Black homeowners in New York’s Brooklyn neighborhoods are losing their homes to scammers as the borough is undergoing major gentrification. Many of the victims are longtime Black residents, who are tricked into signing over ownership of their properties for outrageously low amounts.
Fraudsters are tricking homeowners into signing deeds that transfer the property to new owners for a lot less than what the house is worth. In fact, Brooklyn accounts for nearly half of New York City’s 3,000 deed fraud complaints since 2014.
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And the problem is it’s difficult to prove a property has been stolen.
According to a recent report by the New York Times, deed theft, or coercing or deceiving homeowners to transfer ownership of their homes, is targeting mainly African-American communities in areas like Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Black homeowners in Prospect Heights, Brownsville, and East New York are also being targeted.
“As it becomes more popular for younger, wealthier people to move to these more affordable places in Brooklyn and other parts of New York, the demand for properties grows, allowing room for fraudsters to slip in. The demand gentrification puts on these neighborhoods is giving incentive for swindlers to make large profits, displacing the people who have lived there for generations,” Diversity reported.
Often, the scammers hide behind shell companies, which are fake companies that only exist on paper, and limited liability companies (LLCs). They trick homeowners into signing fake deeds by offering financial assistance.
In another rouse, the scammers will actually edit documents after they’ve been signed.
The Times also found that documents proving the sale of a home are hardly ever checked for legitimacy in the city registrar’s office. This means victims often continue paying mortgages on homes they legally no longer own.
“Deed theft has become a common tool of career criminals and unscrupulous real estate developers to illegally obtain real estate, most often with the goal of selling it at a huge profit in high-demand housing markets,” Letitia James, the state attorney general, told the Times in an email.
“It is, in fact, easier to steal ownership of a home than actually burglarizing it,” Travis Hill, who oversees real estate fraud for James’ office, told the Times.
