Deed theft complaints have tripled in New York in recent years, data shows
Complaints about deed theft to the New York Attorney General's Office have more than tripled over the last few years.
Deed theft is essentially when someone steals a house, often forging the paperwork, and data obtained by CBS News New York shows a 240% increase in complaints to the New York Attorney General's Office from 2023 to 2025.
The AG's office attributes that statewide spike in part due to growing awareness as they spreads the word about where and how to complain, but prosecutors and the attorney general have said the crime is also becoming more common.
How to protect your property
Complaints about deed theft to New York Attorney General Letitia James' office jumped from 149 in 2023 to 222 in 2024, then to 517 in 2025.
In 2024, James co-authored a new law to expand her ability to prosecute deed theft, then used that law last year to charge two people with stealing the home of a widow on hospice care in Queens.
"We are witnessing a disturbing rise in the number of housing scams, particularly scams such as deed theft," she said in 2025.
"With the technology advancing and new ways of creating documents like birth certificates, Social Security numbers, any type of ID that you can make on the internet, it's becoming much more prevalent and people are hearing that they have a voice about it now," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Katz said the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau she launched in 2020 has helped return 23 homes to their true owners.
In one case, prosecutors charged a man with stealing someone's identity to commit deed fraud on three homes, leading to a guilty plea. Investigators still don't know his real name, but a judge recently sentenced him to four to nine years in prison.
"There has been times when it's too much money, too many resources, too many assistant district attorneys, too many obstacles in the way to investigate that, and it shouldn't be that way," Katz said.
To protect yourself, property owners can sign up for notifications about any new documents filed for their property in the city's Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS). Katz said that's the best way to know if your title is being searched, if someone claims a right to your deed, or if someone takes out a mortgage on your property.
"We need basic protection"
Meng Yu bought a house in Kew Gardens, Queens last year and has the paperwork to prove it. Yet, he's locked out and fighting in court for access while the Queens District Attorney investigates.
"I hope the city will starting to do their job because this is just not right. And for the homeowners, we need basic protection," Yu said.
His wife wanted to move in right away to cut down her work commute, but Yu said a woman who'd been living in the house refused to leave. Yu started the eviction process, but in December, he said that same woman somehow took over the deed.
"I was shocked. How could this be possible? Because only the owner is supposed to sell the house," he said.
City records show the property owner changed twice in one day back in 2006 and wound up in the hands of that same woman who is now claiming the property. Even though she apparently bought the property in '06, that transfer wasn't filed in the city's records until 12 years later in 2018.
But records show a bank sold the home to Yu last year.
"This deed definitely is fraudulent," he said. "This is not your home, no matter how you want to claim otherwise, and please move out."
Last month, that woman denied committing any fraud in response to a lawsuit from Yu.
In a bankruptcy filing last year, the same woman noted she doesn't own any property.
CBS News New York looked at two addresses for the woman who is now claiming the deed and reached out to her attorney but never heard back.
"I'm frustrated and I don't know what to say so, it's really hard for us," Yu said.
The Queens District Attorney's Office said it can't comment on cases currently under investigation.
