![]() Why do the advertisements for “protection” against so-called title theft say that a forger who subsequently “mortgages” the property to a lender can “stick the owner with the payments”?Įither the advertisers don’t understand the law, or their statements are intentionally ambiguous. Bringing legal action at that late stage can be particularly expensive. ![]() Some owners don’t learn of the forged mortgage until the lender moves to foreclose the mortgage, or even after the foreclosure process is complete and title has passed again. The litigation can be lengthy, involving expert testimony as to the validity of the signatures, and prohibitively expensive.Īlthough the owner has no legal obligation to repay the forger’s loan, the owner may ultimately feel constrained to do so as a practical matter. Most owners need a lawyer to do that, and few lawyers are willing to handle such matters for free. Usually owners must file a lawsuit to clear title. The owner cannot simply ignore the forgery unless the defrauded buyer or lender accepts the owner’s account and disclaims any interest in the property. Since the forger’s name will appear on the land records, the forger can sometimes deceive a third party into “buying” the property or a lender to take a “mortgage” of the nonexistent title. And, having acquired nothing, the forger has nothing to resell to a third party or to ‘mortgage’ to a lender.Īlthough title theft isn’t real, a forged deed or mortgage can have a very real - often devastating - impact on the owner. Smart Business spoke with William Maffucci, a real-estate litigator with Semanoff Ormsby Greenberg & Torchia, LLC, to find out.Ĭan someone acquire title to a real property simply by forging the owner’s name on a deed? ![]() They pocket the proceeds and “stick” us with any mortgage payments.īut can a thief really “steal” your house through forgery, and are you really obligated to pay off a thief’s mortgage loan? They say that thieves can “steal” our homes by forging our names on deeds, then resell the property or take out mortgage loans to drain its equity. Now advertisers bombard us daily with warnings about it. “Title theft” was a term unknown just a generation ago.
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