Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts
Deed Fraud
I have a friend whose grandparents (age 90 +) wished to sign their house over to him in their will, when they went to get the paperwork they discovered that the deed had already been signed over to a cousin who had been running errands and doing grocery shopping for them for a while but had fallen out of their favor. Clearly they had never had any intention of signing the house to him and their normal lawyer did not process the deed. Unfortunatly it looks they managed to get the grandparents signature however they are certain the there was no third party present as witness or a notary, now the deed is registered. Is there any way to fix this without a ton of legal fees?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Deed Fraud
The first step would be to get a copy of the deed from the Registry of Deeds in the county the property is located. You should review the signarture of the grantor (grandparents) to ensure that they did in fact sign the deed in the prescence of a notary. You would need to file a court action to ask the court to declare the deed a forgery. In addition to signing the deed, the grantor must have the intent to convey the property. If the grantor did not know what he/she was signing, then a court might find there was no intent to convey the property and the deed would be declared null and void. The grantor must also have the mental capacity to transfer the property and appreciate the nature of the act. You could also state to the court that no consideration (money) was paid for the transfer. The grandparents should speak with a real estate attorney who could file the action to set aside the deed. Since the property was not as of yet signed over to your friend, he has no standing to file suit to have the deed set aside.
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