Yatter Matters

Has someone sold your home and you didn’t know it?

Once more we get news from our trusted papers that scare the hell out of everybody. The article in The Vancouver Sun centered on Title Fraud.

Our B.C. Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) wants to bring some clarity to this issue in the hope of achieving calm reason. The LTSA says:

• In the 18 years the land title system processed 15 million transactions
• during this time, two claims related to land ownership fraud were successfully resolved and only 14 claims related to mortgage fraud had been filed.
• LTSA is not only legally obligated to confirm ownership every time a property is sold, mortgaged, leased or statutory rights of way are created, additional protection is provided through an assurance fund. That fund compensates owners deprived of their title either because of an LTSA administration error or identity theft/fraud.

There are two ways to check and to protect>

• an automatic email service to your notary or lawyer when activity shows on your title
• order a duplicate certificate of title for their own records, at a cost of approximately $50. Your Title can not be transferred without that document.

*** But beware notes the LTSA. “While this provides protection, it also causes problems when such documents are lost or misplaced.” *** LTSA further notes that

• it is unaware of any cases in B.C. that required an innocent owner to pay off a fraudulently obtained mortgage on their property. Typically, when a bank asks a homeowner to pay for title insurance on a mortgage, that insurance protects the lending institution, not the home owner. However, separate insurance may be purchased that protects the owner’s equity in the property.(my emphasis)

It would be nice to hear what the banks have to say about this topic and how they will “happy” to not pursue the innocent property owner with their attempts to recover their loss on the fake mortgage. I’m not counting on anything official for a very long time.

Got a Vancouver Real Estate question? Always happy to do my best to answer it. Call or send me an email. Larry