LORAIN COUNTY, Ohio — Ohio’s top real estate experts are warning against a rise in fake real estate listings that involve trying to sell a property owned by someone else or forging documents to transfer a deed to someone else.
In Lorain County, Christina Hronek saw firsthand just how easily it can happen.
She said while settling an estate, she noticed that the deceased no longer owned five undeveloped acres of land valued at $120,000 and sold it for significantly less than what it was worth.
A quitclaim deed showed the transfer for $20,000, and it also showed the signature of the deceased, dated more than six months after he died.
"It was clear fraud, clear as day," Hronek said. "Six months after he died, somebody created a deed, forged his name, got it notarized, recorded it with Lorain County Recorder, and he was no longer in title. It’s another form of identity theft – that’s what it is."
News 5 is not naming the individual per a request from the executor of the estate.
Hronek said that the property was in the process of being sold again to someone else, but they were able to stop it and prove who really owned it.
Some $7,000 and six months later, Hronek said they were able to recover the property and ultimately sell it themselves.
Daphne Hawk runs the Ohio Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing and said they’re seeing more cases of this: rushed real estate listings that aren’t properly vetted by agents or notaries, only to learn the owner isn’t the one selling it.
"It’s a very scary thing," she said. "The most likely target of these scams are individuals who own their property free and clear with no mortgage on it, and are often seniors."
Protecting your property
So, what can be done to combat this crime?
As Hawk points out, many county recorders offer what’s called property fraud alerts, which you can sign up for to be notified if anything with your name comes through their offices.
Hronek told News 5 that all it takes is a notary willing to bend their ethics, or is simply bad at their job, to pull off the fraud.
She said she would love to see security taken one step further by requiring an attorney to act as the notary in real estate transfers.
"All attorneys are notaries," she explained. "If I'm going to notarizing something for someone I don’t know, I’m getting ID. If an attorney is involved in fraud, they’re going to lose their license to practice and no attorney is going to risk that."
Last week, Senate Bill 94 passed in the Ohio House and Senate. It still awaits a signature from the governor, but if passed, it would allow for a county recorder’s office to accept digital documents. Hawk told News 5 that this could make forgery more difficult than just walking into a courthouse with all your signed documents.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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