More muscle for mortgage fraud law
Bill improvements to be debated Monday
Excerpt from an article by Robert Benzie - Toronto Star
The Ontario government is “toughening up” a new law designed to curb real estate fraud, the Toronto Star has learned.
There are some 10 instances a year in Ontario of title fraud — where an innocent person’s home is essentially stolen from them by fraudsters using falsified documents — and between $5 million to $7 million in fraudulent mortgages annually in the province.
The minister, who hopes the bill will pass by Christmas, emphasized the government will “keep looking on an ongoing basis whether there’s additional” measures that can be taken to further protect consumers.
The proposed legislation fixes the current law, which says fraudulent property transactions based on bogus mortgages, land transfers, or powers of attorney are considered lawful upon registry with the Ontario land titles system.
The existing law means that homeowners could be on the hook for mortgages fraudulently put on their property without their knowledge — instead of the banks or mortgage companies.
Bill 152 will tackle those problems by making it possible to suspend or revoke access to the land titles system by suspected real estate fraudsters and by increasing provincial penalties from the current $1,000 to a maximum of $50,000.
In the past, homeowners who’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars have then had to spend years and tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees to receive compensation from the fund.
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