# Can someone steal the deed to your house and have you removed from your home?



## lithiumflower (Feb 9, 2022)

I want to go back and add to my story a scene where the main character (Noah)'s brother - (named Josh), steals Noah's deed to his house, forges it and makes it as if he (Joshua) owns it and then calls the police to get Noah removed, but I'm trying to find out if that's logical. If someone steals the deed to your house and makes it their own, can they then call the police and get you removed from the house? Because the deed shows that you don't own the house?


----------



## D. L. Keur (Feb 9, 2022)

A deed is a registered  recorded (legal) instrument, so your scenario is unlikely, the deed easily proven a forgery ...at least in the U.S.


----------



## lithiumflower (Feb 9, 2022)

D. L. Keur said:


> A deed is a registered (legal) instrument, so your scenario is unlikely, the deed easily proven a forgery ...at least in the U.S.



Oh, alright, back to the drawing board then, thanks for replying


----------



## D. L. Keur (Feb 9, 2022)

lithiumflower said:


> Oh, alright, back to the drawing board then, thanks for replying


Here ARE 3 ways you can be removed/lose your legally owned property or house in the U.S.

1. fail to pay your property taxes for (where I live) three years. Your property will be publicly auctioned, the back taxes taken out of the proceeds.
2. your house is condemned for health and safety reasons. You still own it, but you cannot live there.
3. the state confiscates your property, employing 'eminent domain', paying you what they calculate as 'fair market value'.


----------



## lithiumflower (Feb 9, 2022)

D. L. Keur said:


> Here ARE 3 ways you can be removed/lose your legally owned property or house in the U.S.
> 
> 1. fail to pay your property taxes for (where I live) three years. Your property will be publicly auctioned, the back taxes taken out of the proceeds.
> 2. your house is condemned for health and safety reasons. You still own it, but you cannot live there.
> 3. the state confiscates your property, employing 'eminent domain', paying you what they calculate as 'fair market value'.



Oh cool, awesome, thanks so much!


----------



## indianroads (Feb 14, 2022)

Just shooting at the moon - but could Josh, or a friend of Josh be a hacker? Could he get through the government firewalls and and make one of @D. L. Keur scenarios occur?


----------



## Taylor (Feb 14, 2022)

lithiumflower said:


> I want to go back and add to my story a scene where the main character (Noah)'s brother - (named Josh), steals Noah's deed to his house, forges it and makes it as if he (Joshua) owns it and then calls the police to get Noah removed, but I'm trying to find out if that's logical. If someone steals the deed to your house and makes it their own, can they then call the police and get you removed from the house? Because the deed shows that you don't own the house?


I think there is some merit to your idea, here.  But you would have to make it happen electronically as @indianroads suggests.   If he were to change the registered owner, then when the police show up, his name shows as the rightful owner with the land title office.  Likely it wouldn't have a lasting effect, but it might work for just the first night when he calls the police because there is a trespasser.    His ID would match that of the registry title owner if he was successful in the hack.



			Welcome to US Land Records


----------



## petergrimes (Feb 14, 2022)

Hi Lithium flower nice to meet you, i have actually heard of this happen in the UK, it was in the news, but not done in the exact way you describe.

here is the artcle on bbc news that should give you an idea of how to do it. He owned the house, a vicar, came home from holiday and found someone else moved in. You should be able to get it to work from copying the report I've posted. Cheers pG


----------



## CyberWar (Feb 23, 2022)

The way conmen typically steal real estate is by duping the victim into legally signing it over. It can be rather tricky to prove afterwards that you did not realize what you were signing if the fraudster has a legally-valid document with your signature on it. Real estate frauds usually target vulnerable people like seniors who are unlikely to have the means or the knowledge to fight a protracted legal battle.

A scammer can, for example, pretend to represent an aid organization and convince a struggling senior or indebted person to sign a contract for providing financial aid in exchange for the right to use his real estate, only to have the victim evicted afterwards. Such scammers tend to have extensive understanding of the law, oftentimes themselves being unscrupulous legal professionals (notaries, court executors), making it difficult for the average person to do anything about reclaiming the stolen property once it's signed over. Although clearly immoral and predatory, such practice is often difficult to prove to be a scam, as everything has been done legally from a technical perspective, and the lawful proprietor faces the difficult task of proving beyond doubt that the scammer acted in bad faith.


----------



## DailyLunatic (Mar 26, 2022)

lithiumflower said:


> I want to go back and add to my story a scene where the main character (Noah)'s brother - (named Josh), steals Noah's deed to his house, forges it and makes it as if he (Joshua) owns it and then calls the police to get Noah removed, but I'm trying to find out if that's logical. If someone steals the deed to your house and makes it their own, can they then call the police and get you removed from the house? Because the deed shows that you don't own the house?


One way a home could be stolen is that the thief will forge, and file a Quitclaim Deed with the county, then sell the house on market to some unsuspecting...

_"A quitclaim deed releases a person's interest in a property without stating the nature of the person's interest or rights, and with no warranties of that person’s interest or rights in the property. A quitclaim deed neither states nor guarantees that the person relinquishing their claim to the property had valid ownership, but it does prevent that person (the grantor) from later claiming they have an interest in the property."_​
Unfortunately, under this scenario, Josh would not be the owner ordering the police to evict Noah.  It can all get straighten out given time, but Josh would be long gone, and you would have some very upset houseguests for a while demanding their money back.  They may try, or succeed for a time, to evict Noah...  Dunno, I'm not a lawyer and law varies state to state...

-sterling


----------



## ehbowen (Mar 26, 2022)

True story from 25 years back: A married couple from Missouri (she was a cousin of my mother) owned a second home (townhouse, actually) in my city. She died, he still lived but was limited by heart issues. While he was back at home, an unscrupulous relative of a business partner forged a title transfer from the actual owner to himself, forging both of the recorded owners' signatures (yes, she was dead) and somehow got it notarized (cash works....). He recorded the deed, then turned around and sold the property for well under market value...in the mid '90s that townhouse was worth perhaps $75K; he sold it for $18K. The sale was closed; he pocketed the cash and skipped town. A neighbor called the real owner and told him that some strange people had been in and out of his house; the fraud was discovered and the title transfer reversed (and the title insurance company which closed the sale had to eat the $18K), but the erstwhile purchaser had cleaned all of the furnishings and possessions out of the townhouse and professed to not know where they were; the true owner never got them back. We reported the fraud to the police; they just yawned.


----------



## EternalGreen (Apr 3, 2022)

The government is not the only organization with records of the sale. If you ever took out a mortgage, for example, the bank will also have records. And they are notoriously difficult to hack. Unless you pay with physical cash (which you never would) the bank will have records of that, too.


----------

