"At the end of the day, it's about somebody stealing your home," said Bill Jorgenson, DA Bureau Chief of Housing and Worker Protection, during the webinar. "A lot of the tactics that you're going to use to protect yourself from squatters are also the same things that you use to protect yourself from deed fraud." This highlights the interconnectedness of squatter and deed fraud prevention strategies and emphasizes the urgency of protecting homeowners.
The Assembly Member shared that her constituents frequently ask about their housing rights and, like many, want more information on protecting themselves. This reflects the community's heightened concern regarding housing security and the need for informative resources to navigate potential risks.
District Attorney Melinda Katz acknowledged that the issue is a 'huge problem' across the borough. However, her team also pointed out that they successfully returned 14 homes to their rightful owners because they devoted additional resources to these cases along with the help of a recent change in state law.
Officials say that they have found that deed fraud is a crime that some criminals specialize in after overcoming the 'steep learning curve' to learn which homes to target and forge deeds. This points to the sophisticated nature of the crime and the need for vigilant property management.
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