Craig Adams is frustrated. His 8,300-square-foot home is no longer in his name, despite Adams owning the home and still living in it with his wife. Despite him being up-to-date and in good standing with paying his mortgage and property taxes, Adams discovered the deed to his home is no longer in his name. Instead, it belongs to a complete stranger.
"Found out that she had filed a false warranty claim deed against this house and basically tried to steal (it)," Adams said.
The she Adams is referring to is Dawn Mangum. Adams only learned about Mangum getting the deed in her name after the property management company for his HOA asked if he sold his home, because Mangum had contacted the company to get gate access to the private gated community where the house sits.
Paperwork filed with the Wake County Register of Deeds Office, signed by Mangum, lists Adams as a debtor, along with Dawn Mangum Estate. The Register of Deeds approved the deed transfer to Dawn Mangum Trust.
Adams went to the Wake County Register of Deeds to question how this happened.
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"There's no effort to authenticate the validity of the change of deed. Nobody verifies the notary. Nobody verifies who owns the house that's trying to be transferred to a different owner," Adams said about what he learned during his visit.
Adams proved to the Register of Deeds that he owned the home and Mangum had no stake in it, but the deed remained with Dawn Mangum Trust.
Adams couldn't believe it.
"They say there's absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this. Once it's filed their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman."
Emails Adams got from the Wake County Register of Deeds and the County Attorney state while they sympathize with Adams, they're bound by the limitations under North Carolina law. They said they can't remove a document once it has been recorded.
Also, according to North Carolina law, the Register of Deeds does not have a duty to verify the legal sufficiency of a deed when it is presented for registration, nor do they have a duty to verify or inquire as to the legal sufficiency of a notary acknowledgment or the capacity of the drafter.
However, the Register of Deeds told our sister station ABC11 that the office can refuse to record a document if fraud is suspected. However, in this case, there was no suspicion of fraud when the document was recorded.
"The biggest concern is the citizens of Wake County are -- we're so vulnerable! Anybody, I could go down and put this warranty deed, find out where you live, and I could presumably take ownership of your house. It's that easy," Adams said.
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Troubleshooter Diane Wilson reached Mangum on the phone, who said everything was done by law as she thought the property was in foreclosure. She believes by law you can claim an abandoned property.
Mangum texted Wilson, "My thing is not to take anyone's home but to find abandoned property and restore it."
Once Mangum learned the property wasn't in foreclosure, she said she stopped all paperwork. She added she'd like to return the ownership to Adams and claims the paperwork will be amended.
As for Adams, he said the foreclosure noted on the for sale listing was a mistake and was corrected.
He will have to hire an attorney and bring this before a judge to hear the case. In the meantime, he hopes his frustrating ordeal prompts change.
"The biggest thing that needs to happen is the laws from the state legislature need to come down to the register. (It) needs to have a simple set of checks and balances, authenticate the document, authenticate the signature, authenticate who owns the home." Adams said.
The Wake County Sheriff's Department said it is actively investigating this case.
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Wake County Registry of Deeds released the following statement about the case:
The Register of Deeds office is taking this situation very seriously, and is committed to assisting the homeowner in any way possible within the scope of the law.
Under North Carolina law, Registers of Deeds are statutorily obligated to accept and immediately register documents in conformity with G.S. 161-14. The Register of Deeds is not required to verify the legal validity of a deed when it is presented for registration, nor are they required to verify the credentials or legal standing of the notary or drafter of the document (G.S. 47-14). With more than 500 documents processed through the Wake County Register of Deeds office daily, it would be impossible to verify the legitimacy of each document or the credentials of each notary, nor does the Register of Deeds office have access to a database of commissioned North Carolina notaries to check against.
Register of Deeds staff are not attorneys and are explicitly barred from giving legal advice or from acting as an attorney in verifying a document.
As soon as the Register of Deeds office became aware of the fraudulent deed, it alerted the Tax Administration office that no tax information for the property should be changed. Register of Deeds staff also immediately notified and is working with the Wake County Sheriff's Office. The homeowner was also encouraged to file a police report.
The Wake County Register of Deeds office offers a free fraud alert system. When documents are recorded with a name that is being monitored, the property owner will be immediately notified that an action has taken place on their property. In this particular situation, the homeowner's name was not included as the drafter or the Grantor or Grantee on the document, so the alerts were not triggered. The document also hasn't been indexed in the homeowner's name. You can learn more about the free fraud alerts here.
Because the deed has been recorded, the Register of Deeds office does not have the authority under North Carolina state law to remove the document from the record without a court order. Wake County will gladly cooperate with any criminal law enforcement investigation or civil proceeding that is initiated on the homeowner's behalf.
How do you prevent this from happening to your property?
You should check with your county's Register of Deeds Office and figure out if you can sign up for fraud alerts.
Fraud alerts won't stop the deed transfer from happening, but it would notify you immediately after anything is recorded that involves your name. That would at least ensure that you are notified and could stop something more from happening.
For Wake County, you can do that here. You can also check with your homeowners insurance company or a title insurance company, as some do offer fraud coverage for an additional cost.