A blueprint for protection: Learning from New York's fight against deed theft

A blueprint for protection: Learning from New York's fight against deed theft

By Alice T. Crowe More than a dozen families in Brooklyn fell behind on their mortgage payments. They sought help from a lawyer who promised to facilitate a short sale —a transaction in which the bank allows the delinquent homeowner to sell the home for less than what is owed. These families soon found out that the lawyer now owned their house, and they were still facing foreclosure. That’s the nightmare 15 victims in New York City faced when th…