It was January 2022, as fewer properties were being listed and market conditions were tightening in the Greater Toronto Area – this is when police say Toronto homeowners who were away on an extended business trip discovered their home was sold without their consent or knowledge.
Toronto police are now looking for two people they allege impersonated the homeowners, hired a real estate agent and listed the Etobicoke property for sale. The home was sold to new owners who took possession. Investigators say the legitimate homeowners never found out their property had been sold until several months later.
How can something like this happen?
Ronald Alphonso, a real estate investor and president of Mortgage Broker Store, says this occurrence may be more common than one might think.
“Somewhere along the way, a person with access to the land registry system, whether it’s a lawyer or another person, transferred the title from the present homeowners to someone else, illegally,” said Alphonso.
That land registry system, Alphonso says, is administered and owned by Teranet on behalf of the Ontario government. Real estate lawyers and others who are authorized to transfer titles and sell houses have access to it through specific keycodes.
“If their keycode is taken by somebody else or copied by somebody else or misappropriated in some way, that person has access to the system and whatever they want. They can transfer one house or a hundred houses,” said Alphonso.
And it doesn’t take long to do it, Aphonso says.
“The actual transaction is only a few keystrokes at some computer so it can happen within minutes, that you are removed from title,” said Alphonso.
But when does the homeowner actually find out that their property has been fraudulently sold? Alphonso says it could be a month or even six months later.
“They’ll only know when they actually get a document that says they are no longer an owner, such as property tax saying you don’t own the house anymore,” says Alphonso.
And by that time, he says, the fraudsters have usually left the country with little to no trace.
Alphonso says, thanks to COVID precautions, this type of fraud is relatively easy to pull off. Pre-COVID, clients need to go to a lawyer’s office when buying a home to sign documents, where they would answer questions and present identification in person.
“Now, you can do what is called docusign, or electronic signing online,” says Alphonso. That makes it difficult for police to match handwriting in the case of fraud. But what of photo ID requirements?
Police have released a photo of a man and a woman wanted on fraud charges after allegedly using fake identification to impersonate the real homeowners.
Toronto Police
“You can easily go into photoshop, just copy a passport, change a picture here and there,” says Alphonso. “The lawyer is not going to go back and check all of the information on that passport. You can do the same thing on a driver’s licence. The lawyer is going to accept them at face value.”
In the Etobicoke case, police have not released the names of the accused, only two photos. Global News reached out for more information, but police have remained tightlipped, directing all queries back to their release.
As for how homeowners and buyers can protect themselves against this type of fraud, Alphonso strongly recommends purchasing title insurance.
“That protects the buyer against fraud, illegal transfer of title and a whole range of items,” Alphonso says. “Let’s say you bought the house 10 years ago. The title insurance is still valid. It still insures you against an illegal transfer of your title. So that’s for the existing homeowner. The buyer (can also) get title insurance — it also protects them just in case the title was illegally transferred.”
HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.
Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.
Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.
The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.
Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.
The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.
Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.
Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500
Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438
Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103
Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359
Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent
How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.
More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.
Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.
An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
