One homeowner has recently discovered he no longer owns his 8,300-square-foot home — at least on paper.
Craig Adams, a local dentist in Raleigh, North Carolina, said the deed to his $4 million property no longer included his name.
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“[I] found out that [a Dawn Mangum] had filed a false warranty claim deed against this house and basically tried to steal (it),” Adams told ABC11 Eyewitness News, adding, “we’re so vulnerable.”
Paperwork filed with the Wake County Register of Deeds Office lists Adams as a debtor and includes Mangum, a woman he’s never met, on the deed. It was allegedly approved and officially recorded without any verifications.
Adams and his wife discovered the issue after Mangum contacted their homeowners association (HOA) to gain access to the private gated community.
Adams proved to the Register of Deeds that he owned the home, using mortgage and tax records, and stated that Mangum had no stake in it; however, the deed remains in her name.
According to emails Adams received from the Wake County Register of Deeds and the County Attorney, they can’t remove a document once it’s been recorded, as per North Carolina law.
“They say there’s absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this,” Adams told the news outlet. “Once it’s filed their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman.”
How did this happen?
According to North Carolina law, county Registers of Deeds aren’t required to verify the legitimacy of paperwork they receive.
In this instance, Mangum, who claims it was all a misunderstanding, has since been charged with obtaining property under false pretense. But how did this happen in the first place?
According to Mangum, in an interview with ABC11, she believed Adams’ property was in foreclosure when she started to make moves to get the deed to the home into her trust. She said that, once she learned the property was not in foreclosure, she stopped all paperwork. She also claimed that she wants to amend the paperwork to return the property to Adams.
However, she’d filed paperwork with the Wake County Register of Deeds, listing herself as the owner through a fraudulent trust. No legal checks are required to verify the legitimacy of the deed transfer, allowing it to be recorded without Adams’ knowledge.
The Wake County Register of Deeds released a statement about the case, which stated in part:
“The Register of Deeds is not required to verify the legal validity of a deed when it is presented for registration, nor are they required to verify the credentials or legal standing of the notary or drafter of the document (G.S. 47-14). With more than 500 documents processed through the Wake County Register of Deeds office daily, it would be impossible to verify the legitimacy of each document.”
Even if Mangum is convicted, Adams will still need to go through civil courts in order to correct the record.
In the meantime, he hopes his frustrating ordeal prompts changes in the laws that allowed Mangum to change the deed in the first place.
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How to protect yourself from deed fraud
There are steps homeowners can take to protect themselves from deed fraud. Check if your county offers a deed or title fraud alert service to monitor changes to deeds in your name.
While that wouldn’t have protected Adams in this instance, since his name wasn’t on the new deed, it can help prevent other types of deed fraud.
Title insurance, which many homeowners get once they purchase a home, also offers protection from title defects, including fraud. It can come in handy with such common title issues as: back taxes, filing errors, liens, title forgeries, easements, and conflicting wills.
Finally, if you suspect deed fraud on your property, contact authorities immediately and seek legal counsel.
Acting quickly is important, because once the deed is filed, in many cases it requires a court order to reverse.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.