Life Comes at You Fast: $4M Home Swiped at Recorder’s Office
Instances of title theft have been going on for some time and the response from many county recorders has been to enact a program like Pennsylvania’s Putnam County has, which notifies homeowners of any actions taken on the title of their home.
In the case of Raleigh homeowner Craig Adams, the notification he received regarding the status of his home came from his HOA’s property management company, who asked whether he had sold his home as the “new owner” had requested gate access to the private community where the property can be found.
Wake County, North Carolina, where Raleigh is located, doesn’t automatically notify homeowners of new fillings. This led to the scammer being able to file paperwork that listed Adams, the homeowner, as a debtor without him knowing or having an opportunity to challenge the paperwork. Not that it should make a difference, but Adams’ home is 8,300 square feet and valued at $4 million, but it still didn’t draw enough scrutiny to prevent the scam.
For her part, the woman who filed the false warranty claim on the home says that there wasn’t any malicious intent, that she thought the home was in foreclosure and was going to restore an abandoned property. Regardless of stated intent, the Wake County sheriff’s office is looking into the matter. Motives are likely to be little comfort to anyone who has lost the deed to their home and it’s worth noting that even with someone who didn’t intend to steal your home and is willing to give it back, there is still no easy resolution process.
North Carolina county registers of deeds are bound by law to certain policies and procedures, which means that the deed to the property can’t just be returned to Adams. After reaching out to the register of deeds with information that the office acknowledges proves Adams’ rightful ownership of the property, the clerk’s office still wasn’t able to reverse the paperwork as it had been officially filed. The office doesn’t have a legal responsibility to ensure that filed documents are valid, but they are able to refuse to record a document if they suspect fraud. In this case, no obvious red flags were raised, so Adams’ next step, whether he likes it or not, will be to hire an attorney and bring the case before a judge to reclaim his ownership.
The hope from Adams is that publicity of the case will lead to a system of checks and balances that will prevent similar occurrences.
Now going back to the home valuation, while we don’t know the ins and outs of Adams’ finances, he mentions that he received a quote for $8,000 to file a civil suit against the woman who filed the claim. The woman’s cooperation means that Adams will have less expensive options, but with a malicious actor, that $8,000 may have been necessary to recapture his property. Someone living in a $200,000 home with proportional finances won’t have to pay 5% of the lawyer fees because their home is worth 5% that of Adams.
This leaves an already vulnerable population even further down that road. To solve this, residents and recorders may have to take up their grievances with the law. Recorders can also automate property alerts for their residents and educate them as to how to keep themselves safe.
If you work in a recorders office, Extract would love to have the opportunity to share our automation software, which can index your files and redact personally identifiable information from documents so staff can stay focused on serving their constituents. Please reach out for a demonstration if you’re interested.
