A couple whose Toronto house was sold without their knowledge is calling for the Ontario government to enact tougher legislation to prevent others from being victimized in the same way.The mortgage she shared with her husband, Derrick, had disappeared from the home screen of her Canadian bank account. After making some calls, she found out her mortgage was closed."But we didn't know the extent of it.
The couple's case is one of at least four in the Greater Toronto Area where homeowners had their houses sold out from under them by organized crime groups, according to. Nearly a year after discovering something was wrong, Stephanie and Derrick are sharing their story to sound the alarm on how they say current identification requirements in real-estate transactions are failing to protect homeowners from fraud.
John Rider, senior vice president of Chicago Title Insurance Company in Canada, says fake IDs are so good now they're almost impossible to tell from the real thing. Title insurance also covers unwitting buyers in title transfer frauds who can recover the funds they put toward purchasing a house through a fraud claim.Instead of relying on one or two pieces of ID, Rider argues a multi-factor identification process should be adopted for all real-estate transactions. The process would require a combination of photo ID verification, a credit report search, and checks on the cell phone number provided to make sure it isn't a burner phone.
"Along with our colleagues across the country, we continue to follow and monitor this matter closely," said Brown.Real estate agent and broker client verification requirements stem from provincial legislation and federal and provincial guidelines. CBC Toronto asked the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery whether it's considered bolstering ID requirements in its legislation to fight real-estate fraud.