![]() But so-called enhanced policies usually cover post-policy forgeries and other possibilities. You were likely also given the opportunity to purchase a separate title policy that protected you.īecause regular title insurance protects against defects that occurred up to the day you took ownership, it won't help with title fraud. If you needed a mortgage, you almost certainly purchased title insurance to protect your lender against any defects in your home's lineage that could cloud your ownership. Homeowners must hire an attorney and file suit to clear the title, which could be a lengthy, expensive process.įirst, though, think back to when you purchased your house. Nevertheless, title theft can have a "devastating impact" on the homeowner, Maffucci said. In some places, you can sign up to receive free notifications if any type of document is filed against your property's address.Įven if a forged deed is filed on your property, Maffucci says, the document conveys nothing because it is not legal.Īgrees Tomb, "A false deed does not actually cause the current owner to lose his property rights." Instead of subscribing to Title Home Lock or a similar service, savvy owners can check with their recorder's office as often as they like. "These companies are not title insurers and typically don't pay to help protect a consumer's property rights." "Paid monitoring services send alerts to customers when any type of document is filed," she told me. ![]() If they did, Maffucci said, the service "would almost certainly cost much more."ĭiane Tomb, CEO of ALTA, agreed. "But that's a huge 'if.' I'm not aware of any providers of 'title theft' protection" that do that. It would be "extremely valuable" if a company paid the legal fees necessary to clear the title of a forged document, real estate litigator William Maffucci told Smart Business Philadelphia. No such information was forthcoming, the network says.Īnd here's the rub: Even if Home Title Lock notices something's amiss with your title, you are pretty much left to deal with it on your own. wrote in a trade magazine in March.ĪBC asked Home Title Lock how many cases of title theft it has found, as well as any situations in which the service has helped someone reclaim a stolen title and how much was spent covering a customer's legal fees. "From what I've been able to find, this is rare," Colleen Taylor of the Old Republic National Title Insurance Co. "If it comes up once a year, I'd be surprised," Nathan Bossers of Boston National Title told me. While some jurisdictions said it is not common, others said it was epidemic.īut Steve Gottheim, general counsel for the American Land Title Association (ALTA), told ABC that his members are "not seeing (title theft) nationwide." But the document he provided was nearly two decades old and "wasn't about home title theft at all," but rather mortgage fraud, ABC found.Īs the network points out, the two are entirely different: "Mortgage fraud involves lying to lenders to obtain loans, while title theft involves filing fraudulent documents with county authorities to claim ownership of a property."ĪBC also checked with numerous sources to see just how prevalent title theft really is. Another Title Lock spokesman, former FBI agent Art Pfizenmayer, provided a document to ABC to try to justify the claim. ![]() In a major story published in mid-June, the network said the FBI has no evidence of ever making such an assertion. Indeed, the company claims that the FBI classifies home title theft as "one of the fastest growing" crimes in America.ĪBC News has thoroughly trashed that claim, along with the unsubstantiated claims of two supposed victims of the crime. But the company, whose spokesmen include defrocked attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, maintains it happens with regularity. ![]() There's no telling how often home title theft occurs. To "protect" homeowners from this scam, Home Title Lock says it will monitor a subscriber's title, 24-7, and notify them right away if anyone tampers with it. Unless the deed is obviously fake, it is recorded as a matter of course. The county recorder is obligated to place the title in the records, but not to verify its legality. The bad guys do this by simply forging your name on a deed and recording it with county officials. Home title theft is when a criminal gains the title to your home and either sells it or takes out a mortgage on it.
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