Home Title Theft

Buy title insurance

I heard these horror stories where people can do this and then come claim your house. Is this true?

I can't imagine this ever works for an occupied dwelling.

There are all sorts of ways to steal unoccupied properties, and I doubt any common insurance policy guards against most or even many of them. Remember Bill Magee (LouisianaRecord.com) from St. Tammany. He falsified "quit claim" deeds and it was ultimately written off as a "novel legal theory."

Good luck insuring against that.

Beyond that, "adverse possession" is a part of common law. Possession actually is important, and your property rights are far from absolute.

ETA: This is much different from title insurance. I'm no expert on title insurance, but it seems to me to mostly protect against bureaucratic errors that somehow make a title look sketchy.

I heard that one time in Bangkok a guy woke up in a bath tub full of ice and stitches where his kidneys used to be.....

You must have something to convey in order to convey something.

That company is evil and is just preying off of old folks

An Owner’s Title Policy is designed to protect you from covered title defects that existed prior to the issue date of your policy. If a valid claim is filed, your Owner’s Policy, subject to its terms and conditions, will cover financial loss up to the face amount of your policy.

Also, someone mentioned adverse possession. It has different terms in Texas. There are several timelines etc. Any landowner, especially of non homestead or un occupied property, should be aware of the state AP laws.

It's true, but hardly an epidemic. Do you know how hard home title theft actually is?
Do you also realize that any court worth it's salt would tell a bank " it sucks to be you"?. The only way this conceivably works is if the scammers file a quitclaim deed first. Then a title company and appraiser would have to be working with the scammer. I would think the second an appraiser shows up it should be over....plus if this is all done via second position HELOC'S and it turns out to be fraudulent, the bank eats it...
not the homeowner and the title attorney would have his rectum cleaned out by examiner using very coarse sandpaper.

Let's say this happened to a homeowner, and he shot the fraudster in the face. If I'm on the jury, homeowner will not be convicted.