Ontario senior a victim of mortgage fraud: Brockville man discovers bungalow sold!!
September 5, 2006 - An 89-year-old resident of Brockville, Ontario says he is heartbroken and feeling betrayed after his rental property was stolen through apparent title fraud. Paul Reviczky, who fled Hungary in 1957 to escape Communist persecution, is one of the latest homeowners to discover that Ontario law favours banks, mortgage companies and purchasers over innocent victims of fraud.
"I was shocked to learn that this could be the law in Canada," Reviczky said. "I fled Hungary to escape lawlessness like this and now my sense of security in Canada is gone." Gerry Phillips, Ontario's minister of government services, has vowed to change the land-registry system to protect homeowners like Reviczky from title fraud.
Reviczky purchased the bungalow in Brockville in 1980 for $67,500 to generate a rental income that would help pay for the education of relatives back in Hungary. Since his wife's death in February 2005, he has lived alone in his home a few kilometres from the rental property.
Reviczky said he could not believe his ears on June 26 when his neighbour, a REALTOR®, told him she had noticed that he had sold his rental property in May. "So I went back to my office, got the record from the computer and showed it to him," Vivian Ho said. "His face turned red and I was worried that he was going to have a heart attack."
Police suspect Reviczky's most recent "tenants" forged his name on a power of attorney that purported to give a fictitious grandson authority to sell the home on his behalf. "I don't have any grandsons" Reviczky said. On May 15, the property was sold on his behalf for $450,000 to a purchaser who took out a mortgage of $337,500.
"I did not get the proceeds," Reviczky said. Reviczky's lawyer, Tonu Toome, said it was "very painful" to have to break the news to Reviczky that he may lose his house forever - even though he was a totally innocent victim of the fraud - because Ontario law, as it stands now, recognizes the transaction as valid where the purchaser is unaware of the scam.
"I had to tell him that although he would ultimately receive financial compensation for the loss of his home, this would entail legal fees and an application to Ontario's Land Titles Assurance Fund, which could take several years," Toome says.
This story just a few months after we reported about Susan Lawrence, an Ontario homeowner who was facing eviction from a lender because an identity thief stole the title to her home and mortgaged it to Maple Trust for almost $300,000. He immediately defaulted on the mortgage and disappeared with the money. Read her story in our article titled "House title thieves can wreak havoc...and it can happen to you!"
© Canadian Real Estate Association - 2006