What One Municipality is Doing About It

Could someone transfer your property ownership away from you without your knowledge? One scam takes advantage of the fact that California County Recorders do not vet the contents of deeds to ensure validity: an individual without any connection to the property creates confusion in the public property ownership records by recording fake deeds (“wild deeds”) purporting to grant ownership to themselves or someone else, counting on that confusion to further defraud or extort money and property from others. Such scams have been conducted recently in San Diego County, and policymakers are taking steps to protect homeowners and businesses.

Wild Deeds in the Wild

A series of recent San Diego County Superior Court cases allege that, without the participation of the true property owners, an individual claiming to be Joan E. Tapper allegedly recorded quitclaim deeds with the County of San Diego Recorder’s Office, purporting to transfer various parcels that she did not own to the hands of a fake company called Oh It Is Jesus, LLC.

As the real property owners learned the hard way, the County Recorder does not (and legally cannot) vet the contents of a deed or other recorded document. The Recorder only ensures that the general procedural requirements are followed when recording a document. For example, ensuring that the wording of the deed states that the parcel is located in San Diego County; that signatures are acknowledged by a notary with the proper notary acknowledgment language; that the text of the document is legible; and that the paper and margins are the right size (and so on).

Because the Recorder does not investigate either the substantive validity of the documents presented for recording or the authority of the persons requesting that they be recorded, a “wild” deed that confuses the chain of title potentially can be recorded even if it has been fraudulently executed by someone other than the legal owner of the real property.

Until recently, landowners who were unknowing victims of such wild deed real estate scams typically only found out about them by accident–for example, when a title search was ordered by a title company in connection with a sale or refinance or for some other purpose. For properties that change hands infrequently – for example because title to the property is held by a company or remains within a family trust for multiple generations – a wild deed might go undetected for a long period of time. When finally discovered, a wild deed can cause unintended delay or difficulty with the true owner’s ability to validly transfer ownership of the property, to obtain financing using the property as collateral, and other problems.

What a Property Owner Can Do

Fortunately, if you or your business is an owner of real property in San Diego County, you now have the option to be proactive by signing up for the County’s free real estate notice service called “Owner Alert,” which is designed to alert users when the Recorder records a deed or other instrument which references your property. Learn more on the County website.

If you discover that a wild deed has been recorded against your property, you may need to take prompt legal action to quiet title to the property and have the wild deed declared invalid. Our Litigation and Real Estate groups can advise you about your options and assist you with this type of legal action. Within our Trusts and Estates group, we have attorneys that frequently assist real property owners with their estate planning and help fiduciaries administer real property after the owner’s death. They can advise you on a wild deed within the context of a probate or trust administration. They also can guide you through change of ownership and property tax issues involving California real estate.