PALM BEACH, Fla. – March 18, 2011 – People filing false deeds to take over vacant homes has Palm Beach County’s clerk of courts warning owners to keep an eye on their property records the same way they do their credit reports.
With hundreds of vacant houses countywide — fallout from the real estate boom and bust — Clerk Sharon Bock said her office is investigating an increase in suspect “quit claim” deeds filed on homes, which are then rented to unsuspecting tenants or occupied by the scammers themselves.
A quit claim deed transfers interest in a property to a new recipient, but offers no guarantee of clear title. Although owner signatures are required on the deed, as well as notarization, Bock said advanced computer and copier technology has made forging documents easier.
“It’s terrible when someone steals your identity, but imagine what it’s like when someone steals your home,” Bock said. “Some of this isn’t just isolated incidents, it’s literally criminals with the intent to defraud.”
It can be an expensive muddle for the true homeowner who may have to spend thousands of dollars and months in court to confirm ownership of the property and obtain an eviction.
About 92,880 foreclosures were filed in Palm Beach County from 2007 through last year. A recent county estimate found at least 674 vacant homes in some high foreclosure areas in western Palm Beach County.
The 4,400-square-foot Loxahatchee house of Ronald and Heather Nicholls was likely one of them.
Purchased new in 2004 for upwards of $400,000, the four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom home has a pool and more than an acre of land. When work forced the Nichollses to move to Barbados, they stopped paying the mortgage and Bank of America filed initial foreclosure papers in June 2009.
Realtor Cathy Connolly of Re/Max Direct in Wellington said she was trying to sell the home as a short sale for the Nichollses when it was discovered in August that a family was living there.
A quit claim deed filed in July transferred the home to Zoey’s Cleaning, an inactive company, according to state records, that was based in Wellington. The deed allegedly is signed by both Heather and Ronald Nicholls, although Ronald’s name is spelled wrong in part of the document.
The couple supposedly provided their Florida driver licenses to the notary who executed the deed, but the Nichollses say in court records that they were not in the country on the date it was signed. Also, Margate-based notary Jarrod T. Frederic, whose stamp and signature are on the document, said it’s not his signature.
“I’ve never met those people a day in my life,” Frederic said this week when asked about the Nichollses.
Frederic said he found out about the deed, and was shown his alleged signature on it, when he was contacted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s detectives are investigating a report filed by the Nichollses.
The Nichollses also filed a lawsuit in October to reclaim the property, which in January had another quit claim filed on it, transferring the deed from Zoey’s Cleaning to Teresa York, the owner of Zoey’s Cleaning.
York said this week that she’s done nothing wrong. She said she had an agreement with the Nichollses to pay them $2,000 and take over their mortgage — an unusual move for banks to make on residential properties. The Nichollses say they never had an agreement with York.
York said she has spent $20,000 fixing the house up — someone stole the appliances, pool pump and air handler in the fall of 2009 — although she acknowledges she has not made any rent or mortgage payments on the home since she moved in during the summer.
“I was waiting to get this court thing taken care of,” she said about why she has made no payments.
The two sides are at a stalemate until the next hearing in April. Meanwhile the bank is foreclosing and Connolly said the hope of a short sale is waning because she can’t show the property.
“Everything’s just on hold,” Connolly said.
Copyright © 2011, The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Kimberly Miller. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
With hundreds of vacant houses countywide — fallout from the real estate boom and bust — Clerk Sharon Bock said her office is investigating an increase in suspect “quit claim” deeds filed on homes, which are then rented to unsuspecting tenants or occupied by the scammers themselves.
A quit claim deed transfers interest in a property to a new recipient, but offers no guarantee of clear title. Although owner signatures are required on the deed, as well as notarization, Bock said advanced computer and copier technology has made forging documents easier.
“It’s terrible when someone steals your identity, but imagine what it’s like when someone steals your home,” Bock said. “Some of this isn’t just isolated incidents, it’s literally criminals with the intent to defraud.”
It can be an expensive muddle for the true homeowner who may have to spend thousands of dollars and months in court to confirm ownership of the property and obtain an eviction.
About 92,880 foreclosures were filed in Palm Beach County from 2007 through last year. A recent county estimate found at least 674 vacant homes in some high foreclosure areas in western Palm Beach County.
The 4,400-square-foot Loxahatchee house of Ronald and Heather Nicholls was likely one of them.
Purchased new in 2004 for upwards of $400,000, the four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom home has a pool and more than an acre of land. When work forced the Nichollses to move to Barbados, they stopped paying the mortgage and Bank of America filed initial foreclosure papers in June 2009.
Realtor Cathy Connolly of Re/Max Direct in Wellington said she was trying to sell the home as a short sale for the Nichollses when it was discovered in August that a family was living there.
A quit claim deed filed in July transferred the home to Zoey’s Cleaning, an inactive company, according to state records, that was based in Wellington. The deed allegedly is signed by both Heather and Ronald Nicholls, although Ronald’s name is spelled wrong in part of the document.
The couple supposedly provided their Florida driver licenses to the notary who executed the deed, but the Nichollses say in court records that they were not in the country on the date it was signed. Also, Margate-based notary Jarrod T. Frederic, whose stamp and signature are on the document, said it’s not his signature.
“I’ve never met those people a day in my life,” Frederic said this week when asked about the Nichollses.
Frederic said he found out about the deed, and was shown his alleged signature on it, when he was contacted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s detectives are investigating a report filed by the Nichollses.
The Nichollses also filed a lawsuit in October to reclaim the property, which in January had another quit claim filed on it, transferring the deed from Zoey’s Cleaning to Teresa York, the owner of Zoey’s Cleaning.
York said this week that she’s done nothing wrong. She said she had an agreement with the Nichollses to pay them $2,000 and take over their mortgage — an unusual move for banks to make on residential properties. The Nichollses say they never had an agreement with York.
York said she has spent $20,000 fixing the house up — someone stole the appliances, pool pump and air handler in the fall of 2009 — although she acknowledges she has not made any rent or mortgage payments on the home since she moved in during the summer.
“I was waiting to get this court thing taken care of,” she said about why she has made no payments.
The two sides are at a stalemate until the next hearing in April. Meanwhile the bank is foreclosing and Connolly said the hope of a short sale is waning because she can’t show the property.
“Everything’s just on hold,” Connolly said.
Copyright © 2011, The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Kimberly Miller. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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