My neighbors and have come across what looks like cases of house title fraud in DC.

For example, where neighbors know a house has been abandoned (e.g. they know owners who fled the US due to legal/criminal issues, or abandoned the home for another reason). The house that has no mortgage, abandoned in the '80s/'90s and been sitting vacant and boarded up.

Then DC Real Estate property records start changing; for example, the address (not the name of the owner) changes with a "C/o [New person with another address]" in the address field, then property tax history payments in arrears disappear (Yes, homes with decades of unpaid taxes, which ostensibly should have been auctioned off) and a couple of months/years later a new owner is listed. No listed sales records per DC law, no mention of any type of court auction/sales, etc. Real estate agents with substantial DC sales history we asked cannot determine what happened.

Then somebody moves in and doesn't talk much to neighbors or ANC commissioner who pops in to welcome them (not accusatory questions; questions like "Welcome to the neighborhood, are you the new owner?" are non-answered when neighbors ask him). Person starts bare renovations on the cheap himself.

A neighbor starts becoming inquisitive, gets the new neighbors name and looks up DC and MD court records and finds out that the person has 9 or so cases of illegally squatting in abandoned homes around DC and renting out rooms, most of them court-ordered to vacate, but he still appears to be doing it.

After basic renovations (talking about sub-standard housing renovations in neighborhoods where homes are $1M+), person rents out rooms (no advertisement we know of online or at property). Roommates, who are friendly, say they barely meet that person (other than paying monthly cash to him in person) and he doesn't want a lease, doesn't accept checks for rent and hasn't even had them fill out a rental application or subject them to background checks.

Said person appears to be well off, based on cars he drives, where he lives (yes, we are that nosey and found his $2.5M home in VA and other areas).

I know DCRA/Recorder of Deeds have had employees charged with helping those who commit title fraud in the past. If this sound suspect, are there many cases like this these days? Or is this shit we shouldn't be asking about, given how DC is a cloak and dagger town (JK...though there have been intelligence agency covert ops' homes accidentally outed in the past...no lie).

Comments

88138813 t1_iu0ay36 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 4:39 PM

If you think something illegal is going on you should file a police report.

blueboybob t1_itzysh6 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 3:19 PM

I think DC has a law if you make improvements (and pay taxes) on a blighted property you get to own it.

uncheckablefilms t1_iu1etfq wrote on October 27, 2022 at 8:55 PM

Well now I have a new strategy for homeownership...

Bikerrrrrrr OP t1_iu00flk wrote on October 27, 2022 at 3:30 PM

Thanks and that goes through a process including title changes and notices and sometimes vacancy notices if unoccupied.

TitzKarlton t1_iu2sesn wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:08 AM

I’ve never heard of such a DC law. There is “adverse possession” which takes 15 years I believe.

latent_stamp t1_iu1expf wrote on October 27, 2022 at 8:56 PM

I'm not sure what anyone here can tell you that your ANC commissioner couldn't find out, but have you asked these questions at an ANC meeting? Or contacted any DC agency that might actually be able to do something? It sounds like the construction on the house was illegal if he did it himself without permits and that can be reported. Has anyone done that? There's probably tax fraud stuff going on (I mean, paying in cash, seriously?) and possibly zoning issues and licensing issues in terms of running a illegal boarding house or something like that, but those are questions people in your neighborhood need to ask the relevant agencies; there's not much we can do since we don't even know what neighborhood you're talking about.

jonnygrip t1_iu35ury wrote on October 28, 2022 at 5:20 AM

....you may be digging in very dangerous ground on this one.

Bikerrrrrrr OP t1_iu9rkyf wrote on October 29, 2022 at 5:42 PM

Heh he. DC be like that sometimes.

PotomacSwimmer202 t1_iu1t5rf wrote on October 27, 2022 at 10:36 PM

Why not steal houses at this point? I’m sure the city will be little to no help until something goes really wrong.

1800TurdFerguson t1_iu3fuup wrote on October 28, 2022 at 7:30 AM

Contact Marissa Lang at Washington Post or Alex Koma at City Paper with the evidence you’ve gathered. I don’t think this is common, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s happening.

Bikerrrrrrr OP t1_iu9rizk wrote on October 29, 2022 at 5:41 PM

Thanks!

[deleted] t1_iu54w8j wrote on October 28, 2022 at 4:53 PM

[removed]

Complex_Pangolin5822 t1_iu0z7v6 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 7:15 PM

Hater alert

Guinea-Charm t1_iu0w8z7 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 6:55 PM

Maybe you should just mind your own business.

GEV46 t1_iu1qfrm wrote on October 27, 2022 at 10:16 PM

Sorry dude, you're gonna lose your cheap rent.

FancyRatFridays t1_iu57gfk wrote on October 28, 2022 at 5:10 PM

It's all well and good until something goes wrong--a house fire from DIY electrical work, a flood from shoddy plumbing, etc--and the "tenants" try to get compensated, but find themselves plunged into a legal mess because they can't even prove that their "landlord" owns the property.

I hate overly-nosy neighbors too, but honestly, having lived in a wannabe slumlord's property for a while, I would much rather have been prevented from moving in at all... which would have happened if our neighbors had known what was going on and taken action. Living there was no fun.