Worried about fraud affecting your home?
You should be!

Real estate fraud is becoming an issue, here are some examples:

 

1. A fraudster creates false identification and arranges for a mortgage to be placed on your home. You only find out when contacted by the new lender who tells you that a foreclosure is about to be started.
2. A fraudster creates false identification and arranges for your home to be sold, often times while you are out of town. The property is sold to an innocent buyer who has no idea that the person he is dealing with is a fraudster. In this situation, you could lose your home!

 

But there is a way to prevent fraud from affecting your family home – ask us to pull the Duplicate Indefeasible Title from the Land Title office – this is the only way we know of to prevent fraud from affecting your home.

By pulling this document it effectively freezes the title at the Land Title Office. No further dealings are allowed unless and until the Duplicate Title is returned to the Land Title Office. This includes any dealings you may wish to do.

This is a very important document, so great care must be taken not to lose it. If it becomes lost a homeowner is looking at several thousand dollars and a couple months to have it returned.

We suggest you keep this document in a safety deposit box, safe or other such secure place. Alternatively, for an annual fee we can keep the document in our fireproof safes in our Coquitlam office. Simply call us when you need the document returned and we will do so!

Note there are other ways to reduce the risk of fraud, such as placing a charge on title such as a line of credit, but these are more expensive and do not eliminate the risk, simply reduce it. Title insurance is also an option, but this also does not reduce the risk of fraud, let alone eliminate it.