“The victims, often the elderly, may not have the financial means to fight a protracted legal battle to get back what is legally theirs”
It is outrageous that they have to fight in any way. This should be a slam dunk quick retore. A transaction that was fraudulent should be immediately voided.
Our county has “owner alert” to notify the owner of any legal documents are filed on the property. While not foolproof, it may give early enough warning to head of any scams.
I got Letter recently with a form Included. “Just fill out the form and have your signature notarized and we’ll begin the purchase PROCESS on your behalf”
That form landing in the wrong hands...
WHAT THE ACTUAL ....
I think most of the people on this thread either didn't read the article or read it and still don't understand how it works.
These tend to be unoccupied houses. The crook records a fraudulent deed and then quickly sells the house to someone else. The purchaser, the purchaser's lender and the purchaser's title company have no way of knowing the deed conveying the house is fraudulent. Closing occurs and the purchaser moves in. A month later, the rightful owner, who may have been traveling, living at another seasonal house, or deployed, returns to the house to find someone else living there. His response is, "hey, what are you doing living in my house?" The other guy's response is, "It's my house, I bought it a month ago." At this point, how does the rightful owner get the new guy out of his house? He needs to prove to a court that the deed was fraudulent and the court will have to evict the new guy. Of course, the new guy is going to be furious at this point, but he's SOL. Hopefully, he did have title insurance because this is exactly why title insurance exists.
Occupied houses are not particularly vulnerable to this scam because at some point before the closing occurs on the sale of the house to the new guy, a home inspector, an appraiser or the purchaser himself will show up to inspect the house. The owner would find this very suspicious and ask what's going on. At that time, the owner would be informed that the house had been "sold" and the whole thing would begin to fall apart. The purchaser would not move forward to closing. It's not a big deal for someone to clear up the title if the closing on the purchase of the house has not yet occurred.