This needs the asinine tag. That law is the biggest crock of shiat I've ever heard of, ever.

Canada is officially retarded.

... police reckon ...

Police reckon. For some reason, that cracks me up. Reckon. Hee hee!

That's rough... I think I'd be a little pissed off about that.

Land of the free, home of the....well, someone else if they steal your ID.

In another case, an actress lost her home to ID thieves who sold her property to an accomplice, who disappeared after securing a bogus $250,000 mortgage in her name.

Sounds like some local talk to me.

Canada sucks

wouldn't a bank have insurance that swallows the mortgage cost while keeping the property with the original owner and removing the debt of the buyer?

It's stuff like this that disgusts me about the "free world". Makes me lose hope in humanity, as the victim is usually the one who pays for others' crimes...

Huh?

How can someone sell something that isn't theirs and then the "buyers" (who may be complicit in the fraud) get to keep it?

WTF?

I think I saw this movie...



/wishes I hadn't

Uh, this sucks. Where are the checks and balances in this? The mortgage company missed this? Make them make good on the problem.

I don't get it...did they sell the place out from under the guy while he was in it?

Sounds like someone needs a cockpunch.

give him a paperclip. he can get a new house.

WTF? If the person who owns it doesn't sell it, how can laws be farked up enough to make it stick?

If a rob a Canadian bank using your identity, is it you that goes to jail?

/Way to "take care of the consumer", retards!

That's it, I'm cancelling my plans to flee to a better life in Canada, and making plans to flee Canada Back to the US.

Shotgun Justice: wouldn't a bank have insurance that swallows the mortgage cost while keeping the property with the original owner and removing the debt of the buyer?

In the U.S.? Yes, after spending a ton of money to correct it in the courts. After that, we all pay for it.

Is this appropriate for this story? I would like to think so.

So they never asked for a tour? That would have thrown the thing right off.

Of course, I would assume talks with the mortgage companies would do something and include a phone call to the residence.

Someone farked up, is what I'm trying to say.

/captain obvious: I tell you obvious things that are obvious

I've been following this in the Torstar over the past few weeks. I still can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that the land title system is busted enough to allow frauds like this to happen.

It sounds like one or two other systems are busted to allow power of attorney to be granted in such a way.

I can't recall if the fraudsters were caught. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they got away and will never be found.

"Reviczky, whose wife died in February 2005, lives in a nearby house."

It must smell really bad in that house. Also, A Rotting cadavor tends to bring down a property's value.

Generally Canada has their act together, but WOW this situation is farked up!!

Here, in the U.S. you have appraisals, inspections, title searches for lein payoffs (all of which would alert the owners.)I would hope that would be caught here.

I remember an hour long special on this on W5.

Last Year.

I don't get it...did they sell the place out from under the guy while he was in it?

Not in this case, though there is at least one case in Ontario where a family did have the house sold out from under them. (link sfw)

Not to mention title insurance to protect the lender and buyer if the seller can't provide clear title. Title insurance has been mandatory in every real estate parcel I've bought.

Three cheers for privatization, the Ontario government and Teranet.

http://www.teraview.ca/whois.html

/unfetchable my ass..

untrustworthy:

Don't feel so bad, Canada. In our country it's legal for the government to sell our houses out from under us.

Right. It's called Eminent Domain. Screwed a few people here in CT already. Repo'd their houses by condemning them so they could build a shopping center. Nice touch guys...

See, this is what happens when you have socialized medicine.

/Sorry, had to be done.

if anyone wants a large but blurry (youtube) tyrone's crack party image:

i couldn't find one from google image. boooo.

tebgsya:

Well, it's saying that the guy lives at a nearby house and his wife happened to die in Feb. 2005.

Shoddy writing, though.

SHENANIGANS! How exactly did the "fraudster" manage to get that $450k? He had a bank account right? There has to be a money trail somewhere. $450k doesn't just disappear and you can't just get that kind of money out of an ATM and then run to mexico. It seems like it should be pretty easy to trace the money to the guy.

Something about this doesn't add up.

I really don't get how they can refuse to return the property to the original owner. No one seems to be disputing that he knew nothing of the fraud committed until this came up, so by what logic can he be deprived of his legal property?

I feel bad for the buyer too, since from the buyer's perspective everything appeared to be on the level, but in the end it was the buyer (and their financer) who contracted with the fraudulent party, so if either the original owner or the buyer is going to be out something, it has to be the one who actually made the deal with a fraud.

Oh, and the notary who stamped the Power of Attorney ought to be facing penalties for total incompetence/negligence. That's totally unacceptable.

/On the other hand, maybe I can go into business selling off Ontario government properties...

Dellirium
Right. It's called Eminent Domain. Screwed a few people here in CT already. Repo'd their houses by condemning them so they could build a shopping center. Nice touch guys...

Eminent domain is a way for the government to take land. We just can't own propertey in Canada. The government can force you to hand over anything you own without compensation. The Liberals did it to tons of gun owners.

Man, that'd be one hell of a crack party!

Dellirium: Don't feel so bad, Canada. In our country it's legal for the government to sell our houses out from under us.

Right. It's called Eminent Domain. Screwed a few people here in CT already. Repo'd their houses by condemning them so they could build a shopping center. Nice touch guys...

At least in those cases the owner gets some compensation. Here the owner is SOL.

That is the most idiotic law I've heard in a while.

I just don't understand how Canada can not recognize that the homeowner did not sell the house which equals it's still theirs.

Wtf?

zipdogSee, this is what happens when you have socialized medicine.

Lord knows what'll happen if we let the gays start to marry.

"...and now my sense of security in Canada is gone."

LOL.

ID thieves are so farkin wiley, is there anything they wont do?!

Simple solution: Obviously the real estate agency and the mortgage company dropped the ball. The buyer and the true land owner are the victims. So make the real estate agency and the mortgage company eat the bill.

Two possibilities

1: The buyer gets to keep the property and make regular payments to the mortgage company, and the real estate agent and the mortgage company have to pay the true property owner the full selling price, upfront.

2: The buyer doesn't keep the property, the mortgage they've taken out is discounted and any of thier own money that they've paid into the property is returned in full. The true property owner gets to keep the property. And in the event that the buyer has already sold thier home or are no longer renting, the mortgage company is responsible for providing temporary housing, storage, and moving costs until the buyer can establish permanent residence one way or another.

I realize that there are probably some rather ingenious identity thieves out there, but Im willing to bet that most ID theft scams get by because of lax protetions and insufficient protocols on the part of banks, mortgage companies, credit card companies, etc. Hold thier feet to the fire, let them lose a shiat load of revenue, and they'll likely be alot more diligent in making sure that who they're doing buisness with are who they say they are. Then you'll probably see an over all drop in the amount of successful identity theft.

Don't feel so bad, Canada. In our country it's legal for the government to sell our houses out from under us.

Right. It's called Eminent Domain. Screwed a few people here in CT already. Repo'd their houses by condemning them so they could build a shopping center. Nice touch guys...

While it sucks to lose your house by eminent domain, you get paid the current value for the property. This guy got zero (though I would assume he might be able to recoup some by suing the real estate seller).

Max Edison:

In the US, title insurance to protect the Lender is most always required by the lender if you get a mortgage. Owner's title insurance is purely the choice of the buyer, so if the buyer purchesed it he would be protected, which doesn't help the unknowingly defrauded rightful owner.

While state laws of course vary, I can't think of any easy remedy in the US that doesn't involve the rightful owner having to settle this in civil court. Big bucks, lots of hassle.

I've been a mortgage banker for 19 1/2 years and I tell you this is not impossible in the US. The case presents some interesting difficulties which unfortunately as we study it might end up adding to the cost of a mortgage transaction for future purchasers here.

A##hole criminals.

ekonk: I don't think that the buyer should be out anything either. I can't quote any law or anything but it would seem like the mortgage company and the real estate company are the ones who shoulder the responsibility for checking the identity of the seller, not the buyer.

Canada laws need to be fixed. The buyers, the bank lending the money, and the title company should all have a duty to make sure fraud isn't involved.

Poor old dude.

Can't he just fraudulently buy it back? The law favors the purchaser in such cases, after all.