house stolen, true or false!

[Delta Expatriate]

A few thoughts...

I spent nearly 20 years in Title insurance as a technician {Tile officer} and a lot of time in management. I taught college classes on Title insurance law and appeared in several trials dealing with forgeries and even did an hour in front of the Grand Jury testifying in a forgery/fraud case. Permit me to share a few things...

If someone forges a deed to your property and then sells or encumbers it by putting a loan against the property it is NOT your problem. No lender is going to loan anyone a dime without a policy of title insurance protecting the lender. That ALTA {American Land Title Association} lenders policy among other protections covers loss due to forgery.

If a lender tries to foreclose on your property based upon a loan that was forged it is the lender's and ultimately their title insurance companies problem. You cannot legally encumber property you do not own.

If a bad guy sells a property that they acquired through a forged deed {of any kind} to an innocent third party again it is not the actual owners problem. If the buyer got an Owners policy of title insurance it too provides coverage against loss due to forgery. If the buyer was foolish enough to not have gotten a policy then they are likely screwed as the actual owner still legally owns the property.

Yes, there are lots of companies out there trying to scam you out of money by offering protection that you in all likelihood already have. Buying this coverage is simply searching for a solution for which there is no known problem... the government does this a lot, but I digress. As noted above many counties offer free title monitoring services which is probably a good idea but not a substitute for an actual policy of title insurance.

In most {but certainly not all} venues the buyers Owners Policy of Title Insurance is typically paid for by the seller which is appropriate. Who better to bear the cost of guarantying the buyers title than the seller. When you are purchasing a home always insist on the buyer providing you with an ALTA Owners policy of title Insurance. But, the cost of title insurance like most things in any business transaction is always negotiateable. NEVER buy real estate without being protected even if you have to bear the cost of the policy.

Full disclosure... i have been out of the title business for 30 years but in that time have purchased/sold a number of properties in California and Arizona. When in doubt seek competent legal advice.

I largely agree. I too spent some time working with a national title insurance company in its Mississippi office, and spent a lot of time in courthouse record rooms. One thing we always encouraged was for home buyers to get a simultaneous issue title policy covering both the owner and the lender (mortgagee). Lenders for long-term home loans usually required mortgagee coverage. The problem with that is that it only covers the mortgagee, and as the loan gets paid down it would not cover the homeowners equity. The Lender would be the only insured, and not the homeowner. It would better to get a simultaneous issue owners and lender policy insuring both the owner and the lender. At the time, it only cost a dollar more per $1000.00 of coverage to get both.

Full Disclosure: I too have been out of the title insurance business for sometime, although I still do title work and research. When in doubt, seek competent legal advice.

 

[viceunit]

Thanks for posting this. Went to the County Auditor's website and the GovOS is offered here. Signed up.

 

[biku324]

no mortgage, sounds like if they claim the title a heafty mortgage would be simple to obtain.

That's simple fraud. If you, titled owner, didn't take out the mortgage, this would be a matter between the lender and the thief.

 

[Golddollar]

I largely agree. I too spent some time working with a national title insurance company in its Mississippi office, and spent a lot of time in courthouse record rooms. One thing we always encouraged was for home buyers to get a simultaneous issue title policy covering both the owner and the lender (mortgagee). Lenders for long-term home loans usually required mortgagee coverage. The problem with that is that it only covers the mortgagee, and as the loan gets paid down it would not cover the homeowners equity. The Lender would be the only insured, and not the homeowner. It would better to get a simultaneous issue owners and lender policy insuring both the owner and the lender. At the time, it only cost a dollar more per $1000.00 of coverage to get both.

Full Disclosure: I too have been out of the title insurance business for sometime, although I still do title work and research. When in doubt, seek competent legal advice.

Now I've been retired from the title insurance business myself, just for the record. Delta Expatriate gave good advice. The extra money to pay for the simultaneous issue of an owner's title insurance company is peanuts. And an important thing to remember is not only does a title insurance policy pay off in the event of a loss, it also pays for the cost of defending against a claim on the title to the insured property. If only a mortgagee's policy is issued, even though the owner and lender have some commonality of interest, the uninsured owner is on his own. Picking up the legal fees for the defense of the title alone makes having an owner's policy worthwhile. It's a one-time premium, not an annual charge.

 

[decuerno]

Yep. Title insurance is not only a good investment… It’s surprisingly inexpensive considering the value of the potential loss. Forever coverage for Hundreds of Thousands of dollars coverage is only a few hundred.

 

[03hemi]

Not exactly true. Plenty of stories of people finding out that a scammer filed a Quit Claim Deed on their home using forged documents and had the property transferred into their name. It can be a real nightmare getting that straightened out.

One of the most high profile case's was where that scammer filed forged documents to get control of Graceland. Scammers are very good at finding way's to separate people from their money and possession's

Just did two Quite Claim Deeds, they have to be notarized with proof of identification in person, not sure this is the way people are doing this? People are being scammed out of their property though, that's a fact.

 

[decuerno]

Just did two Quite Claim Deeds, they have to be notarized with proof of identification in person, not sure this is the way people are doing this? People are being scammed out of their property though, that's a fact.

Just because a document is “notarized” does NOT make it valid. All a notarization does is verify that identification was produced by persons who CLAIM to be the owner of the I.D.
A Fake document is …Still Fake!
Forged documents …are still false. The property remains with the true owner in such cases. The proliferation of Adverts which attempt to sell these “life-lock” type of policies are snake-oil policies/scams.