Real Estate Fraud Growing in Polk and Across Florida

Real Estate Fraud Growing in Polk and Across Florida

A gate and a guard house protect the houses in the Sunset Ridge neighborhood, including a three-bedroom, two-bathroom vacation home on Sunset View Drive.

While those security measures might prevent criminals from making physical intrusions into the home owned by a British couple, there are no equivalent protections deter virtual thieves.

Last March, someone who may never have set foot inside Sunset Ridge filed a simple legal document with the Polk County Clerk of the Court’s Office and suddenly claimed ownership of the house with a full-sized pool. The document, known as a quit-claim deed, asserted that the home’s owners, Martin and Penny Knight, had surrendered title for a mere $10.

That single legal filing thrust the home’s owners into a legal challenge to invalidate the deed, which bore their purported signatures.