State House — The Senate today passed legislation sponsored by Senate President Valarie J. Lawson that would criminalize deed theft — an increasingly common practice that bold scammers use to steal homes and real estate.
Deed theft typically involves forged documents, such as a quit claim deed, to record a phony transfer of property ownership. Scammers will then seek to sell either the stolen vacant land or home or even rent it to turn a profit, forcing the real owners to head to court to reclaim their property.
While still rare, it has become enough of a problem that the FBI has warned New Englanders of a “steady uptick” in the fraud, and AARP has listed it as one of its legislative priorities, since the scam tends to target older property owners.
The bill (2026-S 2715A) would establish the criminal offense of real estate title fraud and create penalties for violations. Additionally, it would allow municipalities to refuse to record “suspicious documents” from persons who are not trusted submitters.
“This bill takes the necessary and important steps to protect Rhode Island homeowners and municipalities from the growing threat of real estate title fraud,” said President Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence). “This type of fraud has become more common on the national level, and the victims are often unaware that deeds, liens or mortgages have been filed in their names. This bill provides multiple levels of protection to better safeguard what for most Rhode Islanders is our valuable asset: our homes.”
There are typically two variations of the scam. In the first, scammers will forge a deed that transfers ownership of a property to them. They file the deed with a city or town clerk, who records the sale. Then the property is quickly sold to an unsuspecting purchaser.
In the second type, crooks convince homeowners to sign a deed to transfer ownership by promising help refinancing a mortgage or paying overdue property taxes.
Deed theft has become more rampant recently. Last month, newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani established the city’s first Office of Deed Theft Prevention. Over the last decade, thousands of deed theft complaints have been filed across New York City, with the highest concentration in Brooklyn and Queens. Black homeowners and neighborhoods have been disproportionately targeted, deepening racial wealth gaps and destabilizing communities.
In New England, a Connecticut landowner was shocked to discover a $1.5 million dollar home being build on his land after a fraudulent sale of which he was unaware. The buyer of the property was also unaware that they had purchased the property from a fraudulent seller until the house was partially built.
The bill would give municipal officials the power to temporarily delay a suspicious document, report a suspicious document to any appropriate law enforcement agency, or notify a notary public to acknowledge or verify a suspicious document.
Each municipality would have until Jan. 1, 2028, to establish a property alert notification system that allows a person to enroll real property owned by the person in the system. Any person violating the provisions of the act would be guilty of a felony and be subject to imprisonment for not more than 10 years, and a fine of not more than $50,000 or both for a first offense.
The measure now moves to the House, which has already passed similar legislation (2026-H 7551aa) from House Speaker Pro Tempore Brian Patrick Kennedy (D-Dist. 38, Hopkinton, Westerly).
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