Consumer Corner
Deed fraud can cause vulnerable Detroiters to lose their homes – here’s why it’s hard to catch the thieves
Deed fraud is rising in Detroit, where forged deeds can strip vulnerable homeowners of their property. Here’s how title theft works, why it’s hard to catch, and what reforms could help.
Donovan McCarty, Michigan State University
Buying her first home on Detroit’s far east side in 2021 was the moment when a lifelong dream finally came within reach for Kim Page.
“I accomplished something that I always wanted to do,” said Page, who grew up in the city. “I always wanted to buy my own home since I was like 18. I never wanted to rent from anyone.”
Page said she had saved US$15,000 and used $3,800 in cash to buy the single-family brick house on Britain Street. The house, owned by a friend planning to move out of Detroit, was “damaged pretty bad,” Page recalls. But the house was hers to care for, and she was determined to fix what was broken.
For the next several years, Page poured her sweat and paychecks into the property. Working first as a welder at automotive supplier Fisher Dynamics, and later as a phlebotomist, she paid for a dumpster, windows, a door, ceiling repair and an awning above her front porch. Page invested $27,000 in needed repairs and, in 2022, happily moved in.
But in August 2023, a storm damaged her roof. By March 2024, mold had grown inside the property, which made Page struggle to breathe; she moved in with family. She returned to the home in April 2024 for an appointment with a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That’s when Page noticed the locks had been changed. Perplexed but undeterred, she broke down the back door to get inside and purchased new locks, which she installed.
Then on a hot, summer day in July 2024, Page came home to discover all her locks had been changed again.
Searching for answers, Page called the Wayne County Register of Deeds’ Mortgage and Deed Fraud Unit. The staff confirmed she was a victim of deed fraud – a crime where scammers forge signatures to record a phony transfer of property ownership. Once criminals hijack the title, they can sell the property, rent it out or drain its equity with mortgages, potentially leaving the rightful owner to face the legal and financial fallout.
“I just was in shock,” Page said. “I can’t believe somebody really did this to me.”
A nationwide problem that’s hard to nail down
Page reached out to me for help in March 2025. I’m a housing attorney, assistant professor at Michigan State University College of Law and director of the Housing Justice Clinic. I have represented dozens of victims of deed fraud.
I have also studied how property recording systems respond – or, more accurately, fail to respond – to fraud. My work examines how procedural gaps in title systems disproportionately harm elderly, low-income and minority homeowners.
Nationwide, deed fraud – also called quit claim deed fraud or home title theft – is a growing problem, including in New York, Boston, Miami and Philadelphia.
Exactly how big a problem it is, is hard to know. The FBI does not track deed fraud specifically, instead grouping it into a larger category of real estate crimes.
From 2019 through 2023, 58,141 victims in the U.S. reported $1.3 billion in losses relating to real estate crime, the FBI says. However, that number is likely undercounted because many people don’t know where to report it, are embarrassed they were victims or don’t know yet they have been targeted.
In Detroit, deed fraud may be particularly prevalent because so many housing deals are made in cash and many properties owe back taxes. The Wayne County Mortgage and Deed Fraud Unit has tracked more than 13,000 inquiries regarding deed fraud and has opened over 2,300 cases throughout Wayne County since 2005.
Without oversight, the crime often goes undetected
Committing deed fraud is remarkably simple.
A deed is the legal document that transfers ownership of a home or other real property from one person to another. When a home is bought or sold, a deed is legally drawn up to reflect the transfer of ownership. That deed is then recorded with a county register of deeds, providing public notice of who legally owns the property.
A fraudster can forge the signature of the real owner – sometimes someone who is deceased. They can file a deed that appears valid on its face but isn’t.
They then record that false deed with a county register of deeds, the local government office that keeps public land records and other documents showing ownership, claiming title to property they do not actually own.
Fraudsters often target vulnerable people and properties, including elderly owners, families dealing with inherited homes, and houses that appear vacant or neglected, such as those behind on property taxes.
The incentive is clear: Once a fraudster appears to hold title, they can try to sell the property to an investor or an unsuspecting buyer looking for stable housing. I have seen fraudsters secure as much as $50,000 from one deal when they obtained a mortgage based on a fraudulent deed. One notable case of fraud targeted Elvis Presley’s former estate, Graceland.
In Michigan and most other states, recording offices do not have authority to substantively review a deed to determine whether it is fraudulent. If the document complies with technical formatting requirements, such as margin and font size, it must be recorded. Once stamped and indexed, the deed appears legitimate and can easily trick desperate buyers, investors, financial institutions and even police officers, lawyers and judges.
In other words, the recording process is largely administrative, not investigative. The government office accepts and files the document without first verifying that the person signing it actually had the legal right to transfer the property.
That means a fraudulent deed can enter the public record, look valid to the outside world and remain undiscovered for months or even years.
Detroit is vulnerable
The housing market helps explain why Detroiters are more vulnerable to deed fraud.
Homes in Black neighborhoods nationwide are systematically undervalued compared with similar homes in white neighborhoods. Black borrowers are also more likely to be denied conventional mortgage loans. Detroit is about 73% Black, with a median household income of roughly $39,000 and a poverty rate exceeding 30%.
In a market where access to traditional financing is uneven and home prices are relatively low, cash sales accounted for 4 in 10 sales in February 2024.
Lenders, brokers and title companies act as informal gatekeepers when people purchase a home using a mortgage. In cash sales, those actors are absent, and there are fewer opportunities to detect irregularities in the documented history showing how title passed from one owner to the next over time.
Illegal tax practices led to thousands of foreclosed homes
Property tax distress attracts fraudsters. Fraudsters seem to rely on publicly available tax foreclosure lists to identify properties that appear abandoned. They then pay the past-due taxes to remove the property from foreclosure and attempt to sell or mortgage the property using their fraudulent deed.
The fraudsters may also assume that the owner lacks the resources to wage a prolonged legal fight to recover title if they do uncover their scheme. In many cases, that assumption proves correct.
Michigan’s Constitution caps assessments at 50% of market value, but researchers have found that from 2009 to 2015, a majority of Detroit homes were assessed above that limit. Once those inflated bills went unpaid, interest, penalties and fees accumulated, often ending in tax foreclosure.
More than 100,000 Detroit residents lost homes in that crisis, and homeowners were overtaxed by at least $600 million between 2010 and 2016.
In a city already destabilized by unlawful tax foreclosure, fraudsters found opportunity in homes burdened by vacancy and broken chains of ownership.
The burdens that deed fraud victims face
My first encounter with deed fraud came in July 2023. I received a request for legal assistance from a man who said he had been evicted from a home he claimed to own. Honestly, I didn’t believe him.
But when I pulled the court records and deeds, I learned he was right.
A fraudulent deed had been filed on his property, stripping him of title. The fraudsters then filed an eviction case against him.
The owner had no phone and no internet access to attend the virtual hearings. The court entered a judgment to evict him. A bailiff came, broke down his door and threw his belongings into a dumpster.
It took six months and two separate court cases before he was finally able to return to his home. He never recovered his belongings – and we never found the fraudster.
There are many other hardships for a legitimate owner. A fraudulent deed can prevent homeowners from selling their property, refinancing or accessing financial assistance programs.
To clear title, owners must file a quiet title lawsuit – a court action used to resolve disputes over who legally owns a property.
But quiet title cases are complex legal proceedings.
They require multiple filings, hearings and strict compliance with procedural rules. Even when fraud is obvious – for example, when a deed was signed by someone who was already deceased – courts generally require formal litigation to remove the cloud from the title.
Likewise, the legal process of notifying the defendant can be especially burdensome. Fraudsters often use fictitious names and addresses, making them difficult or impossible to locate. Even uncontested cases typically take months. If a defendant appears and disputes ownership, litigation can stretch for years.
Filing fees, service costs and other litigation expenses accumulate quickly. Hiring an attorney can cost several thousand dollars, and some victims have reported spending tens of thousands clearing title to their homes.
As for Kim Page, her case is still ongoing. After being locked out of her home, she had to move in with relatives for over a year, putting a strain on their relationship. She was eventually able to return to her home, but the legal dispute over ownership has not been resolved.
On top of that, she is facing a counter-lawsuit from the company that filed the fraudulent deed, requesting $50,000 for repairs the company made to the home while Page was locked out, along with property taxes and utility bills that the company says it paid to the county and utility companies on her behalf. The county opened an investigation, but it remains unresolved. As a result, she still has no idea who orchestrated the scheme.
While there are free legal services organizations to help, they have limited capacity, and income thresholds exclude some homeowners who still cannot afford private counsel.
Legal reforms likely won’t resolve systemic issues
Across the country, state legislatures have begun responding. Twenty-one have enacted deed fraud legislation, and 15 more have proposed it.
Another common intervention is fraud alert systems, which notify owners when any documents that impact the title of their property are recorded.
Other reforms increase notarial requirements or enhance criminal penalties.
These measures may deter some misconduct, but they do little to reduce the burden on victims once a fraudulent deed has been recorded.
In my assessment, meaningful reforms focus on empowering registers of deeds to substantively review suspicious documents before recording them; simplifying and expediting quiet title proceedings; and expanding civil remedies so victims can recover the costs associated with clearing their title.
Some jurisdictions like Texas and Florida have adopted streamlined procedures that allow victims to initiate quiet title actions using standardized forms with reduced fees. Others permit recorders, prosecutors or judges to act when fraud has already been established.
In Michigan, I am working with lawmakers and stakeholders to develop comprehensive legislation addressing these issues. Bills are expected to be introduced later this year.
At the same time, my clinic has begun exploring how technology can help identify fraudulent deeds already in the record. We are working with computer scientists to evaluate whether artificial intelligence tools could flag suspicious filings and potentially prevent fraudulent documents from being accepted in the future.
No property system can eliminate fraud entirely. Preventive and punitive measures may limit fraud, but they cannot eliminate the incentive to commit it. For fraudsters, the payoff can be substantial.
Conversations about the issue often begin and end with the mechanics of the crime or the procedural burdens victims face afterward. Far less attention is paid to the housing market conditions that make some communities especially vulnerable in the first place.
Page, now 42 and working as a transporter for Sinai-Grace Hospital, has been coping with the stress of legal proceedings for the past two years and living with a heart condition so serious that she got a defibrillator.
The longtime Detroiter is fed up – with the lack of police help to find the fraudster, as well as the court system. All she wants is to be the rightful owner of the home.
“Give me my house back,” Page said.
Detroit editor Eleanore Catolico contributed reporting.
Donovan McCarty, Director, Housing Justice Clinic at Michigan State University College of Law, Michigan State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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financial wellness
Covering Basic Expenses with Credit Cards Adds to the Growing Debt Cycle
The Debt Cycle: For many Americans, credit cards were once reserved for emergencies, major purchases or added security when shopping online. However, today, people are increasingly relying on credit cards and unsecured debt to cover basic everyday expenses like groceries.
Covering Basic Expenses with Credit Cards Adds to the Growing Debt Cycle
(Feature Impact) For many Americans, credit cards were once reserved for emergencies, major purchases or added security when shopping online. However, today, people are increasingly relying on credit cards and unsecured debt to cover basic everyday expenses like groceries.
According to a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults with at least $10,000 in unsecured debt conducted by Atomik Research on behalf of Accredited Debt Relief, a debt consolidation company specializing in unsecured debt relief, credit cards are no longer just a financial convenience but a tool for managing the rising cost of everyday necessities.
In fact, 66% of respondents reported having used a credit card to cover the cost of groceries within the last year. Other essentials aren’t far behind: 47% said they’ve used it for gas or transportation, 45% for utilities and 33% for rent or housing costs.
How Everyday Expenses Turn into Long-Term Debt
Debt builds over time when credit becomes part of monthly operations. For those struggling with cost-of-living pressures, using a credit card to cover groceries or utility bills may seem manageable in the moment. When the unexpected happens – a car repair, medical bill or unusually high energy bill – however, the balance adds up for the 46% of respondents who take on additional debt at least most of the time an emergency occurs and, without an executable plan for repaying it, could shorten the runway for taking care of such expenses in the future.
Because nearly 3 in 10 survey respondents rely on credit or borrowing just to get through a typical month, the data suggests what may have been a stopgap has become a routine part of managing personal finances. In fact, one-third of survey respondents said they depend on credit more than they did a year ago.
Lack of a Financial Cushion Makes Paying Down Debt Difficult
Breaking the debt cycle becomes especially difficult without emergency savings. Only 28% of respondents say they can cover expenses and save.
Additionally, 45% reported their income is enough to get by but not get ahead. Many said they’ve even put off taking a vacation or saving for the future due to their financial situations. When each paycheck is already committed to existing bills – 29% of respondents listed the cost of everyday expenses as the biggest barrier to reducing debt – making meaningful progress toward paying down debts becomes more difficult.
The Emotional Cost of Carrying Debt
Financial stress affects more than just the household budget. The survey found 25% of respondents are concerned about their financial future, with 12% worried they’re facing long-term financial instability. What’s more, nearly 7 in 10 said their current debt situation has negatively affected their mental well-being.
Without meaningful changes, whether through increased income, debt relief or financial support, these households may continue to rely on unsecured credit as a necessity rather than a strategic financial tool or occasional supplement. To learn more and find support to regain financial stability, visit AccreditedDebtRelief.com.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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Automotive
EV Interest Climbs as Gas Price Uncertainty Pushes Families Toward Electric SUVs
With ongoing uncertainty surrounding global oil prices, more U.S. consumers are buying and showing more interest in electric vehicles (EVs). The shift comes as car shoppers weigh fuel costs, improving affordability and a growing number of family-friendly electric SUVs.
EV Interest Climbs as Gas Price Uncertainty Pushes Families Toward Electric SUVs
(Feature Impact)With ongoing uncertainty surrounding global oil prices, more U.S. consumers are buying and showing more interest in electric vehicles (EVs). The shift comes as car shoppers weigh fuel costs, improving affordability and a growing number of family-friendly electric SUVs.
Watch this video to learn more
According to Spectrum News, EV sales increased in the first quarter of this year. In the same time frame, interest in new EVs increased 16% and interest in used EVs increased by 30%. As families look for opportunities to ditch the gas pump without sacrificing power or space, new all-electric options create a compelling argument for families to turn to EVs.
For those looking to offset their weekly fuel up, the 2026 Kia EV9 can save drivers around $1,800-3,400 per year compared to gas-powered SUVs. Cars.com named the 2026 Kia EV9 the Best Electric Vehicle of 2026 for the second consecutive year.
“The Kia EV9 stood out because it delivers everything we want from a modern electric SUV – strong real-world range, fast charging, excellent space and comfort, and smart flexibility across the lineup,” said Mike Hanley, Sr. Road Test Editor, Cars.com.
For those who aren’t ready to switch to a fully electric vehicle, Kia has expanded its hybrid options. The 2026 Kia Sportage Hybrid adds horsepower and updated design features, while the Kia Telluride model offers a hybrid version for the first time with a total driving range of up to 637 miles on the Ex FWD-trim.
To learn more about the Kia EV9 and Kia’s hybrid models, visit Kia at kia.com.
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Family
6 Hacks to Prep Your Mudroom for Back-to-School Season
When school is back in session, it means a lot of coming and going to and from your home – often in a rush. Start with these mudroom organization and habit hacks to make your family’s daily routines a little easier.
(Feature Impact) When school is back in session, it means a lot of coming and going to and from your home – often in a rush. Smooth out those morning scrambles and save yourself some afternoon cleanups by turning your mudroom into a space that feels more organized and less chaotic.
Start with these mudroom organization and habit hacks to make your family’s daily routines a little easier.
Do a Beginning-of-Year Declutter
If the coat hooks are still sporting rain jackets the kids outgrew several seasons ago, that’s your sign to plan a purge. Out with the old, in with the new: collect last year’s coats, too-small shoes, the backpack with the broken zipper, worn-out accessories and that pile of junk mail then figure out what to keep, toss and donate.
Create a “Get-Out-The-Door” Spot for Essentials
“Have you seen my…” is a sentence you can only stand to hear (and say) so many times in one morning. Set up shelves or baskets for important items like keys, permission slips, library books, water bottles, lunchboxes, sports gear and anything else that needs to leave the house with the family. Repetition will build the habit, and even if things still get lost from time to time, this system gives everyone a first place to look.
Choose a Shoe System
Whether you’re a shoe rack kind of family or you’ve got DIY dreams of building an aesthetic wooden bench with shoe storage underneath, lock it in. Shoes are easy for kids to kick off when they get home, and if they aren’t sure where to put them, they’ll remain wherever they land or pile up by the door. Also consider putting down washable mats so grime doesn’t accumulate on your rack or floor.
Give Each Child a Designated Drop Zone
It’s easier for kids to stay organized when they have their own dedicated spaces to hang up jackets, set down backpacks, put shoes and store everyday essentials. Provide each child with their own coat hooks, cubbies, bins or lockers. Build them at kid-friendly heights and make it fun by letting everyone decorate their own zone.
Have Options Ready for Bad Weather
With a little advanced planning, you can prevent your mudroom from living up to its name. Set up a rainy-day corner with an umbrella stand, boot tray, towel basket and hooks or racks to hang damp outerwear. Keep a laundry hamper in the mudroom, too, so wet clothes and dirty uniforms don’t migrate through the house.
Label Storage Areas Clearly
Nearly everyone’s been there: you start a new organization system feeling efficient and optimistic, then over time, memories lapse and it descends back into anarchy. Labels may not stop this from happening every time, but at least they might make kids stop and consider whether their books should go in the basket labeled “Books” or on top of the shoe rack. That’s one step closer to restoring order.
For more back-to-school tips and tricks, visit eLivingToday.com.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
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