Identity Thieves Steal Homes

westcoaster004 writes "Identity thieves in Canada have begun targeting the homes of their victims. Recently, several cases of mortgage and title fraud have involved identity theft; several individuals have had their houses sold without their knowledge. Ontario's land-registry system does not currently protect homeowners from such fraud, but instead favors banks, mortgage companies, and purchasers. The provincial government is however working to solve the problem."

Comments

Reminds me of Carmen Sandiego

[antifoidulus]

Where people would just walk off with monuments. Truth is stranger than fiction it seems

Government complicit in the crime

[Jim in Buffalo]

The government is complicit in the crime if they are going to enforce the results of the crime, as they have apparently done in this case. The victim was correct to refer to "lawlessness."

Re:Government complicit in the crime

[honkycat]

There are four parties involved and under the current law, two victims. The legitimate owner and the would-be buyer both get screwed. The illegitimate seller and the bank both get off without injury (assuming the thief evades the authorities). This is a poor arrangement because the party most capable of managing the loss -- the bank -- has virtually no incentive to ensure that all its dealings are on the up-and-up.

Even the smallest mortgage bank is far wealthier than the usual homeowners involved. Plus, they may have insurance for their investments (don't know for sure whether such insurance exists, but it seems likely) and can certainly be compensated through writing off loss through fraud.

They are also in the best position to help ensure that everyone does their due diligence to prevent such fraud from occurring. If it costs the bank when they screw up, they'll take that a lot more seriously.

Clearly the fairest way to resolve the situation is to refund the buyer's purchase price and return the property to its original owner. Everyone still has injuries (except the asshat fraudster), but no one is out a life's savings.

Re:Fight fire with fire

[spiritraveller]

I am glad that I live in America, where we at least retain some of the more important aspects of English common law...

Who came up with the idea that they should let someone else sell your home as long as they can successfully trick the buyer?

Whoever it was, they should be shot.

Odd

[Threni]

> Ontario's land-registry system does not currently protect homeowners from such fraud

Odd. If it's not yours, you can't sell it. At least, that's usually the rule.

No Walkthough?

[MadEE]

The thing that baffles me about this fraud is who the heck buys a house without first taking a walkthrough. The guy who lives there is going to tell you what is up, perhaps strung with profanity. Heck even if it wasn't fraud the guy could be storing toxic waste in the basement for all you know.

Re:Say NO to malpractice insurance

[BVis]

That's a great idea!

Next, we should make people pay back the auto insurance companies when the get in an accident and total their cars! Serves them right for making a mistake!

Then all those people in New Orleans? Screw em! They should have to pay the banks back TRIPLE instead of filing homeowners claims! After all, they insisted on buying homes there, right?

In case you haven't taken my point, you've missed the entire concept of what insurance is for. People make mistakes. It happens. Even the best surgeon or lawyer can make an error that injures their patient/client/customer/whatever.

Yes, this notary was negligent. That's why he/she carries malpractice insurance: so a mistake won't make their families homeless.

Tell me, would YOU want to have a job where a mistake could cost you everything you own and 90% of what you earn for the next 20 years? We're not talking about high stakes gambling or high-risk investment here; we're talking about being a NOTARY.

Maybe when you climb down from your high horse you can tell the rest of us what it's like to be perfect. Maybe you can also tell us about how the notary making a mistake makes them more responsible than the perpetrators of the identity theft.

Re:I thought

[Nuskrad]

Nono, America is Mexico's Canada!

Re:This is very dangerous...

[grim4593]

If someone tried stealing my home out from under me I would be sitting on the porch with a shotgun holding my copy of the deed in my hand. I would not care if the buyers think they have rights to my house or not, if someone forged my name I would not be liable because I said so.

Re:Fight fire with fire

[spiritraveller]

Ah, but you forget that there are two victims here - the seller and the purchaser.

No I've not. First of all, the seller is not a victim at all. He's a crook.

As for the purchaser, it is up to him to do his due diligence by investigating the chain of title and the identity of the seller. Beyond that, buyer's title insurance is available, and EVERYONE should ALWAYS buy a buyer's title insurance policy whenever they purchase real estate (do not confuse this with the lender's policy which you will also pay for at closing).

The owner will usually have no opportunity to prevent this type of fraud. The buyer always will.

On another note, Canadian law outside of Quebec is based on English common law.

Yes, but this is one area where they have deviated from the common law in a very stupid way. The common law rule is that you do not have the power to sell something that you do not own. The only way to "steal" real estate should be through adverse possession. But that requires that someone occupy (possess) the property adversely, exclusively and openly for several years without any action taken by the rightful owner.

Re:Fraud

[darkonc]

In this case, the notary indicated:

"acknowledged before me this 18th day of April 2006 by Reviczky Paul, who is personally known to me of who has produced Drivers Licence."

In this case, I think that there may be some reason to go after the lawyer who notarized the power of attorney.