Deed Theft in NYC: How It Happens, How to Check ACRIS, Free Alerts and What Title Insurance Covers

Deed theft happens when someone records a deed transferring your property without your knowledge or valid consent. The City Register records documents that meet its formal requirements; it does not confirm that the signature is genuine. The NYC Department of Finance (DOF) states that the City assumes no liability for recording documents later found to be fraudulent.

In Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, you can check what has been recorded against your property in ACRIS and register for DOF’s free Notice of Recorded Document alerts. Staten Island records are kept by the Richmond County Clerk. Westchester County has its own free alert service. This guide covers how to check, how the alerts work, what to do if you find a deed you did not sign, and where an owner’s title insurance policy does and does not help.

How deed theft happens

The NYC Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention and the NYS Attorney General describe two broad patterns:

  • Forgery and impersonation. A thief forges the owner’s signature, or someone poses as the owner (sometimes with a fake ID or a forged power of attorney), and records a deed to themselves or a shell company. The thief may then borrow against the property or sell it.
  • Deception of a real owner. The owner signs something, but under false pretenses: a “foreclosure rescue” offer, a promised loan modification, or papers presented as something other than a deed.

Higher-risk properties include those that are vacant, in foreclosure or behind on taxes or utilities, and those where the owner died and the heirs never transferred title (see Buying or selling from an estate in New York). Tax or water bills that stop arriving are a warning sign.

Forged versus fraudulently induced: why the difference matters

New York law treats these two patterns differently. In Faison v. Lewis, 25 N.Y.3d 220 (2015), the Court of Appeals held that a forged deed is void from the start and conveys no title. A buyer or lender who later relies on it is not protected, even if they paid value and had no notice of the forgery, and a claim to set aside a forged deed is not barred by a statute of limitations.

A deed the owner actually signed, but was tricked into signing, is voidable, not void. It stands until a court sets it aside, and a later good-faith buyer or lender may be protected. That distinction can decide whether an owner recovers the property free of a later mortgage.

How to check ACRIS for a fraudulent deed

ACRIS covers documents recorded with the City Register for Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The full walkthrough is in How to Read ACRIS for Title. For a fraud check, the short version:

  1. Find your borough, block and lot (BBL) at the ACRIS portal and search by parcel with all document classes and the widest date range.
  2. Sort by recorded date. The most recent DEED should show you (or your entity) as Party 2, the grantee. A later DEED naming someone else as grantee is the red flag.
  3. Open the image of anything you do not recognize: deeds, mortgages, powers of attorney, correction deeds and court orders. Check the signature, the notary block and the name of the person who appeared before the notary.
  4. Search your own name as a party. A mortgage or other document indexed by name may not show up the way you expect in a parcel search.

The Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention recommends checking at least once a year. Staten Island owners search land records at the Richmond County Clerk, not ACRIS.

Free recording alerts

NYC (DOF) Westchester County Clerk
Service Notice of Recorded Document Property Alert Service
Cost Free Free
Monitors One property (BBL) Name or address
Delivery Email, text or mail Email
Sign up nyc.gov/finance pas.westchesterclerk.com

NYC. DOF’s Notice of Recorded Document program notifies registered subscribers, usually the day after recording, when a listed document type is recorded against the property. The list covers deeds (including correction and confirmatory deeds), mortgages, satisfactions, powers of attorney, contracts and memoranda of contract, court orders and judgments, among others. Owners and their agents can register, including managing agents, attorneys, lienors and estate executors or administrators. Registration is per property and stays active until you opt out. Register online through DOF’s “Recorded Document Notification” link or by mail (call 311 for the paper application).

DOF advises co-op and timeshare owners not to register: their units have no separate tax lot, so alerts would cover the whole building. Condo units have their own lots.

Westchester. The County Clerk launched a Property Alert Service in September 2026. You register a name or property address and receive an email when a matching land record is recorded. Registering a name and an address catches documents indexed either way.

What alerts do not do. Neither service stops a recording. The Westchester site says plainly that the service does not prevent a transaction from occurring. An alert gives you time to act early, often before a thief sells or mortgages the property to someone else.

What to do if a deed you did not sign was recorded

These are the steps the City, the Attorney General and the courts provide for. They can run in parallel.

  1. Get the document. Pull the image from ACRIS (or the Richmond County Clerk for Staten Island) and save the CRFN or document ID. Keep copies of anything you signed and any messages from the people involved.
  2. Report it to the City. Complete the Deed Theft Prevention Intake Form with the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention, which sits within DOF. Created by Executive Order 16 on April 24, 2026, it coordinates with the Sheriff, HPD and other agencies and flags suspicious filings. The City also directs reports to the NYPD or the Sheriff’s Office, and to the district attorney in the borough where the property is located. If someone is trying to evict you, contact the Sheriff’s Office or a City Marshal.
  3. Report it to the Attorney General. The AG’s deed theft unit takes complaints at 1-800-771-7755, deedtheft@ag.ny.gov or its online form. The AG has statewide jurisdiction, so this applies in Westchester too, along with the Westchester District Attorney.
  4. Notify your title insurer. If you have an owner’s policy, send written notice of the claim promptly with a copy of the recorded document. Whether the loss is covered depends on when the fraud happened (see below), but late notice can prejudice a claim that would otherwise be covered.
  5. Clear the record. A forged deed is void, but it stays on the record until removed. The usual route is an action under RPAPL Article 15 to determine claims to real property (often called a quiet title action), which ends with a judgment that can be recorded. After a conviction for a crime affecting title, the district attorney, the Attorney General or a law enforcement agency can also move under CPL 420.45 to have the fraudulent instruments declared void. Owners with limited means can get free legal help through the Homeowner Protection Program at 1-855-HOME-456.

What changed in New York law in 2023 and 2024

Two state laws, both championed by the Attorney General, changed how deed theft cases proceed statewide.

2023 civil law (S6577, signed November 14, 2023):

  • Stays. Under RPAPL 756-a, a court must stay an eviction, ejectment, foreclosure or quiet title proceeding involving a residential property when a government agency conducting a good-faith investigation into title fraud moves for a stay, when criminal charges relating to the property are filed against a party, or when a government civil action is pending. In a housing court eviction, a bona fide ownership dispute triggers a 90-day stay so the issue can be brought in the proper court. The section does not apply to forcible or unlawful entry proceedings under RPAPL 713(10).
  • Notice of pendency by prosecutors. Under CPLR 6501, a district attorney or the Attorney General can file a notice of pendency against the property once there is probable cause that a crime affecting title occurred, or once charges are filed. This puts later buyers and lenders on notice of the dispute.
  • Presumption of fraud. Under RPAPL 1501(6), a conviction for deed theft or a related crime creates a rebuttable presumption in a quiet title action that the deed transfer was fraudulent.

2024 criminal law (Part O of the 2024 budget bill, S8306), effective July 19, 2024:

  • Deed theft is a crime. It is now a form of grand larceny regardless of the property’s value: third degree for one commercial property (Penal Law 155.35, class D felony), second degree for one residential property, one mixed-use property with a residential unit, or two or more commercial properties (155.40, class C), and first degree for an occupied home, a home owned by an elderly, incompetent, incapacitated or physically disabled person, or three or more residential properties (155.42, class B).
  • Longer time to prosecute. Under CPL 30.10(3)(h), prosecution can begin within five years of the crime or within two years after the owner discovers it, whichever is later.

These laws do not remove a fraudulent deed from the record on their own; clearing title still takes a court judgment or order.

What an owner’s title policy covers

An owner’s policy insures your title as of the Date of Policy, usually your closing date. New York owner’s policies are issued under the TIRSA rate manual, which moved to the 2021 ALTA owner’s policy form on October 1, 2024. Older policies use the 2006 form. Read your own policy jacket for the exact terms.

Forgery before you bought. If a deed in your chain of title was forged before your closing, the standard owner’s policy covers it. Covered Risk 2(a) of the 2021 ALTA owner’s policy insures against defects from “forgery, fraud, undue influence, duress, incompetency, incapacity, or impersonation,” unauthorized transfers, and documents executed under an invalid power of attorney.

Forgery after you bought. The standard owner’s policy generally does not cover a forged deed recorded against you years after closing. Exclusion 3(d) removes matters created after the Date of Policy, with narrow exceptions for the period before your own deed is recorded. Because a forged deed is void, your title itself survives, but the cost of clearing it may fall on you.

Extended coverage. For residential property (one- to four-family homes and individual condo or co-op units used as a dwelling) insured to a natural person or a living trust, New York buyers can choose the TIRSA Owner’s Extended Protection Policy at 120% of the owner’s rate (TIRSA Rate Manual Section 20). The OEPP form (01/11/2001, printed in Part VI of the TIRSA Rate Manual) covers rights arising from forgery or impersonation (Covered Risk 3) occurring after the Policy Date (Covered Risk 7), without a deductible or separate cap; the limit is the Policy Amount. See market value and extended owner’s coverage.

In 2025 the American Land Title Association released the ALTA 49 and 49.1 endorsements, which add post-policy deed and mortgage forgery coverage to a new or existing residential owner’s policy. They are not listed in the TIRSA rate manual effective October 1, 2024, and ALTA said in June 2026 that availability varies by state and underwriter, so ask before assuming they are offered in New York.

A title policy is not monitoring. It pays covered losses and defense costs under its terms; it does not alert you to a recording. The free DOF and Westchester alerts do that.

Official sources

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Korvane Title is preparing to launch in New York. It is not licensed as a title insurance agent and does not accept title orders. Content on this site is general information, not legal advice.