Dear Harry: Back in 1997, I was incarcerated for a minor offense. During that time, my wife rented rooms in order to stay afloat. One of the roomers was caught allegedly selling drugs to a police officer. The house was seized and sealed up by the police. The district attorney started proceedings to confiscate the house under some forfeiture law. I filed an objection, but I was unable to put up the $1,500 I needed for the appeal. The house was sold at a sheriff's sale in February 2003. The present owner (who bought it from the successful bidder) has recently contacted me and offered to pay me and my wife to sign some papers that will permit him to get title insurance. If the present owner is willing to pay us to sign some papers, does he really have legitimate title? Am I still the proper legal owner?

What Harry says: Title insurance companies make money by doing such thorough investigations and making doubly sure there are no defects in a title that they rarely ever pay any claims. That's what's happening here. The person who bought the house at auction had good title and so does the person who is now contacting you. However, the insurance company is making doubly sure because of the nature of the sheriff's sale that you don't have plans to create a problem that could hit them with costly legal fees. My vote is to try to get as much as you can for those signatures, and then forget the whole incident.

Write Harry Gross c/o the Daily News, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130. Harry urges all his readers to give blood - contact the American Red Cross at 800-GIVE LIFE.