Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Stolen Deed to Home
Recently, our home was broken into including a fire-proof safe containing the original deed to our home. The house is paid in full, and our concern now, is that the person who has the deed can forge or somehow abuse the deed to either a)sell the house, b)take out a loan using the house as collateral c)some other way manage to defraud us of our home. I have obtained a certified copy of the grant deed from the county recorder, and a homestead declaration was also filed prior to the burglary.
In short, what can these theives potentially do with the deed, and how do we protect ourselves?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Stolen Deed to Home
Excellent question!
To assuage your fears, the answer to your question is that the deed is absolutely worthless to the thieves. From your question, it would appear that you have already recorded the deed, so there should be a county recorder's number on the deed. It would be stupid for them to take an already recorded document somewhere, even if they whited out names or other pertinent information. Even if they whited out your name, and the recorder's stamp, and finagled someone into recording it, your recorded deed was earlier in time and thus prevails.
Stolen deeds are only valuable to thieves when they have never been recorded. Following the above logic, a thief can wash the grantee's name, and insert their own, and then record, and in that case, a real problem occurs because the deed as originally executed was not recorded.
That is why we have a recorder's system. It works, and it protected you in this case. Way to use your head in having the deed recorded.
Very truly yours,
Anthony Roach, Esq.
P.S. I am not giving any opinion as to the homestead, because that is a whole other matter.
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