Home Title Theft | Real Estate Fraud | Deed Theft
The elderly are perfect targets for Home Title Theft because of the substantial equity in their homes, so are vacant homes, or homes in default.
Additionally, with increased home prices there is increased home equity. . . A perfect target for Identity Theft (See Blog #1).
Home Title Theft is when a thief obtains title to your property and deeds it to themselves.
The thieves can open an equity line of credit, sell your home, or refinance your mortgage and take out the equity.
This brings up a lot of questions:
- Who commits Home Title Theft
- How do thieves get access to the Title
- How do you prevent the theft. Does homesteading keep you safe
- Who lends to these thieves (See Blog #3 Predatory Lenders)
- What are the county recorder’s office responsibilities?
- Online companies that alert you of title changes-are they a trusted resource?
- Is the lender and the Notary at fault
- Is there Title Theft Insurance?
Can you believe this????
$547 Million in home equity was stolen in 2020. Journal of World Economic Research
WHO COMMITS HOME TITLE THEFT?
Sociopaths, psychopaths, cybercriminals, predatory lenders (see Blog #3), real estate investors, scammers or any thief for that matter.
HOW DO THIEVES GET ACCESS TO THE TITLE
It’s called identity theft (see Blog #1)! Fake ID, social security card, and other personal documents in your name. All the thieves have to do is pick a property and purchase your personal identity paperwork on “The Dark Web”.
Thieves forge your signature using fraudulent documents such as a fillable Deed form found on the internet. They fill in the property information obtained from public records. The signature is verified by a Notary. The thieves have all the fraudulent documents, remember? The Notary is just verifying the signature on the fraudulent documents . . . Notary’s aren’t required to validate the documents.
Then they file the deed with the county’s recording office. What’s the recorders job? Recording.
“The recorder's office is the custodian of public records in its county, such as real estate transactions, marriage records and other documents. Documents presented are digitally scanned and indexed for recording, and the recorder's office may be used similarly to a library.”
What does this mean? The recorder’s office only records the deed within the law of the state. That’s it, they take the document, make sure it’s notarized, look at ID of the person that is filing the Deed, remember fraudulent IDs? stamp and file. That’s it. Done! You’re house now belongs to someone else.
HOW TO PREVENT HOME TITLE THEFT?
Because home title theft starts with identity theft, you need to first protect your identity (Blog #1).
Let’s talk about protecting your Deed.
- Title theft insurance-This type of insurance does not exist, and should not be confused with Title Insurance. When you purchase a property, most title insurance companies protect you against fraud that happened before you purchase the property.
- Homeowner’s insurance-This does not protect against Title Theft.
- Home Title Deed Monitoring Services- These companies are heavily marketed, and the claims of use are exaggerated (Read the Fine Print)
- Check your home title yourself. Check with the county that the property is in. Each county files recordings in different ways. Sometimes you can search for the deed information online through the county clerk’s website. You will need to know the last MM/YY you recorded and or changed a deed on the property you’re researching so you can search from that point on.
Some counties:
- Will send a letter when there is a change to the Deed.
- You can register for notification if there is a change in your Deed
- Delay recording documents so they can send a notice to the homeowner.
- Work with the DA or Sheriffs office if they suspect something is wrong.
- Make sure your correct mailing address is on file with the county.
- Investigate any missing bills that have to do with your real estate.