Fraudster mortgaged house

[jg1234]

Hello All,

A relative of mine is in a bad situation, in that the home he owns has been mortgaged by an imposter pretending to be him. The money borrowed by the fraudster is gone, and he is left with the mortgage.

Legal action has been taken, in that his solicitor has put a caveat on the property, and sent letters to Land Title Office, Bank, Police, Bank's solicitor.

The details on how the fraudster managed to pull this off is not fully known at the moment. The solicitor did manage to get a copy of the mortage with the fraudster's signature, which is totally different to the owner of the property.

At the moment, nobody's sure how they are going to catch the fraudster, but that is not important to the property owner. All he wants is to keep his house, and not let the situation end with the bank selling off the house for the mortgage.

The solicitor has mentioned that it is going to take some time, and probably needs to invoke claim for compensation from the Torrens Assurance Fund by either the bank or the property owner. I'm not too sure what this fund is, what the requirements are to get compensation, and what level of compensation is available.

If anyone have any thoughts on this matter that would help, I would be very grateful.

Thanks

JG

 

[Savanna100]

The way that this could have been done is by the fraudster getting his hands on the title. A Certificate of Title is a very precious thing and if you get your hands on one (someone elses), you can register your interest on a property and then proceed to mortgage it.

Never let any CT just lie around, they should be locked up somewhere. There is a huge amount of case law involving people registering an interest (that they weren't entitled to) and then dealing with a property.

Savanna

 

[Simon H]

JG

Is your friends property in NSW?

If so there is a major investigation into the mortgage fraud, going on now, it sounds like it will take some time to fully resolve (many legal problems)

Steps have been taken to help ensure this does not happen again (not that this is of much help to your friend right now)

Simon H

 

[agent007]

_______________________________________________-
The way that this could have been done is by the fraudster getting his hands on the title. A Certificate of Title is a very precious thing and if you get your hands on one (someone elses), you can register your interest on a property and then proceed to mortgage it.
________________________________________________

Hi Savanna100,

Could you please elaborate on the above?. I have not idea how this can be done and how I can protect myself?.

Thanks,
James.

 

[jg1234]

The property is in NSW.

I'm not sure how the fraudster managed to pull this off. The theory is that the land title was given by the Land Title Office to the fraudster when false ID and stolen council rates were produced. That is still not fully determined until the Land Title Office replies.

Also, the bank could be at fault as the fraudster would have presented false documents for the loan.

Has anyone had experience or know someone who had experience with this situation, resolved and kept their property?

Thanks

JG

 

[agent007]

So, how can we protect ourself and avoid this situations to happen?. For what I can gather, by the time we get to know it's already to late

Thanks,
James.

 

[plainsong]

JG how truly awful! I wish I had some suggestions, it seems beyond belief that a bank can hand over money without taking
a few basic precautions, but they have done it before and seem to get away with holding the victim accountable when their
own sloppy procedures make the fraud possible.

Paul Clitheroe did a story on this very same thing a couple of years ago, I dont know how the unfortunate people in the story fared afterwards, but apparently this couple's financial advisor
got his hands on the deed of title, went to the bank and took out a second mortgage without their knowledge, then took off overseas. I remember them saying it was a very bad forgery -the surname was spelled incorrectly , the handwriting did not match either of theirs ---, but the bank did not bother to check, just handed over the money.. At the time this was aired the couple had been turned out of their house and the NAB was in the process of auctioning it, the couple were struggling to pay the second mortgage plus rent,
Police had a warrant out for the thief=but that did not stop the bank from taking the young couple's house and suing them for the mortgage--I dont understand why the bank was not held responsible and made to wear what was their mistake!
Anyway if anyone wants to read the abbreviated story here is a link.
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/money/Property/stories/story_631.asp?x=1

I hope someone can help your relative JG.

 

[handyandy]

Hi JG

How very unfortunate that this should happen when your relatives most probably achieved one of their aims of having paid of their house.

A very ironic twist that just when they think that they have no further worries as the 'house is fully paid for' they are the most vunerable from this type of fraud.

I think the safest thing is to make sure that you have LOC mortgages up to the 80% lvr at all times so nobody takes it on as an easy target.

Even having your title deed locked away is no certainty that this type of fraud can not be perpetrated, as it is quite simple to get a copy from the land titles office.

Cheers