Torain, now 46, told BK Reader she has marched into four different courts about 30 times. She heads back to Kings County Supreme Court this week in yet another attempt to reclaim the deed to her family home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis horror started when my grandmother was 93-years-old,\u201d Torain, the founder of Black Homeowners Preservation Coalition, said to packed town hall meeting about deed theft in Bedford-Stuyvesant last week. \u201cThe superficial conversations stopped once the deed theft happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, there\u2019s been a renewed focus from elected officials to combat deed theft and other fraudulent real estate scams like partition schemes despite years of Black homeowners and lawmakers speaking out against the scams.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn City Council Member Chi Oss\u00e9<\/a> was arrested by police in April while trying to stop the eviction of his constituent, Carmella Charrington, from her Bedford-Stuyvesant home.<\/p>\n Shortly thereafter, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani established the city\u2019s first Mayor\u2019s Office of Deed Theft Prevention<\/a>, while state Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman recently introduced the Deed Theft Eviction Protection Act<\/a>, where a homeowner cannot be evicted while the title to their home is being challenged in court.<\/p>\n This all comes at a time when a significant number of Black New Yorkers have left the city.<\/p>\n Nearly 200,000 Black New Yorkers left the city in the past two decades, according to city data<\/a>, while Black New Yorkers are leaving the state at more than 50% the rate of white New Yorkers, a pattern reflecting the fact that 85% of state out-migration is from New York City, which has a disproportionate number of Black residents relative to the state as a whole, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRacism is larger than incarceration and the N-word,\u201d Torain said, adding that real estate scammers targeting Black homeowners also stem from racism. \u201cThis is a civil rights issue.\u201d<\/p>\n City Planning Commissioner Leah Goodridge, who organized the town hall, said despite some effort\u00a0from legislators in the past, there\u2019s a lot more that needs to be resolved.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you live in Brooklyn, this has been going on for decades [and] it’s been ignored for decades,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Deed Theft, Partition Scams and Family Squabbles<\/p>\n Deed theft occurs when a thief takes the title to a home without the homeowner\u2019s knowledge or approval, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James\u2019 Office.<\/p>\n There was a 240% spike in deed theft complaints from 2023 to 2025, and this state-wide increase largely stems from growing knowledge and awareness of the issue, according to the AG\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Deed theft legally became a crime<\/a> after James formulated a law that was passed by the state legislature in July 2024.<\/p>\n But not all fraudulent schemes are deed theft. Although Charrington says fraudulent investors took her family home on Jefferson Avenue through deed theft, the case is technically a protracted battle with competing claims from the heirs and relatives of the property\u2019s former co-owners that also involves the probate court in Georgia, according to the AG\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Then there are partition schemes, where real estate speculators buy shares of properties from heirs and then, through court, force the other heirs to sell or vacate the property.<\/p>\n Speculators often targeted vulnerable properties, such as those of homeowners who died without wills or with a scattered network of heirs, and typically purchased shares well below market value from heirs who inherited the property and may not know the true worth.<\/p>\n This comes at a time when many family members are estranged. A recent YouGov poll <\/a>found that 38% of American adults say they are currently estranged from any of a sibling (24%), a parent (16%), a child (10%), a grandparent (9%), and a grandchild (6%).<\/p>\n Aaron Scheinwald, a supervising attorney at Access Justice Brooklyn<\/a>, said many of the cases his organization litigates stem from fraud related to family-related misunderstandings.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes it can be well-intentioned and sometimes not,\u201d where a family member is seeking more money to pay for health care or repairs, he told BK Reader.<\/p>\n The title holder will get involved with a scrupulous lender who is often not from a reputable financial institution. The family member will then sign a document for a refinancing scheme where the consequences are not fully explained and the fine print actually signs the deed over to the lender when a contingency can\u2019t be met, he said.<\/p>\n That said, there are now some protections in place. Under new changes to the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act<\/a>, investors can no longer force partition sales; only those who inherit property can initiate a partition action in court. The new law also implemented the Transfer on Death Deed<\/a>, in which a property owner can specify just one person to inherit their property to avoid confusion.<\/p>\n Prevention Tips<\/p>\n Many homeowners at the town hall traded stories and gave advice. One resident said her home was foreclosed after a shady mortgage lender manipulated an unpaid water bill (that stemmed from an unknown leaky basement bathroom) into a larger mortgage, which she then could not pay off.<\/p>\n Homes that have not seen any sale transactions for decades can also be flagged by scammers, Goodridge said.<\/p>\n Homeowners should stay away from signing paperwork with people who say they\u2019ll provide a quick fix, especially through an LLC, or a limited liability corporation, Scheinwald said. Despite historic racist practices<\/a> at large financial institutions toward Black Americans that include redlining<\/a> and other predatory loan practices, homeowners should find a reputable financial institution like a smaller regional bank or a credit union to obtain loans.<\/p>\n \u201cNinety-nine times out of 100, it’s a big red flag when the homeowner enters a deal with an LLC,\u201d Scheinwald told BK Reader.<\/p>\n In addition, those who need advice on how to sell a home, get a loan or a reverse mortgage, should consult housing counselors at nonprofits like Neighborhood Housing Services<\/a> NYC and IMPACCT Brooklyn<\/a>, before signing any document, he added.<\/p>\n Edward Mostoller, the director of the Homeowner & Consumer Advocacy Project at the City Bar Justice Center<\/a>, told the crowd that homeowners should have an estate plan so everything is spelled out on paper.<\/p>\n However, many in the audience, including Torain, said judges often fail to uphold the rule of law for Black New Yorkers, even when legal documents are in place.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth care proxies, real estate planning doesn\u2019t matter when you\u2019re Black,\u201d Torain said. \u201cThat\u2019s the reality in New York City, there are two realities when it comes to housing.\u201d<\/p>\n In Torain\u2019s case, con artists came into her grandmother’s home claiming to be her lawyer. The scammers are accused of convincing Robinson, who had a will,\u00a0to sign papers so she could receive a cash loan against her then-mortgage, according to the initial complain<\/a>t filed in 2022. The defendants then took the signature on that document to forge Robinson\u2019s name on other documents to obtain the deed to the house, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n Attorney Subhana Rahim<\/a> advised the crowd to keep meticulous paperwork, including printing out every water, utility and tax bill, as well as mortgage paperwork, leases and copies of any signed documents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like overkill but it will protect you,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t assume the other party will send you the paperwork later. They won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n She also encouraged homeowners to open up to family members about finances, as hard as it may be: \u201cPeople need to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodridge also warned the crowd not to assume all scammers are white real estate speculators. She gave the example of Ray Cortez<\/a>, a Park Slope homeowner who is battling deed theft-related eviction from his home. He was approached and scammed by a member of his own race at his church, she said.<\/p>\n Checking public documents on the city\u2019s Automated City Register Information System, or ACRIS<\/a>, as well as signing up for Notice of Recorded Document Program<\/a>, where the city will automatically mail you a notification when a new document is recorded against your property, will also help, speakers said.<\/p>\n The Fight Continues<\/p>\n Brooklyn resident Jillian Sumpter said she\u2019s been fighting to get the title back on her family home on Stuyvesant Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant despite\u00a0legal victories.<\/p>\n Sumpter, who is Black, said her mother, Dianne Sumpter, was approached by scammers of Caribbean descent, with a promise to fix her credit and lower her monthly mortgage payment after her husband died. The scammers, who bilked many other homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens, were successfully indicted by the Queens District Attorney in 2010. That said, Sumpter is still looking for the law group representing a now-defunct mortgage company to transfer the title back to her.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I still fighting this?\u201d Sumpter told the town hall crowd as she gripped a large binder filled with paperwork.<\/p>\n For Torain, she\u2019s disappointed in the turnout of \u201cmy New York.\u201d Hailing from a family of veterans, where her grandfather was one of the first Black New Yorkers to pay taxes, the third generation Brooklynite is aghast at how judges keep allowing fraudsters to litigate, draining families of their finances.<\/p>\n \u201cI never thought that the state would treat me like this,\u201d said Torian, who is now studying the health effects of systemic racism in housing in graduate school. \u201cI’m sad about the justice system but I still have hope. My mother tries to stay positive. That\u2019s hope. The community is the hope.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a recent town hall meeting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn residents continued to raise the alarm on deed theft,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,90379,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-230197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-deed-theftleah-goodridgesherease-torainpartition-scamsjillian-sumpter","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"img_6814\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img_6814.JPG;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\n(L to R) NYC Planning Commissioner Leah Goodridge and homeowner Sherease Torain at a deed theft town hall meeting in Bedford-Stuyvesant on May 7, 2026. Photo: Kaya Laterman for BK Reader
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\nA packed dead theft town hall meeting at the Bedford Library branch in Bed-Stuy on May 7, 2026. Photo: Kaya Laterman for BK Reader
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