Couple whose Toronto home sold without their knowledge says systems failed to protect them
CBC
When Stephanie logged online to pay her monthly bills last year she noticed something strange.
The mortgage she shared with her husband, Derrick, had disappeared from the home screen of her Canadian bank account. After making some calls, she found out her mortgage was closed.
"We knew something was wrong. We weren't the ones to close our mortgage," said Stephanie.
"But we didn't know the extent of it."
Stephanie and Derrick moved overseas for work about four years ago and had been renting out their fully-furnished Etobicoke home as an income property while abroad, they told CBC Toronto. The couple intended to move back in when they eventually returned home to Toronto.
But after finding out about the mortgage, things went from bad to worse. The couple's property management company swung by their house only to have a stranger answer the door claiming to own the home.
And it turns out — when Stephanie and Derrick checked the title — the stranger did.
"That was probably when it really hit home that this wasn't just some mistake," said Derrick. "But legally, the system believes you actually no longer own your home."
Stephanie and Derrick's predicament made headlines earlier this month when Toronto police issued a press release for help identifying suspects involved in the fraudulent sale of the couple's home without their knowledge. CBC Toronto is not using Stephanie and Derrick's real names because they are the victims of identity theft.
The couple's case is one of at least four in the Greater Toronto Area where homeowners had their houses sold out from under them by organized crime groups, according to a CBC Toronto investigation. Nearly a year after discovering something was wrong, Stephanie and Derrick are sharing their story to sound the alarm on how they say current identification requirements in real-estate transactions are failing to protect homeowners from fraud.
"All the things you need to provide to buy a house, no one ever checks if those match up when you sell a house," alleges Derrick. "You trust these institutions to protect you and it feels like they're doing whatever they can to do things as fast and as cheap as possible."
The couple says the fraudsters who impersonated them to sell their house consistently spelled one of their last names wrong through the transaction, which was inconsistent with the fake ID they were using.
"I think that's what scares you most," said Derrick.
"You think well, if the bank fails, the real estate board will catch it. Or if the real estate board fails, the lawyer who signs off on the house sale will catch it. And so many people, so many educated people, it just passes by."
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