets. Three of the handouts used in that seminar are now available online at the Worcester Registry of Deeds website. They include an article explaining the law of paper streets, a frequently asked questions document on the topic, and a set of sketches in PDF format that illustrate the points made in the FAQ document. This information is so useful that we will be adding permanent links to it from our own website.