A homeowner says a complete stranger was granted the deed to his $4 million home in North Carolina.
Craig Adams and his wife still live in his 8,300-square-foot home in Raleigh, and despite him paying his taxes and the mortgage, the property is no longer in his name.
A person named Dawn Mangum filed paperwork on August 11 with the Wake County Register of Deeds Office listing Dawn Mangum Estate as a debtor on the property, ABC 11 reported. Adams was also listed as a debtor.
The Register of Deeds then approved the deed transfer to an entity called Dawn Mangum Trust.
‘I found out that she had filed a false warranty claim deed against this house and basically tried to steal this home,’ Adams told ABC11.
Craig Adams, who has his own dental practice, owns the 8,300-square-foot home in Raleigh
Adams found out about the change only because he put his home on the market.
It listed for $4.25 million, boasting five bedrooms and seven bathrooms along with an elegant circular driveway.
The property management company for his homeowner’s association asked him if he’d successfully sold his home, because Mangum had contacted the company asking for access to the private gated community.
Adams, who has his own dental practice, visited to the county Register of Deeds to get answers.
‘There’s no effort to authenticate the validity of the change of deed. Nobody verifies the notary. Nobody verifies who owns the house that’s trying to be transferred to a different owner,’ he said.
When Adams proved he owned the home and that Mangum had no stake or claim to it, he was told that the deed would remain in Mangum’s hands.
Pictured: The front of Adams’ home, which sitin a gated community just north of Raleigh
‘They say there’s absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this once it’s filed. Their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman,’ he said.
The County Attorney and the Register of Deeds told Adams via email that they are bound by North Carolina law and cannot remove a document once it has been recorded.
‘I’m left the victim, and there’s no recourse. So, it’s just a tough spot to be in,’ he said.
North Carolina law does not require the Register of Deeds to ‘read or examine any page of an instrument, other than the first two pages.’
The law also doesn’t require the register to ‘verify or make inquiry concerning the accuracy, sufficiency, or completeness of information’ in a deed submitted to them for approval.
They don’t have to verify the notary either, according to the law.
Adams told DailyMail.com that the notary on the documents submitted by Mangum had expired in 2014.
He added that officials don’t have to check the ID of someone who comes in looking to transfer the deed to a home.
The Register of Deeds did tell ABC 11 that the office can refuse to record a document if fraud is suspected, but none was in this case.
Pictured: A copy of the document Dawn Mangum filed with the Wake County Register of Deeds Office
The grantee, the person or entity receiving the deed, was listed as Dawn Mangum Trust
Craig Adams, here listed with his middle initial, was listed as a debtor to the property
‘The biggest concern is the citizens of Wake County – we’re so vulnerable. I could go down and put this warranty deed, find out where you live, and I could presumably take ownership of your house. It’s that easy,’ Adams said.
Dawn Mangum told ABC 11 she did everything legally and thought Adams’ property was in foreclosure.
‘My thing is not to take anyone’s home but to find abandoned property and restore it, she said.
Once she learned the property wasn’t being foreclosed on, she said she halted all paperwork, adding that she intends to return ownership to Adams.
The listing mentioned the property was in foreclosure, something Adams said was a mistake and has been corrected.
DailyMail.com reached out to Mangum for comment but didn’t receive an immediate response.
Adams told DailyMail.com he plans to resolve the issue by hiring a lawyer and bringing it in front of a judge at great cost to himself
Adams told DailyMail.com he plans to resolve the issue by hiring a lawyer and bringing it in front of a judge at great cost to himself.
He said that even if he is able to prove that Mangum’s deed is false, it doesn’t expunge it from the county record.
‘There has to be state legislature laws that come down to the Register of Deeds,’ Adams said. ‘Authenticate the document, authenticate the signature, authenticate who owns it.’
The Wake County Sheriff’s Department said it is actively investigating.
The sheriff’s department also released a statement on its preliminary findings, while offering a way for homeowners to avoid the situation Adams has found himself in.
‘With more than 500 documents processed through the Wake County Register of Deeds office daily, it would be impossible to verify the legitimacy of each document or the credentials of each notary, nor does the Register of Deeds office have access to a database of commissioned North Carolina notaries to check against,’ the sheriff’s department wrote.
The statement continued: ‘The Wake County Register of Deeds office offers a free fraud alert system. When documents are recorded with a name that is being monitored, the property owner will be immediately notified that an action has taken place on their property.
‘In this particular situation, the homeowner’s name was not included as the drafter or the Grantor or Grantee on the document, so the alerts were not triggered. The document also hasn’t been indexed in the homeowner’s name.’