“They said they can’t remove a document once it has been recorded.”
Clearly they reversed the original document in favor of the person committing fraud, just do the same thing and take it back.
In North Carolina you can pay insurance for your deed for this very reason. I heard about it and thought it was silly.
They basically register the deed with the insurance company and if something happens, your insured copy is provided and verified with the office. Of course you are paying for the privilege haha
I think the actual owner needs to file a document to supersede the fraud document. Or send their mortgage company after them, with a firm "hey, the house is gone, you should fix this or I stop paying, what are you gonna do, foreclose? ". (Probably ask nicer, they may have a legal team that helps with these things)
Some idiot tried the same thing with Graceland and got caught out, it seems like there should be a process:
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/16/nx-s1-5078719/elvis-graceland-defraud-woman-arrested
Also, according to North Carolina law, the Register of Deeds does not have a duty to verify the legal sufficiency of a deed when it is presented for registration, nor do they have a duty to verify or inquire as to the legal sufficiency of a notary acknowledgment or the capacity of the drafter.
They really pulled a “not our problem” on what is a massive problem, and blamed it on having to process a bunch of forms per day. Guess what: it’s exactly your job to process a bunch of forms.
I’m impressed at this article for spelling out exactly how little the Register of Deeds needs to follow up on, almost to the point that you could, like, pull some shit. Maybe on, say, someone higher up in the Register of Deeds office and rub it in their dumb faces. Not that anyone should, of course.
