On TV a couple of nights ago, there was discussion on how some people have had their house sold fraudulently by someone else, whilst they have been away travelling overseas. So someone gets their private details and advertises and sells the house to the unsuspecting buyer. The owner returns and finds his/her property is no longer their own.
The result of the discussion was that when the owner returns and finds someone else has purchased his/her house, then they have no right to the house. The new purchaser does legally own the property.
They were saying that there should be statutes in place to force real estate agents to check that the details of the seller are in fact correct and there is no fraud taking place.
I find it hard to believe that the owner has no recourse even in the courts and no one takes responsibility for this.
Can I have an opinion from the legal eagles on this forum.
thanks
[angel]JULES1
Email MeIts amazing isn’t it. There would be legal recourse, but it is difficult if the fraud has not been discovered straight away and the person used a false identity and has cashed the cheques and done a runner.
Its amazing that the Land titles office doesn’t record dates of birth too.
Terryw
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There is a section in the real estate legislation that states that in the even that a house is sold fraudulantly, the new purchaser would be protected as they purchased in good faith and the vendors only course of action would be against the person commiting the fraud.
This law has been around forever and that is why title references are checked by conveyances and agents before selling a house.
It can happen but is not a very common thing,I don’t own a TV at home but I happened to see the show while at my mums house, it just reinforced our choice not to watch TV!
Highly sensationalised journalism making it seem like it happens as an every day thing and putting the fear into people not to go overseas because your house will be sold from under you in this “New Scam” that has really been around since the 1940s!
And offcourse it was a chance for our hero Neil Jenman to shine once again while he pointed out all the ways in which real estate agents are to blame for making houses disappear and all this runt was based on a total sample number of ONE!!!
Hardly statistically relevant now is it!!!
Investment Property Management
http://www.adprop.com.auI wonder if it would help to have an entity (family trust, co, husband or wife or something) lodge a caveat over the property? one more hurdle for the fraudsters to overcome.
Hi all
How do they do it when there is a mortgage?
The bank has the title and that needs to br produced.
Celeste
I recall reading somewhere if the buyer purchases in good faith then in some circumstances the buyer can retain the goods, but I thought there was another circumstance in fraudulent transactions such as these, where because there was a fraud then good title could not transfer to the new buyer and the new buyer had to return the goods to the rightful owner.
The fact that references should be checked by conveyances and agents before selling a house, surely would enable legal action against them for failing in their duty to pick up the fraud. Particularly as Celeste says, if the bank is holding the mortgage on the property, how does the fraudster get away with it.
Maybe the RE Institute should be pressuring for Statutes to protect owners
[angel]JULES1
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