Pennsylvania Gets Ready to Pass Deed Fraud Law—And Philly Says No More Deed Theft From the Dead

Deed theft is the deliberate and wrongful transfer of real estate. It’s not particularly common across the country. But in areas where property values have shot up, it’s a growing trend. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one area of concern. Last year, Philly tallied up 110 reports of deed fraud.

We promised to keep you posted on Pennsylvania’s efforts to deal with the matter by outlawing deed theft. Here’s the latest.

Revamped Anti-Fraud Bill Wins Unanimous Support

Rep. Christopher M. Rabb, a Philadelphia Democrat, joined by Rep. Tim Bonner, a Republican from Butler (35 miles north of Pittsburgh), have gutted and rewritten a bill to outlaw deed fraud as a specific crime. Here’s a three-minute video about the bipartisan dynamic that led to the strengthening of this bill.

Rabb thinks the legislation will be worth doing even if it saves one Pennsylvanian’s deed from being taken. It was a single deed holder’s plight that made Rabb want to draft House Bill 1406 in the first place. Rabb was taken aback to hear a senior deed holder had been defrauded in this way.

Deed forgery is “one of the most brazen crimes imaginable,” Rabb says. “Yet, our laws still do not directly address it.” State laws deal with the crimes of theft, fraud, and forgery — but many don’t specifically call out deed theft.

Pennsylvania is the latest jurisdiction trying to obtain justice for Pennsylvanians robbed of their deeds. Rabb and Bonner introduced the original bill in May. They look forward to a speedy enactment, since Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill unanimously this month (September 2025).

Are you acquiring a deed? Insurance coverage for deed fraud does exist. Ask about the enhanced title insurance policy.

What’s in Pennsylvania’s Deed Fraud Bill

House Bill 1406 would create a second-degree felony classification for theft (including attempted theft) involving titles or deeds to real estate.

Assuming Pennsylvania enacts it, this law will head off deed thievery by:

• Defining deed fraud as a specific crime. Deed fraud will consist of a deliberate and fraudulent transfer of real estate by deceptive methods such as altered, forged, or falsely executed deeds.
• Providing specific criminal consequences. There will be degrees of deed fraud. The degree of punishment will depend on specifics such as a target’s total financial loss.
• Ensuring law enforcement teams have the legal tools to track down and charge swindlers who take deeds by deceitful means.
• Making sure the targeted deed holders have a legal pathway to go into court and get their deeds back. Because it’s one thing to catch a deed thief. It’s yet another thing to convey ownership back to a rightful owner once a deed has been recorded in the public records of a city or county.

Rabb expects the new law to make real headway against the trend in scammers forging and recording documents, in order to swipe homes out from under their rightful owners. But there’s more. The law will ensure a path to a courtroom resolution is available to swindlers’ victims.  

Letting Deceased Deed Holders Rest in Peace

Philadelphia is where the deed theft victim who inspired this law lives. One of the top deed theft tactics is now being foiled in the city. That’s the strategy of signing deeds out from under heirs by forging the name of a deceased person. The mayor, Cherelle L. Parker, calls Philadelphia the first local government anywhere in the United States to create an automatic check and rejection of deeds purportedly transferred by dead people. (People may challenge what they believe to be cases of mistaken rejections.)

When a deed holder dies without a probate court’s oversight, the title might linger under the name of a late owner for years, even decades. Various legal heirs may have claims to the real estate. Meanwhile, the deed can be vulnerable to fraud or manipulation.

Swindlers are “creating a nightmare” for heirs, Mayor Parker said, referring to the court battles they’re up against, battles they “cannot afford to fight.”

Recently, a serial deed snatcher filed a forged deed, pretending to be a late owner’s grandchild. As the Philadelphia Inquirer said:

Philly has never had an easy way to check whether a seller was alive, which would go a long way in helping prevent these thefts.

Good thinking.

Deed Theft Is Especially Likely After a Deed Holder Dies

So Philadelphia found its way. The economic crimes division at the District Attorney’s Office has been carrying out this project since 2018 — back when the mayor (then a member of the city council) called for this work to happen. Title insurance companies, legal aid groups, and city tax and records officials all participated in the long quest to create the verification system. Approvals were obtained from both Philadelphia and federal agencies.

Now, if anyone walks into the Philadelphia deed recorder’s office to have a deed filed, an automated records check occurs. It searches for evidence that the seller wasn’t alive when their signature was placed on the deed.

The system looks up the named seller in death records from city and Social Security databases. If the supposed seller was a dead person, the deed will be turned away unrecorded. This can foil a swindler’s plans to profit from impersonating an heir to flip a home to a developer.

One Milestone Closer, One Milestone Met

Reps. Rabb and Bonner of Pennsylvania call their new law a milestone. It seems quite timely, given the adoption of artificial intelligence and other high-tech methods of swindling innocent people out of the most valuable belonging many of us will ever own.

It’s horrifying to find out a deed has been taken right out from under a homeowner’s nose. And it’s exasperating to face all the bureaucratic and judicial efforts involved with trying to get it back, let alone to bring a swindler to justice.

Pennsylvania’s decision to deal with deed fraud as a specific crime could deter such activity — and just as important, it will make righting the wrong a whole lot less daunting.   

Meanwhile, Philadelphia is nipping fraud in the bud, by turning away bad deeds. All of this will help individuals, families, and heirs from losing the wealth a deed represents.