Title Fraud Attorneys

If a fraudulent deed has been recorded, do these three things

Get the recorded document from the county recorder, and a current title report showing everything recorded against the parcel and in what order. A forged deed is frequently followed by a loan recorded against the property, and the lender's position has to be dealt with in the same matter.

Preserve the notary evidence. The notary's commission details appear on the document and the notary's journal is a record that can be obtained later. It is often the strongest evidence available.

Report it, and notify your title insurer if you hold an owner's policy. Policies carry notice requirements and coverage can depend on meeting them.

Then get advice before recording anything of your own. Recording a document asserting your position does not remove theirs, and recording an instrument you are not entitled to record creates its own exposure.

A forged deed is void, which is better than it sounds

California distinguishes between instruments that are voidable and those that are void. A deed that was actually forged is void from the outset. It conveyed nothing, and a person who later bought from the forger did not acquire ownership however innocent they were.

That principle protects owners. What it does not do is clean the record. The document remains where it is and a title insurer reviewing the chain sees a conveyance, so a sale or refinance stalls until a court removes it.

The civil route is an action establishing the instrument is void and removing it from the chain, generally pleaded with quiet title. Where a lender recorded a deed of trust in reliance on the forged transfer, that interest is addressed in the same case.

Which properties get targeted

The pattern is consistent and it is about who is watching. Vacant land, because nobody visits and no post arrives. Rental property held by an owner living elsewhere. Property belonging to someone who has died or moved into care, where the mail is not being read. Property owned free of any loan, because no lender is monitoring the title.

The fraud depends on time passing before the owner finds out, which is why the monitoring below is worth more than anything else on this page.

Free monitoring, by county

Several California county recorders operate a free service that emails a registered owner when a document is recorded against a parcel they have registered. It costs nothing and it is the single most effective protection available.

Los Angeles County offers it through the Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk. San Bernardino County offers it through the Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. San Diego County offers it through the Assessor, Recorder and County Clerk.

Register through the county recorder's own website rather than a third party offering to do it for a fee. Keeping the assessor's mailing address current does similar work, because a redirected tax bill is often the first sign something has been recorded.

How owners usually find out

A notice arrives about a loan they did not take out. A property tax or utility bill stops arriving, or goes to a different address. Or a sale collapses because the title search turned up a conveyance they know nothing about.

The third is the most common and the most expensive, because it happens under a deadline with a buyer waiting.