I-TEAM: ‘I feel violated;’ State lawmakers talking new legislation to stop house stealing

DAYTON — Thieves are stealing entire homes in the Miami Valley and some victims can’t get them back even though they can prove their homes were stolen.

The News Center 7 I-Team first reported in December that public officials said this problem is on the rise across our community. Now the I-Team’s lead investigative reporter, John Bedell, is looking into how fraudsters are getting away with it and the talks that could lead to legislation to protect every Ohio homeowner.

Janis Hayes told the I-Team housing is her hobby. One real estate investment she made decades ago involved buying an apartment building at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Harvard Boulevard in Dayton. “I set up a personal office in one of the units and the other(s) I rented out to tenants,” Hayes said.

Eventually, she began investing her time to care for her husband when he got cancer. “My focus and attention was where it should be: in my home,” Hayes said. “So I boarded the building up.”

Her husband died in 2020. Not long after, she stopped getting tax bills for the property and suddenly realized it wasn’t hers anymore. “I feel violated,” Hayes said. “I feel abused. I feel unprotected.”

According to Montgomery County property records, Terry Thomas and his company, At the End of the Day, LLC, took over Hayes property by filing a quitclaim deed in 2018. The I-Team got a hold of a copy of the document which appears to have Hayes’ name and signature on it.

“The signature does not even look like mine,” Hayes told the I-Team during an interview in the living room of her Dayton home. “My marital status was not correct. Nothing was correct on the deed that was fraudulent.”

Each property the I-Team examined for this investigation had a signed quitclaim deed, which is normally used to easily add a name to a property, or transfer property between people who know each other, like family, friends, or business associates. But when someone files paperwork on a property they don’t have the rights to – that’s deed fraud.

Hayes eventually sued when she learned about the document.

According to a decision filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court in March in the case, Judge Mary Wiseman wrote Janis didn’t find out until three years later that the “… false, fraudulent quitclaim deed forged (her) signature.”

Bedell went to an address in Trotwood listed for Thomas and his company to ask how his name ended up on the deed, but no one answered the door.

The I-Team also got a hold of documents showing Hayes’ property at Cumberland and Harvard in Dayton has since changed hands two more times through quitclaim deeds. Montgomery County property records show the current owner is a business registered to Brandon McClure, McClure Investment Group, LLC.

Hayes told the I-Team she and her lawyer argued otherwise in court, but the judge ruled, “McClure acted without fraud or collusion to obtain the property” in Dayton.

The I-Team tried to reach McClure for comment at the building on the corner of Cumberland and Harvard, but when we rang the video doorbell camera and asked for “Brandon,” a man’s voice came through the video doorbell and said, “Hey, could you get away from my door, please?”

The I-Team also called McClure’s lawyer for comment last week. But we were told he was unavailable and left a message for him to call back. We’re still waiting to hear back.

The court decided that McClure and his company are entitled to the Dayton building because, the judge wrote, since buying it, McClure has spent at least $73,000 on renovations to the property.

Judge Wiseman wrote Hayes “allowed the property to deteriorate” and “apparently did not investigate the tax status of the property that she believed she owned over the years since the deed fraud.”

The judge added, “McClure and his company also are innocent victims of the same quitclaim deed fraud.”

Montgomery County Recorder Stacey Benson-Taylor told the I-Team that complaints to her office regarding deed fraud are happening more often. “From January of 2023 to the present, I have received 91 referrals regarding quitclaim deed fraud,” Benson-Taylor said.

She added the Recorder’s Office is now taking steps to cut down on the crime. For example, as of March 1, the office is now requiring photo IDs for people presenting deeds. It’s also checking to make sure notary certifications are valid.

When it suspects fraud, the Montgomery County Recorder’s Office refers cases to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office for investigation and a review of possible criminal charges.

“I think there are 8 or 10 current (investigations into deed fraud open) right now,” Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. told the I-Team.

But, Heck says, for several reasons, quitclaim deed fraud is difficult to prosecute. “Many times we don’t hear about it until a long time after the event took place,” Heck said. “Other times people are simply not around. So we have no witnesses.”

In the case of that Dayton building Hayes once owned, Heck’s office told the I-Team it opened a criminal investigation but that “unfortunately, there was insufficient evidence to indicate the identity of the person who committed the fraud.”

At the end of Hayes’ civil case, Judge Wiseman ruled McClure and his company could keep that Dayton property after paying Hayes a little more than $19,000.

The judge wrote in her decision: “(Hayes) should receive the reasonable value of the property that she lost, at the time she lost it. Given the poor condition of the property at the time of the fraud and until Defendant McClure acquired the property and began improvements, $19,180 is the most reliable market valuation, based upon the preponderance of evidence …. No unearned windfall to (Hayes) will result from allowing McClure to keep the improved property equity and fruits of his significant investment in the property.”

But Hayes told the I-Team she refused the money. She said what she wants is her property back. She told News Center 7 that she’s looking at options other than a court appeal to get back her building.

Hayes also says she wants a new state law that would help people like her who have already been victimized by deed fraud and stop it from happening to others.

“We are not getting the kind of assistance, we’re not getting the kind of changes, we’re not getting the kind of movement that we need for this kind of criminal activity,” Hayes said.

Judge Wiseman declined the I-Team’s request for an on-camera interview about her decision in Hayes’ civil lawsuit. In an email, Wiseman’s office told the I-Team after sharing our request with Judge Wiseman, “She said at this time since the court has active matters involving quitclaim deed fraud that it would not be appropriate to discuss a particular case nor this issue in general.”

Benson-Taylor told the I-Team that the Ohio Recorders’ Association feels state law needs changing to help curb deed fraud and is talking to the state legislature about it.

Bedell talked to two state lawmakers from the Miami Valley delegation about this: State Rep. Willis Blackshear Jr., a Democrat from Dayton, and State Rep. Bernie Willis, a Republican from Springfield. Both told the I-Team they’ve been involved separately in recent talks about what that legislation might look like. We’ll keep you up to date on any new bills lawmakers introduce at the Statehouse in Columbus.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY

The I-Team also looked into ways you can protect your property. We checked and every county recorder’s office in the Miami Valley offers free fraud alert notification systems. If you sign up, you’ll get notified whenever a document is recorded on your property. If it’s suspicious, you can report it.

And every county in our area has online property records. You can go online and search using your name or address and make sure your house or other real estate you own is still yours.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. also provided some consumer advice. “The big thing to me is: not to use a quitclaim deed,” Heck said. “Never buy a property simply by a quitclaim deed. They have their purpose, which is very limited in nature. But if you’re going to buy a piece of property, you want to get a warranty deed or a limited warranty deed. And always go through either a title company or a lawyer. It’s not that expensive.”

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