Governor Hochul: “It's an injustice and one that must be eliminated. The idea that someone could steal your wealth all with the stroke of a pen. It's unconscionable and will no longer stand for it. That's why today, with a stroke of a pen, we'll sign legislation that will protect homeowners from this heinous crime.”
Hochul: “I know how home ownership can change people's lives...that's why I know how important this is. I know this is part of who you are. And every New Yorker deserves the ability to build that wealth and have that home. But there are some twisted, cruel people out there, hell-bent on scamming vulnerable New Yorkers, and they've been getting away with a lot. They are trying to steal that dream from innocent people.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to protect New Yorkers from deed theft, a practice in which property owners are defrauded out of the property titles to their homes. Legislation S.6577/A.6656 enhances deed theft protections by empowering the Attorney General and local District Attorneys investigating or litigating deed theft to pause related eviction and ownership dispute proceedings and expanding the list of crimes that allow prosecutors to invalidate fraudulent sale and loan documents, among other measures. Governor Hochul signed the legislation today in Brooklyn alongside the Attorney General, members of the Legislature, legal services advocates and victims of deed theft.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Welcome. Home ownership is the key to building generational wealth. It's the biggest barometer of social mobility. And today, we're here to protect what is known as the most important part of the American Dream, the ability to have a safe roof over your head, your own part of your own story that you can build on.
And we're here to protect that dream for communities all over the State of New York by cracking down on deed theft. And I want to acknowledge the individuals who brought us here today. Attorney General Tish James, thank you for understanding how important this is to the individuals who have been affected and let the lawbreakers know that we're coming after them. Thank you, Attorney General Tish James.
The sponsors of our legislation, Senator Brian Kavanagh. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is so critically important. Assemblymember Helene Weinstein. Thank you for your dedication to getting this done and through the legislature. Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, I want to thank you for – I know you're taking the bar exam here in a couple of weeks. This is your law school, right? It's your law school, so, hopefully there's good karma around passing the bar in a couple of months. I also want to thank Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, Assemblymember Zinerman. Attorney General Gonzalez, you know, the critical role we play in making sure that our laws are implemented and executed is our District Attorneys, I want to give him a shout out as well.
We also have here two individuals who are as tough as nails, who are unrelenting in their fight through the courts to say, “No, we will not be victimized by people who try to steal part of our identity, our own home,” and that is Joseph Clarke and Jacqueline Knights, who are previously the victims, but now the prevailers, the winners. And I want to give them a special shout out here today.
Jenny Eisenberg, thank you. Where's Jenny? She's the attorney. Stand up. This is the attorney from Brooklyn Legal Services who helped make this happen. Thank you, Jenny. Thank you.
I know how home ownership can change people's lives. I saw my own parents, children of very poor immigrants, who lived in a trailer park, my mom and dad did. And it was not where the wealthy people lived it all and it still hasn't changed much. I still visit this trailer park to remind me where my family came from. But I saw the progression of success through the little Cape Cod where all of us slept in an attic, and the next house, and the next house. And that becomes part of your success in life – the ability to own a home, but maybe to even get a bigger one someday as your family continues to grow.
So, that's why I know how important this is. I know this is part of who you are. And every New Yorker deserves the ability to build that wealth and have that home. But there are some twisted, cruel people out there, hell-bent. Hell-bent on scamming vulnerable New Yorkers, and they've been getting away with a lot. They are trying to steal that dream from innocent people. There's a story I read in the New York Times a couple years back that I'll never forget about a woman who owned a beautiful brownstone in Bed-Stuy. She inherited it from her father. It was a point of pride for her because her father had born into a family of former slaves. This was success. They bought the home for $7,500 in 1957. That was a lot of money back then, but they worked hard to have that. And tragically later that dream turned into a nightmare when there were scams.
The daughter had fallen behind on mortgage payments. Many people do. And she unwittingly was scammed into selling the home for a fraction of its value. That home was worth $1.2 million. And she gave it up for $120,000. That was a crime. That's what we call deed theft. And it's fueled by the hot real estate markets right now, and there's a lot of demand for this. But particularly Black and Brown communities are preyed upon by these individuals. And in areas that are being gentrified, and the value of the homes is up. As housing prices skyrocket, so have the scams to steal these rights.
There were over 3,500 deed theft complaints in the New York City Sheriff's Office, 1,500 right here in Brooklyn. Out of those cases, there had only been a handful of convictions because the law was not on their side. And the value of those homes, even just look at Manhattan, $112 million. But behind every statistic, there's a broken-hearted family who doesn't know what their next steps will be, a shattered dream. And there's people who pose as mortgage specialists and foreclosure specialists, like, “Join us. You're a little behind. We'll help you get out from it.” And sometimes people get pressured into signing agreements not knowing that they're actually transferring the deed to someone else. And that's hard to undo in court. Once there's that signature, it's hard to undo.
So, there's been scams and scams and scams. And what I want to make sure we do is address those, but also those who also forged the signatures of deceased homeowners. I'm sure many of you read the news. November 9th this year, there's a wicked scheme that just came to an end with an arrest. A woman stole a deed belonging to a dead man who had the same name as her father. Who does that? She stole the property – hundreds of thousands of dollars. She went out and bought an Audi, fancy jewelry, artwork. So cold the cruelty of what she did in denying that dead man's family their rightful due. Their family legacy turned into a shopping spree for this woman. So, people can steal, they keep paying on a mortgage that no longer belongs to them, and it often means someone being evicted from their home. And it's hard to crack down on.
The Attorney General will tell you this is why she was so dedicated to changing the law when they – these people hide behind these shell corporations. It's hard to find who the perpetrator is. And you're going to hear a powerful story from Joseph and Jackie very soon. They were tricked into deeding their home to a sham LLC and then faced eviction. But the story ends well. I'll let you tell it.
But I also, again, want to give a shout out to Brooklyn Legal Services for what you did. And the fact that people in these circumstances need free legal services to help them get their day in court. And so, that's what we're going to also focus on. It has a happy ending, but so many people did not end up as they did.
It's an injustice and one that must be eliminated. The idea that someone could steal your wealth all with the stroke of a pen. It's unconscionable and will no longer stand for it. That's why today, with a stroke of a pen, we'll sign legislation that will protect homeowners from this heinous crime. Again, thank you to our sponsors, Senator Kavanaugh, Assemblymember Weinstein and the Attorney General for making sure this became a reality.
It also expands the Homeowner Equity Theft Prevention Act, allow homeowners to cancel a contract if they sell their property and become, if they're on a utility lien list, allows prosecutors to flag properties to make buyers and lenders aware of the issues to avoid further transactions. So, it protects them, and it makes changes to the legal process giving victims more power to their rights in civil court.
So, today is an important step forward. Long overdue. I wish we could have protected more people before this day, but going forward, there will be an outcome and let the message go out to all of those who have preyed on these individuals for far too long your day is over. You will be caught, you will be prosecuted and it must end right now. So, that's how we keep New Yorkers safe. Also securing more resources for these programs.
But today, I'm proud to be here. Proud we can get this accomplished and make sure that we end this horrible scam and deliver a powerful message. First of all, that our Black and Brown communities matter. They have rights. Stop preying on them. That their financial wellbeing matters. And that their housing security matters to all of us. We'll continue to make the dream of home reality remain more than a dream. Let's make it become the reality for so many more New Yorkers without the threat of having that dream shattered.
So, with that, I want to thank all of you for being here today and let's get this done. Thank you. Now, I've had the privilege of introducing the Attorney General on so many occasions, because we work so well together and we have. We are joined together in our effort to protect vulnerable New Yorkers, especially when it comes to protecting their homes. So, I want to thank her again for her leadership on this initiative. I'm very proud to consider her my partner in government. Ladies and gentlemen, our great Attorney General, Tish James.