More than half of U.S. states lack specific deed theft laws, despite more than $1 billion in real estate fraud reported since 2019, according to a quarterly property protection scorecard released Tuesday by EquityProtect.
The Nevada-based title fraud protection company noted that more than 58,000 people reported real estate fraud between 2019 and 2013, according to FBI data, with another 9,359 complaints and $173.6 million in reported losses in 2024.
Older adults are particularly vulnerable to real estate fraud, the analysis found, accounting for 44% of reported financial losses.
The prevalence of title fraud boils down to a numbers game in some respects.
“County recorders process nearly 300,000 documents every day and generally must record documents that satisfy statutory filing requirements,” EquityProtect noted in a press release. “They are not responsible for verifying identities in real time, allowing forged deeds to be recorded before fraud is discovered.”
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By EquityProtect’s count, just 10 states have enacted major legislation related to deed theft and title fraud: Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Another six states have bills pending: Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
A dozen states have alert systems in place or partial laws specific to deed theft, while 15 states are in the study phase of potentially crafting legislation. The remaining seven states and the District of Columbia have no laws specific to deed theft on the books, meaning homeowners generally have to rely on broader fraud and forgery laws after a deed has fraudulently been recorded.
“The good news is that more states are taking deed theft seriously, and this quarter proves it,” EquityProtect CEO Ryan Marshall stated. “But our findings reinforce a critical truth: Legislation is an important step, but it is not protection. Most laws punish deed theft after it happens; they do not prevent it. Property owners need preventative safeguards, not just legal remedies after the damage is done.”
