Real estate fraud investigation: Stranger receives title deed to $4 million home in Raleigh, North Carolina without owner’s knowledge

RALEIGH– The deed to a multi-million dollar home in Raleigh, North Carolina, was snatched away from its owner.

Craig Adams is frustrated. His 8,000-square-foot home is no longer registered in his name, even though Adams owns the home and still lives in it with his wife. Despite always paying his mortgage and property taxes on time and in good standing, Adams discovered that the deed to his home is no longer registered in his name. Instead, it belongs to a complete stranger.

“I found out that she made a false warranty claim on this house and basically tried to steal it,” Adams said.

The “she” Adams is referring to is Dawn Mangum. Adams only learned that Mangum had put the deed in her name after his HOA’s property manager asked him if he had sold his home because Mangum had contacted the company to gain access to the private gated community where the home is located.

Documents filed with the Wake County Registry of Deeds and signed by Mangum list Adams and Dawn Mangum Estate as debtors. The Registry of Deeds has approved the transfer of the deed to Dawn Mangum Trust.

Adams contacted the Wake County Registry of Deeds to ask how this could have happened.

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“There is no effort to confirm the validity of the change in the deed. No one checks the notary. No one checks who owns the house that is about to be transferred to another owner,” Adams said of what he learned during his visit.

Adams proved to the land registry that the house belonged to him and that Mangum had no interest in it, but the deed remained with the Dawn Mangum Trust.

Adams couldn’t believe it.

“They say there is absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this. Once the lawsuit is filed, their only solution is for me to hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman.”

In emails Adams received from the Wake County Register of Deeds and the district attorney, they said that while they were sympathetic to Adams’s concerns, they were bound by the limitations of North Carolina law, saying they could not remove a document once it was recorded.

In addition, North Carolina law does not impose a duty on the registrar to examine the legality of a document when it is presented for registration, nor is there a duty to examine or investigate the legality of a notarial certification or the authority of the drafter.

However, the Land Registry told our sister station ABC11 that the office can refuse to register a document if there is a suspicion of fraud. However, in this case, there was no suspicion of fraud at the time the document was registered.

“The biggest concern is for the citizens of Wake County – we are so vulnerable! Anyone can go in, write that warranty deed, find out where you live and presumably take possession of your home. It’s that simple,” Adams said.

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Problem worker Diane Wilson reached Mangum by phone, who said everything was done legally, as she thought the property had been foreclosed on. She believes the law allows one to claim an abandoned property.

Mangum wrote to Wilson, “My business is not to take away anyone’s home, but to find abandoned property and restore it.”

When Mangum learned the property was not foreclosed, she skipped all the paperwork, adding that she would like to give the property back to Adams and claiming the paperwork will be changed.

Adams said the foreclosure noted in the sales listing was an error and has been corrected.

He must hire a lawyer and take the case to court. In the meantime, he hopes that something will change as a result of his frustrating ordeal.

“The most important thing that needs to happen is that the laws of the state legislature are put on the register. There needs to be a simple system of checks and balances, authenticating the document, authenticating the signature, confirming who owns the house,” Adams said.

The Wake County Sheriff’s Department said this case is currently under active investigation.

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The Wake County Registry of Deeds released the following statement on the case:

The Land Registry takes this situation very seriously and is committed to assisting the homeowner in any way possible within the framework of the law.

Under North Carolina law, land registry offices are required by law to accept and promptly record documents in accordance with G.S. 161-14. The land registry office is not required to verify the legality of a document when it is presented for recording, nor is it required to verify the qualifications or legal standing of the notary or the person drafting the document (G.S. 47-14). Because the Wake County land registry office processes more than 500 documents per day, it would be impossible to verify the legality of every document or the qualifications of every notary. In addition, the land registry office does not have access to a database of commissioned North Carolina notaries that could be verified.

The staff of the Land Registry are not lawyers and are expressly prohibited from giving legal advice or acting as lawyers in the review of a document.

As soon as the Registry of Deeds learned of the fraudulent deed, they notified the IRS that the tax information for the property should not be changed. Registry of Deeds staff also notified the agency immediately and are working with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. The homeowner was also asked to file a police report.

The Wake County Registry of Deeds offers a free fraud alert system. When documents are recorded with a monitored name, the property owner is immediately notified that action has taken place on their property. In this particular case, the homeowner’s name was not listed on the document as the drafter, transferor, or grantee, so the alerts were not triggered. The document was also not indexed to the homeowner’s name. For more information on the free fraud alerts, click here.

Because the deed has been recorded, the Registry of Deeds does not have the authority under North Carolina state law to remove the document from the record without a court order. Wake County will gladly cooperate with any criminal investigation or civil action brought on behalf of the homeowner.

How do you prevent this from happening to your property?

You should check with your county land registry office to see if you can sign up for fraud alerts.

While fraud alerts won’t prevent the title deed from being transferred, they will notify you immediately if anything is recorded that involves your name. This will at least ensure that you are notified and can prevent further incidents.

For Wake County, you can do that here. You can also check with your homeowners insurance or property insurance company, as some offer fraud insurance for an additional fee.