A neighbor calls to ask why there is a sale sign on your vacant lot. Or the tax bill fails to arrive, and when you look up the parcel online, the owner listed is a company you have never heard of. The county's records show a deed recorded two months ago, transferring the property from you to that company. It bears a signature that is supposed to be yours and the stamp of a notary you never met.
Deed fraud has grown fast enough in Florida that the Legislature has passed laws aimed at it, and South Florida, with its absentee owners and high land values, is a frequent target. The law is firmly on the true owner's side. Getting the public record to reflect that takes a court order, and the time between the forgery and the order is when the damage is done.
How does deed fraud happen?
The targets are properties nobody is watching: vacant land, unoccupied houses, homes owned by people who live out of state or abroad, property still in the name of someone who has died, and property with no mortgage. The forger prepares a deed, signs the owner's name, and has it notarized by a notary who is careless, complicit, or invented. The clerk records it, because the recording office checks whether a document meets formal requirements, not whether its signatures are real. The forger then sells to a buyer who has no idea, or borrows against the property, and disappears with the money. A variation skips the forged deed and has an impostor pose as the owner in a sale handled remotely.
Does a forged deed transfer ownership?
No. Under Florida law a forged deed is void. It conveys nothing, and nobody who takes title through it acquires anything, including a later buyer who paid full price in good faith. That is different from a deed the owner really signed because of trickery or pressure. Such a deed is voidable, not void, and a good-faith purchaser may be protected against the owner's claim, which makes that situation more urgent still. Even a void deed does harm while it sits in the records. It clouds the title, blocks a sale or refinance, and may put a stranger in possession or collecting rent.
How do you remove it?
Through a quiet title action. Florida provides a quiet title claim specifically for fraudulent attempted conveyances, with a simplified complaint form available from the clerks of court and an expedited procedure. When the court finds that someone attempted to fraudulently convey the land away from the person who held legal title, it must quiet title in that owner and restore the same rights the owner had before. At filing, the owner records a notice of the lawsuit in the public records, which warns buyers and lenders that title is in dispute. The proof is direct: the owner's chain of title, genuine signatures for comparison, where the owner was on the supposed signing date, and the notary's records, or the absence of any.
What if the property was already sold or mortgaged?
Then there are more parties, and they will have lawyers. Because the forged deed conveyed nothing, the buyer and the lender who relied on it received nothing, and they turn to their title insurers. Those insurers often defend the case, and the defenses are predictable: that the signature is real, that the owner knew of the transfer and accepted it, or that the owner waited so long that others were harmed by the delay. An owner's own title policy usually covers defects that existed when the policy was issued and not a later forgery, although some enhanced policies do, so the policy should be read.
Who can be held responsible for the losses?
Clearing the title does not compensate the owner for lost rent, damage to the property, or legal fees. Those claims run against the people who made the fraud possible. The forger is liable and usually cannot be found. A notary who certified a signature without the signer present, or without proper identification, can be liable for the resulting loss, as can the notary's employer. A closing agent or real estate licensee who handled the later sale and ignored obvious warning signs may be answerable too. Florida also recognizes a claim for recording a false document that disparages an owner's title. The matter should be reported to law enforcement, because the conduct is a crime.
How can owners find out early?
Every Florida clerk of court is now required to offer a free recording notification service. An owner registers a name or a parcel number and receives an email when a document matching it is recorded. The service does not stop a fraudulent deed from being recorded, but it turns months of ignorance into a day's notice. Other habits help. Keep your mailing address current with the property appraiser and the tax collector, look up your parcels online a few times a year, and visit or arrange visits to vacant land. Paid services that promise to lock a title cannot stop a recording either, and their monitoring does what the free service already does.
What should you do the day you discover it?
Order a certified copy of the recorded deed. Report it to the police and to the clerk's office, and notify the property appraiser. If the property is listed for sale, notify the broker in writing. Tell your title insurer. Give written notice to anyone occupying the property. Do not sign any corrective document a stranger offers, however official it looks. Then file the quiet title action and record the notice of it without delay, because each week allows another sale or loan to be stacked on the forged deed. Check your other properties as well, since forgers who find one unwatched parcel look for more under the same name.
Salomon Smith PLLC represents property owners in deed fraud, title fraud, and quiet title actions across South Florida, including owners who live in other states and countries. If a deed you never signed has been recorded against your property, call (305) 297-1018 for a free consultation, or learn more about our real estate fraud practice.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice.