Scammed You Will Not Be!
(Seller Fraud Prevention)
(Seller Fraud Prevention)
It is one of the fastest growing crimes in America.
What is identity theft?
It's the legal-speak two word term for the land that is burdened by an easement.
What is the servient estate (or the "servient tenement")?
Relying on a quit claim deed given from one spouse to the other during the pendency of their divorce proceedings is not a good idea in light of this judicial obstacle.
What is the Court's ongoing jurisdiction over the parties to the action and the real property owned by the parties?
This person or entity is the only one who can sign a Reconveyance of Deed of Trust.
Who is the Trustee (or Successor Trustee)?
We are seeing an increase in fraud claims related to vacant land transactions that follow a similar pattern. These are at least 3 of the 6 red flags found in the 2022 FNF Fraud Alert Memo that Lindsy talked about.
What are: 1) vacant land, 2) the land is owned by a foreign national, 3) the fraudster impersonates the true owner and presents a purported original deed with a fraudulent U.S. Embassy notarization (or an out-of-state notarization conducted by a notary that is not on our approved notary list), 4) the fraudster will provide a picture or photocopy of a fraudulent passport, 5) the fraudster requests funds are wired to a foreign bank account in a country where the seller is not located, 6) all communication is via email.
This form of ALTA 2021 Policy protects against fraud after the Date of Policy.
What is the ALTA 2021 Homeowners Policy?
This could happen to an easement if the existing lenders/lienholders don't consent to it when it's created.
What is being extinguished by a foreclosure by the lender/lienholder?
This appealing time frame applies awards and orders entered in Superior Court, unless the losing party(ies) stipulate to it.
What is 30 days?
This type of deed is supposed to be recorded when a Real Estate Contract is paid in full.
What is a Warranty Fulfillment Deed (or Statutory Fulfillment Deed)?
These are two of the Elements of a Fraud Sale.
What are:
•Criminal uses public records to identify target properties (primarily vacant, unencumbered land) and ownership of the property.
•Criminal poses as the property owner or hires someone to pose as the property owner.
•They reach out to a real estate agent to list the property, expressing a preference that it be listed below market value to speed up the deal.
•They indicate they prefer cash buyers and will quickly accept an offer.
•They either request a mobile notary, or appear in person with a fraudulent ID.
•They may work with a fraudulent notary as a co-conspirator.
•Title company closes transaction and gives proceeds to criminal.
These are the two main ways to set-up the Schedule A legal description to insure an existing easement.
What is insuring the appurtenant easement as a "together with" to the Land described in Schedule A and by adding the easement as a separate parcel and identifying the specific nature (i.e. "a non-exclusive easement for ingress, egress and utilities") of the easement.
These are the three ways in which title companies determine whether real estate is community property or separate property.
What are Time of Acquisition Test, Presumption of Community Property and Statutory Definitions?
This type of Declaration can sometimes be used to remove a Deed of Trust from title without a recorded Reconveyance.
What is a Declaration of Payment (or Payment Declaration)?
These are some of the things we can do to prevent seller fraud on vacant land sales.
What are:
•Presume that a vacant land transaction is fraudulent.
•Speak to your customer over the phone.
•Mitek Systems verification early.
•Check tax records, reach out to the Seller using the information located there or another third party source. Send out Notices of Pending Real Estate Transaction
•Share information with the Realtor and request that they do the same. This includes “gut” feelings.
This Schedule B exception used to be necessary whenever we insured an appurtenant easement in Schedule A but now that it's already carved out of the coverage of the 2021 policies it isn't necessary any more.
What is the terms and conditions of the easement in Schedule A?
In order to properly transfer title a decree of dissolution must include these four "ingredients".
What are a complete legal description, language that clearly awards all title and interest to a property, a Real Property Judgment Summary on the front page of the decree and no pre-conditions to conveyance?
This type of lawsuit can be filed to get a court order removing a mortgage, deed of trust or real estate contract from title.
What is a quiet title action?
This Covered Risk in the ALTA 2021 Owners/Lenders Policies protects an Insured from acts of forgery, fraud, undue influence, duress, incompetency, incapacity, or impersonation that happened prior to the Date of Policy.
What is Covered Risk 2(a)(i)?
This is an example of an easement in gross that may be insurable by the title insurance company.
What is a conservation easement?
Although each is a WA statute regarding how we identify the parties required to execute documents conveying or encumbering real property and to determine whether judgments against a particular spouse constitute a lien on the property, they have nothing to do with each other.
What are the community property laws and the homestead laws?
This is the main reason why we no longer insure over real estate contracts with no fulfillment deed.
What is an increasing amount of claims being paid due to breaks in the chain of title and unmarketability on loan policies, sometimes many years after the fact?