Have you had a property stolen from you IE deed you did not sign

[Jay Hinrichs]

Well it happened to me this week..  its a long drawn out story.. but here goes.

I sell a OREO on a land contract..  the buyer sells to another buyer on land contract.. This new buyer it appears wanted to make sure my buyer was actually in title IE the vested owner.  So it appears that my buyer on his own forged a deed from me to him and somehow got a notary to notarize it. And then recorded it.. It all came to light yesterday.. When my buyer defaulted on me I sent a TK operator I know very well to go give me an offer on that house.. She tells me someone has put a new roof on it and is working on it.. MY buyer said he is abandoning it and stopped paying 3 or 4 months ago..

So this spooked the new buyer and he went to an attorney.. ( which happens to be a closing attorney i have used in the past)  so we get on the phone and compare notes.. And since this county in the deep south deeds are not on line he sent his assistant to the Court house to pull the deed.. Then he sent it to me.. Sure enough forgery  the deed was signed and notarized Feb 2021 but not recorded till May 2021. I have not set foot in this state in 2.5 years so no way I was there..  

So bottom line few things could have happened this guy i sold too stole a notaries stamp and forged the Notary name as well.  Or the Notary looked the other way for some graft..  

At this point its 4pm Friday and I let my buyers attorney know we found this.. ( we were negotiating another deal i had with him at the time).
And his answer to me was.. I talked to my client he is as confused as you are..   I said no confusion this is not the first time this happened to me.. Its more prevalent with forged mortgage releases that some of my borrowers have done in the past..

I said to the attorney well this has now gotten very serious.  you have an innocent victim of your buyer.. you have me that is totally screwed up he filed a forged deed.. So bottom line its friday at 4 pm I am shutting it down.. we will talk about this next week..

The other buyer happens to be an ex lawman.. Although when I talked to him he was more concerned about getting his money back than putting this guy in jail. LOL..  Me not sure.

End of the day I will get paid one way or the other.. I dont need a lawyer for this so its not going to cost me legal fee's I know what to do and how to do it.. 

So what would you do ...  File charges and go for the throat.. negotiate a settlement and let it go. we are not talking big money here

less than 40k total.. I cant see how someone would do a criminal act for such small amount of money as well.

Thoughts Opinions ???  This ever happen to you..  I know it happens in these low value asset areas normally to non english or minority owners that are just not sophisticated and dont seek council.