This sort of crime can only occur when you have a larcenous individual enabled by inept and lazy public officials who don’t bother to properly vet deed transfers.
“ This sort of crime can only occur when you have a larcenous individual enabled by inept and lazy public officials who don’t bother to properly vet deed transfers..
Agreed 1000%
What I find unacceptable, is that some criminal fools a bank into giving them a mortgage on property they don’t own, and it’s the real homeowner who is out the money, when they weren’t involved whatsoever. Obviously the banks have better lobbyists that us peons. NO WAY should the homeowner take the hit when a bank lends money to the wrong people. That’s friggen insanity
No public official "vets" deed transfers. If a deed comes in and it's in recordable form, meaning (i) it lists a grantor and grantee, (ii) it contains a property description, and (iii) the grantor's signature is notarized, and the recording fees and taxes are paid then the deed gets recorded. It's a ministerial act. How is a public official supposed to determine if a deed submitted for recording has been forged? Do you expect them to call the owner and ask if they have in fact signed a deed to their house? Do you expect them to pull the prior deed and check to make sure the signatures are the same? All the crook has to do is forge the owner's signature on the deed and apply a fraudulent notary and the deed will get recorded.
It's the purchaser's job to make sure good title is being conveyed. Most purchasers hire title insurance companies to make sure they're getting good title and to provide insurance in case they do not. Protection against a fraudulent deed is one of the primary reasons people get title insurance. Title insurance would protect only the buyer of the home from the crook, though. It would not protect am owner whose home has been stolen.
That’s it in a nutshell