by Mihir Zaveri, New York Times
The scammers come in many varieties: The slick broker who “saves” a home from foreclosure, only to vanish with the title. The caregiver who exploits an older man’s trust to hijack his deed. The financial whiz who promises a mortgage renegotiation that ends in an eviction.
Every year, cases like these afflict homeowners across New York City. The schemes are examples of deed theft, a practice in which people fraudulently take ownership of others’ homes.
Just two days ago, a Brooklyn city councilman was among several people arrested at a protest against the crime.
Now, the city is creating an Office of Deed Theft Prevention that will investigate instances of deed theft and try to stamp them out.
“The theft of a home is the theft of a family’s future,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday as he announced the creation of the office.
“Deed theft preys on the New Yorkers who can least afford it. Today, we are bringing the full force of city government to bear to stop it — to protect homeowners, defend generational wealth and make clear that this City will not tolerate the exploitation of our communities.”
Deed theft has been a particular problem in predominantly Black neighborhoods, where investors can capitalize on rising property values and gentrification.
Mr. Mamdani, who has focused much of his attention on helping the city’s renters, is moving to create the office as he seeks to improve his political standing with Black homeowners and their representatives.
He appointed Peter White, a lawyer who has worked for more than seven years at Access Justice Brooklyn, a nonprofit group, to lead the office. Mr. White worked on several deed theft and foreclosure related cases at the group.
“My fundamental goal is to make life better for New York City homeowners,” Mr. White said on Friday, appearing alongside Mr. Mamdani at the Brooklyn Bank, a nonprofit based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that helps people build financial independence. “This is something I’ve tried to do since the beginning of my legal career.”
Mr. Mamdani said the office would have a budget of $500,000 in the current fiscal year, which ends in the summer, and $1 million in the next. The office is expected to find ways to better educate homeowners on the warning signs of deed theft, as well as connect potential victims with lawyers and law enforcement.
The office will also work on crafting new city and state legislation that could help public officials crack down on the practice.
It will be part of the city’s Finance Department and will coordinate efforts between the housing department, the commission on human rights and more.
While government officials have pursued deed theft cases in recent years, it remains a difficult problem to address. It is not always obvious to homeowners that they have been victims, and years could pass before any offense is reported.
It can also be tough to determine when behavior is criminal and when a homeowner may simply be making a bad decision involving getting rid of their home. And the legal ownership of a home may be murky, particularly if the property was inherited by several different heirs or is in the hands of a guardian or conservator.
The protest this week where the councilman, Chi Ossé, was arrested, did not center on an actual example of deed theft, according to the state attorney general’s office, but a property dispute between heirs and relatives of the property’s former co-owners.
Still, officials have worked to more effectively address the issue. In 2024, state officials passed a law, known as the Heirs Property Protection and Deed Theft Prevention Act, that firmly established deed theft as a crime. The law was written in part by Letitia James, the state attorney general.
One government estimate from 2023 found that there were at least 3,500 complaints of deed theft filed over the previous decade.
The Furman Center at New York University released an analysis last April that found that tens of thousands of New York City homeowners were vulnerable to deed theft, scams, under-market sales and other legal problems that could strip them of their equity.
Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.
