New York’s Renewed Fight Against Property Deed Theft Confronts Key Challenges

Now, there’s a surprise: Deed theft became formally illegal in New York state only in 2023.

But it’s long been a perennial issue for owners of single-family homes in New York City, taking an unexpected toll on the housing supply.

To make matters worse, prosecuting these cases has proved difficult, with the burden of proof mainly placed on the victims who are often served eviction notices for homes that they thought they owned and had no clue that the properties were sold out from under them.

About 3,500 deed theft complaints were filed in New York City from 2013 to 2023, according to the New York attorney general’s office, and laws meant to curb the growing trend have mostly been unsuccessful, with 517 complaints in 2025 alone compared to just 149 recorded in 2023.

Deed theft is exactly what it sounds like: a fraudster who takes the title of a property through illegal means.

The biggest factor driving the increase in deed thefts — a crime that occurs in spite of the risk of harsh penalties, including prison time — is the red hot New York City housing market.

Ever-increasing real estate prices paired with a housing shortage make single-family homes a desirable target for criminals willing to take a risk to score a major payout, either by liquidating the property or renting it out.

Scott Kohanowski, general counsel for the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, a mortgage brokerage and federally approved counseling group, has been working on these types of fraud cases for 15 years. He said the problem with taming scam artists is that they truly are artists, and will find ways to dodge regulations.

“It’s like a game of whack-a-mole, because every time we detect a new scam and figure out how to protect homeowners, the bad people figure out a new scam or how to get around it, so it’s probably not an issue that’s going to be resolved anytime soon,” Kohanowski said. “Fraud, bad people, scams — it’s always gonna exist. But I think what’s good about what’s happening is there’s a lot more information getting out to the public, a lot more awareness, and that’s really important.”

Another problem that remains persistent is that New York State still allows shell corporations to own property without the public having access to the beneficial owners, despite an attempt to shine a light on them in 2023 with the LLC Transparency Act.

That law was ultimately enacted with some concessions: Instead of the names of the people behind shell corporations being made public, they are transparent only to some government entities, such as the attorney general’s office and the New York City Department of Finance.

“We’re being so protective of these economic interests, and that’s being manipulated, and it’s really harming New York communities and individuals,” Kohanowski said.

In November 2024, for example, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez managed to secure a conviction against Sanford Solny, who was found guilty of possession of stolen property, scheme to defraud and grand larceny. Solny was sentenced to up to seven years in prison for stealing 11 homes across the borough and transferring the titles to 12 shell corporations he owned.

How did he accomplish these heists?

Solny presented himself to his victims as a financial adviser who could negotiate with lenders for a short sale of a property for less than what was owed on the mortgage. That way, an owner could avoid having a foreclosure on their record.

Solny misrepresented what was contained in documents. In signing their name, the victims unwittingly turned over their homes, according to the Brooklyn DA.

Public awareness about deed theft has been spotty at best, with prosecutors and local outlets picking up daily news stories on isolated incidences. However, in mid-April the issue was given a new emphasis when New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé was arrested by the New York Police Department in front of a home in Brooklyn where the resident has been fighting eviction.

It wasn’t the first time Ossé has been in the spotlight over real estate matters.

In 2023, Ossé led the charge in banning landlords from passing broker fees on to tenants. If the landlord uses a broker, they now have to be the ones footing the bill for the broker’s fees.

The legislation was controversial in commercial real estate, with the Real Estate Board of New York filing suit to stop the law. It passed in 2024 and went into effect in 2025, and drew intense debate at City Hall ahead of its passage.

State Attorney General Letitia James’s office determined that the Bedford-Stuyvesant dispute that led to Ossé’s arrest was not a case of deed theft, but rather a complicated case of competing homeownership claims between family members, one of whom approved the sale to 227 Group, an investment firm operated by Etai Vardi and brothers Elliot and Joseph Ambalo, for $1.4 million.

Ossé, whose district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant and part of Crown Heights, has also called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to enact a moratorium on evictions that might be the result of deed theft.

Deed theft prevention laws passed in 2023 and 2024, however, do essentially that by pausing evictions and foreclosures, voiding fraudulent deeds, and extending the criminal statute of limitations to eight years. Those laws also made the crime punishable as grand larceny.

Ossé did not respond to a request for comment.

“Ensuring New Yorkers are able to stay in their homes is a priority for the governor, which is why she has enhanced deed theft protections, provided prosecutors stronger tools to crack down on this crime, and proposed $40 million this year to provide legal assistance to at-risk homeowners,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a statement. “No New Yorker should be cheated out of the opportunity to keep their home, and Gov. Hochul will continue working with state and city partners on this effort to protect New Yorkers.”

Prior to these 2023 and 2024 reforms, determining whether to charge defendants for grand larceny was complicated by the value of the property and questions over whether the house qualified as the victim’s home or livelihood. The new legislation standardized how deed theft was categorized in the eyes of the law.

How much further the law can go in these matters is unclear.

But Ossé’s arrest, shocking to members of the public who saw footage of the star lawmaker being thrown to the ground by police and charged for obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct, got the wheels of government turning.

The April 22 arrest was followed two days later by Mayor Zohran Mamdani announcing the creation of the Office of Deed Theft Prevention within City Hall. The mayor said it will be led by attorney Peter White, who has helped homeowners with fraudulent claims through the organization Access Justice Brooklyn.

“I know in the past the city government has too often stood idly by while deed theft occurs rather than acting to prevent it. With Peter’s leadership, we are bringing that era to an end,” Mamdani said in a press conference on April 24. “The office will also be tasked with exploring legislation on the city and state levels to build on the work that is being done. We know deed theft is not the only thing pushing families out of their homes.”

To illustrate the shifting patterns in which deed theft manifests, White used a hypothetical of a grandmother contracting a handyman for discounted work on a house that has already been paid off. In signing the contract, she signed away her home and is later issued an eviction notice.

“I understand that deed theft is amorphous, pernicious and consistent in many working-class communities and neighborhoods of color in New York City,” White said at the same press conference. “I intend to work with groups and organizations that promote economic stabilization and aging-in-place of senior citizens. Deed fraud has especially affected seniors, many of whom live in Brooklyn and Queens. Many potential scammers see these people as being the most vulnerable population in New York City, and we’re going to try to help correct that.”

Mamdani has also placed a moratorium on tax lien sales, another way people are often forced out of their homes over outstanding debts not directly tied to mortgages.

White did not respond to questions about how the office will handle matters on a case-by-case basis or what kind of legislative changes are necessary to limit scammers’ opportunities.

James’s office has been busy taking alleged con artists to court. She indicted two men in Queens for hijacking the home of a woman receiving end-of-life hospice care in August, and charged another duo in Queens for not only nicking their elderly neighbor’s house but also taking $790,000 in personal funds, the attorney general’s office said.

Deed theft and title fraud is most common in the Northeast, with 92 percent of the region’s real estate professionals reporting they had heard of cases in their market within the preceding 12 months, according to a survey by National Association of Realtors.

The Midwest saw the lowest rate of reported deed theft, with just 53 percent of respondents saying they were aware of the crime taking place in their neck of the woods.

The scam of forging a homeowner’s signature on a deed transfer and liquidating the asset is complicated, needless to say, and the perpetrators can be attorneys themselves. And attorneys run another gantlet altogether for committing fraudulent activity, one that includes disciplinary and grievance committees.

The New York State Bar Association holds attorneys who violate the law or its code of conduct accountable in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, which appoints volunteer members to these committees who then refer serious violations to the court for further action.

The attorneys can face “admonishment, reprimand, censure, suspension or loss of his or her license,” according to the bar association.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.