{"id":4079,"date":"2024-05-27T07:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T11:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=4079"},"modified":"2024-06-16T10:06:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T14:06:53","slug":"deed-theft-should-not-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/deed-theft-should-not-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Deed Theft Should Not Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What Does It Take to Safeguard a Title?<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you hold the deed, you can\u2019t be evicted, right? True \u2014 except if your deed is pulled out from under you by a nasty actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It shouldn\u2019t happen, but it does. Just ask Dada, a homeowner in Oklahoma City. Someone recorded a quitclaim on Dada\u2019s deed, purporting to buy the home for $10 plus an $18 recorder\u2019s fee. The notary whose stamp appears is no longer licensed. The seller\u2019s signature is obviously not Dada\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dada is still paying monthly housing bills, and fighting an eviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oklahoma County now has a free deed fraud alert<\/a> system to notify deed holders about filings against their properties. But for Dada, that ship has sailed. Had Oklahoma law allowed deed recorders to examine documents for validity, Dada\u2019s crisis could have been averted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In Arizona, a Sting at Starbucks Happens in the Nick of Time.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Officers arrested Brian G. outside a Phoenix-area coffee shop. Late last year, Brian filed a fraudulent warranty deed with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office to convey a Scottsdale home to a new buyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The buyer, someone called simply V.L., signed an agreement in March to sell the home. The plan: An April meeting at the local Starbucks, with a notary, to sign the deed over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But law enforcement got a tip. Questions arose when the home\u2019s rightful owner answered a call and said they had no interest in selling the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the planned deed conveyance in April, Brian turned up at the coffee shop with fake identity documentation, pretending to be V.L. In a dramatic Starbucks sting, law enforcement arrested Brian under charges of forgery and fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Defrauded Deed Holder Lacks Recourse to the Law, Says a Dayton Judge.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A judge in Ohio has ruled that a woman who lost the deed to an apartment building through quitclaim fraud can\u2019t get it back because the fraudster has already sold the home to unsuspecting buyers \u2014 just as Brian nearly did at the Arizona coffee shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 75-year-old apartment owner had been grappling with the legal system for three years before the disappointing court decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dayton Daily News<\/em> decided to check out the situation. According to its reporters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n