Texas Says Time’s Up for Deed Hustlers

A wave of real estate scams has prompted action by Texas lawmakers. Real estate theft and fraud are now in the criminal code.

Naming deed crimes is part of a growing trend that you might recall from a series of articles we’ve offered on New York’s new law, naming “deed theft” as a crime category. At the same time, Pennsylvania is integrating deed theft into its criminal law.

How S.B. 15 Changes Deed Recording in Texas

Texas has set out to protect deed holders from real estate scams that keep popping up around the state. The law represents a serious move to confront scams that use bogus documentation.

The new Texas law:

• Requires photo IDs for people recording deeds and other claims against property.

• Gives county deed recorders’ offices new powers to reject filings that raise suspicions.

• Helps victims defend their rights, and deal with fraudulent deed transfers. 

• Equips Texas prosecutors with stronger tools to catch white-collar criminals who transfer fraudulent property deeds, by formally criminalizing real property fraud and real property theft.

• Boosts consumer protections in real estate transactions.

Creating enhanced penalties for deed fraud is one way to deter people from preying on property records. That doesn’t mean deed theft will stop overnight in Texas. We’ve watched the continuing struggle against deed hucksters in New York. But the latest move by the Texas legislature shows how state governments across the political spectrum are on the same side of the deed crime issue.

What Are the Signs of Deed Theft?

Sometimes, deed fraud occurs in the course of a sale. Real estate transactions are fraught with emotion, which scammers know how to exploit.

Be on the lookout for these well-known hallmarks:

• Hurried situations that leave little time to think or to reach out for advice.

• Requests for direct cash payments.

• Communications all happening from a distance with no in-person meetings.

• No opportunity for the buyer or renter to walk through a property they’re interested in.

In Texas and in several other states, deed fraud laws have been fortified. But keeping a careful lookout is still the best policy for deed holders.

Across the country, many county deed office websites have automated alert systems. The software will send an email to the deed holder of record, whenever claims are recorded on the title. This lets deed holders know something’s up, and get help soon when something’s wrong. It’s important to opt in to these systems, where available.

Once a deed is wrongly conveyed, there’s no easy fix. Usually, an expensive court case is necessary. To get representation in court when needed is one reason home buyers should get comprehensive title insurance.

Senior Loses Entire Income to Deed Swindle

Not long ago, con artists took five deeds in Corpus Christi out from under a 79-year-old Houston resident. Socorro Rodriguez reported the five transfers to local police.

A certain Daniel E. would later be charged with forging Rodriguez’s signature to convey deeds over to himself. He then filed the deeds with the Nueces County Clerk’s Office, where they were accepted for recording.

Worse still, each of the wrongly transferred deeds has since been transferred again, to various buyers.

Rodriguez owned the five rental properties for income. The eeriest aspect of this whole tangle? Rodriguez knew the perpetrator.

A news team from 6 Investigates reported on the cases. Told by the sheriff that the Corpus Christi Police Department was investigating Rodriguez’s claims, the news team followed up, provided updates to the public, and pressed for accountability. As the story played out, Daniel threatened to “go after” the media outlet, and told a reporter to “cease and desist from any and all forms of harassment” against him.  

Daniel had carried out repair work for all five properties, and promised in letters and phone text that there would be no charges, and no liens placed on the titles with respect to “the services and upgrades we have provided.” In 2023 Daniel requested and received a copy of Rodriguez’s photo ID for use with an application for funding through a Texas-based “community project.” By promising help, the contractor successfully manipulated Rodriguez, the reports indicate.

Nueces County notified Rodriguez that one of the properties, which was transferred to Daniel by a warranty deed, had a bad notary date on it. It showed 2027 instead of 2023. That led the county to send a notice of correction. Rodriguez was shocked and devastated to learn that the deeds were transferred—evidently with the help of a notary who was in on the scam.

Most county deed recorders file documents in the records without investigating the bona fides of the filer. That’s how things have long worked. And that’s what the Nueces County Clerk did.

The new Texas law changes this. Photo ID must now be shown for deed filings. And now, recorders’ offices can reject filings when they suspect fraud.

Recording a forged document was already a felony in Texas. Daniel has been charged and sentenced. Rodriguez just wants the properties back and for this “terrible nightmare” to be over.

Texas Lawmaker Takes the Struggle to Congress

Congress member Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas, has gone to the feds with this. Together with Democrat Bill Foster, Sessions has introduced a proposed law to confront identity fraud and theft. Their aim is to “strengthen America’s digital identity infrastructure” and shield agencies, companies, and people from “rapidly rising identity fraud and theft.”

The Stop Identity Fraud and Identity Theft Act is styled as a consumer protection bill. It’s supposed to obstruct benefit fraud, and strengthen the integrity of federal finances. People and states could decide whether to opt in.

Where adopted, it would do the following:

• Create state innovation grants. The funding would help states digitize stored ID credentials. It would also fund cutting-edge methods of preventing artificial intelligence fraud and deepfakes.

• Build on the efforts in Congress to have the National Institute of Standards and Technology set up voluntary digital identity systems.

The bill does not:

• Make digital identification compulsory.

• Make physical ID cards obsolete.  

• Force anyone to get a digital driver’s ID or digital identity.

Jeremy Grant, representing the Better Identity Coalition, backs the new bill. Grant points out that identity theft and fraud strike millions of times every year in the United States. Losses pile up by the billions. It is “far too easy,” says Grant, for “criminals and hostile nation states” to get into online systems and exploit personal and financial details. 

In a never-ending story, the work of keeping up with the hustlers continues.