Occupied Homes Stolen from Homeowners? Yes, Here’s How (video)

Homes at Risk in Fulton County and Nationwide

Thieves are constantly on the creative move, and this one takes the cake. Your home could be stolen even if you live there.

First, they steal your identity and then file a deed with a fake ID, and the county clerk has to file it. Once they do, the thief now owns your home.

Home Almost Stolen from Grandmother

It almost happened to Leonard Beckett, who experienced it. His grandmother purchased a home in 1970 for $6000, and the home is now worth $700,000 after repairs which is why the thieves were interested.

The thieves tried to pay her property taxes to obtain the house, but Beckett caught on just in time and could stop the process. Had the tax payment succeeded, his grandmother would have been evicted.

Program to Alert Homeowners

Fulton county has a new program called REAACT which alerts you if someone tries to file papers to steal your home. Hundreds of thousands of homes are in Fulton county, but only a few over 300 are registered with the program.

The law says that as long as you have a properly notarized deed, the county clerk has to file it. Why doesn’t GA change the law that makes it easy for thieves to steal homes?

Ironically, they believe homeowners would be against it as it would cause a lot more paperwork to sign.

In the video below, attorney Ned Blumenthal said if the clerk gets the notarized paperwork, by law, they must record it and file it.

“In the simplest matter that somebody could go out today and get a fake ID and claim – shows that they’re the owner of the property and if they’ve done their research they’ve got, on the driver’s license they’d have the address of the property, and they would have your personal information that they found through any number of public sources and they would just say they’re you,” Blumenthal states. 11Alive