Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani has gained quite a bit of ground in the mayoral race. This week he combined forces with Brooklyn electeds to tackle deed theft — a prevalent issue among Black, Brown, and immigrant homeowners.
“Homeowners are being crushed by rising costs and an unfair property tax system, and Black and Brown homeowners in particular have been targeted by rampant deed theft and other predatory scams,” said Mamdani in a statement.
According to Attorney General (AG) Letitia James’ office, there were about 3,500 complaints of deed theft in the city from 2014 to 2023, primarily in Brooklyn and Queens. Deed theft is usually achieved through fraud, where homeowners are tricked into unknowingly signing over their homes to a scammer, or forgery, which is when someone creates a fake of the real homeowner’s signature on a deed and files it with the county clerk’s office. The fabricated documents are then used to evict the homeowner and sell the property for profit.
The AG’s office, in partnership with electeds like State Senator Zellnor Myrie (who sponsored Bill S6569) finally made deed theft a crime and strengthened laws to protect homeowners in 2023.
As part of his mayoral platform, Mamdani wants to build on that momentum by creating an Office of Deed Theft Prevention. The office would come up with property tax solutions, help property owners comply with Local Law 97, abolish the tax lien sale, support co-ops and community land trusts as well as first-time homeowners, and pass Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) legislation.
“My proposal will comprehensively address these issues, protecting generational wealth for New Yorkers while providing new opportunities for first-time buyers,” he continued. “As mayor, I will work for renters and homeowners alike and my policy proposals — from a rent freeze for all rent-stabilized tenants to a new Office of Deed Theft Prevention — reflect this commitment to all that call our city home. Everyone deserves a safe, stable and affordable home.”
Prior to getting elected to the state assembly, Mamdani served as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor at Chhaya Community Development Corporation (CDC). He says he witnessed firsthand the inequities in the city’s property tax system and tax lien sale process, deed theft displacing entire communities, and slumlords. He’s also a full supporter of a rent freeze for rent stabilized tenants across the city.
Mamdani plans to allocate at least $10 million in funding to the office to coordinate with city police, and utilize the 2023 state laws to investigate deed theft cases. He also promises to hire investigators, forensic accountants, and attorneys to assist victims of fraud in foreclosure proceedings in court; hire outreach staff help homeowners to sign up for the city’s Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) alerts to notify them of changes to their deed or property status; push for a one-year suspension on the statute of limitations for deed theft cases and fair compensation for victims; and work to relieve “tangled titles,” where someone lives in a home they believe to be theirs but their name is actually not on the deed.
“Supporting deed theft is about political will …. homeownership opportunities for moderate to low income families, is about political will … and it seems like we don’t have any elected officials at the level of mayor, that want to actually address these issues,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has been rallying against the rise of deed thefts in his borough.
“To hear that Zohran Mamdani is putting forth not only an office to address this issue, but also looking to add $20M to that fund really speaks to the political will that we are asking New Yorkers to pay attention to when they go to the polls,” he added.
In the meantime, Jamael Romans, a loan officer at United Mortgage Corp in Woodbury, Long Island, said that when purchasing a home it’s highly recommended that a person ask for a title specialist. This is a person or team provided by the mortgage company that researches if the house being bought has any liens, violations, or bankruptcies. The specialist will review all title and deed documents for the property, contact vendors, check state regulations, track any conflicts or applications, and then create a title policy that ideally protects against deed theft.