New York Deed Theft Law: What the 2023 and 2024 Changes Mean for Title

Two statewide laws changed how New York handles deed theft. A 2023 law (S6577, signed November 14, 2023, in effect since December 14, 2023) lets courts pause foreclosures and evictions and helps prosecutors flag and cancel stolen deeds. It also makes it harder for some buyers and lenders to claim good faith. A 2024 budget law (S8306, in effect since July 19, 2024) made deed theft a form of grand larceny.

As of October 2026, the state’s official law pages show no later amendments. The deed theft bills pending in the 2025-2026 session have not passed (see below).

For buyers, lenders and closings, this means new records to check, new reasons a foreclosure or eviction can stop, and a rule that can cost a buyer or lender its protection. Owner steps (checking ACRIS, free recording alerts, reporting) are in Deed Theft in NYC.

Forged deeds and deeds obtained by fraud

The new laws build on a 2015 decision of New York’s highest court that treats two kinds of stolen deeds differently:

  • A forged deed (the owner never signed) is void. It passes nothing. A later buyer or lender gets nothing, however innocent, and there is no deadline for the real owner to sue.
  • A deed obtained by fraud (the owner signed, but was tricked) can be undone. A buyer or lender who paid value in good faith can be protected.

The 2023 law matters most for the second kind, and for the time between a fraud and a court order clearing it.

What the 2023 law changed

Change What it does
Required pauses Stops a foreclosure, eviction or title case
Prosecutor notices Puts a warning on the property record
Cancellation orders Lets a court void a stolen deed after a conviction
Fraud assumed After a conviction, the transfer is presumed fraudulent
Notice assumed Some buyers and lenders are presumed to have known of the fraud

When a court must pause a foreclosure or eviction

A 2023 rule on stays (court-ordered pauses) covers cases to take possession of residential property or settle who owns it. That includes foreclosures, ejectment (a lawsuit to remove someone) and lawsuits on the mortgage note.

  • Government investigation. A federal, state or local agency investigating title or financing fraud in good faith can ask for a pause. The court must grant it, checks in every six months, and keeps it until the investigation closes.
  • Criminal charges. The court must pause the case when someone in it is charged with deed theft, larceny, filing a false document or a similar crime relating to the property. The pause lasts until the criminal case ends.
  • Government lawsuit. The court must pause the case when a government agency has sued over title or financing fraud on the property.
  • Fast-track eviction cases. In a summary eviction case, a genuine ownership dispute means a 90-day pause so the right court can decide it. The dispute is presumed genuine if the person facing eviction owned the property in the last three years, or has an interest in it as an heir or estate beneficiary. The court can extend the pause.
  • Forcible entry cases. None of these pauses applies to a case against someone who entered or held the property by force or unlawfully.

A pause can freeze a foreclosure at any stage. So title examiners check the court file for a government request to pause before relying on a foreclosure judgment.

Notices filed by prosecutors

A 2023 change to the notice rules lets a district attorney or the state Attorney General file a lis pendens (a notice on the property record that a case affects the property) in the property’s county:

  • After an investigation finds probable cause of a crime affecting the title, a mortgage or possession. It lasts six months and can be renewed twice.
  • After charges are filed in a criminal complaint or indictment. It lasts until the case is dismissed or ends at sentencing. Unlike most of these notices, it does not expire after three years.

These notices are filed with the County Clerk. In the four ACRIS boroughs, the County Clerk keeps lis pendens, not the City Register, so a clean ACRIS search does not rule one out (see How to Read ACRIS for Title). And a notice filed after charges cannot be treated as expired at three years, as other notices usually are.

Cancelling a stolen deed after a conviction

New York’s criminal procedure law lets a court cancel a deed after a conviction or guilty plea for any crime affecting the title, a mortgage or possession of real property.

  1. The district attorney, the Attorney General or any law enforcement agency asks the State Supreme Court in the county of the property or of the prosecution.
  2. Everyone with an interest gets notice, including lienholders and the last owner of record.
  3. Within ten days, the request is recorded with the County Clerk, which indexes it like a lis pendens.
  4. The conviction creates a presumption that the deed, mortgage or other document was void from the start, meaning it never had any legal effect. The other side can try to disprove it.
  5. After a hearing, the court can declare the deed, mortgage or other document void from the start, or order other relief.
  6. A certified copy of the order is recorded where the original document was recorded.

That recorded order is the document a title examiner relies on to clear the record.

When the law assumes fraud or knowledge of it

After a conviction. In a lawsuit over who owns a property, a conviction for a crime tied to deed theft or a fraudulent real estate deal means the transfer is presumed fraudulent. This also applies when the new owner is a company the convicted person owns. The person defending the transfer can overcome the presumption with evidence showing it is more likely than not that the transfer was not fraudulent.

For buyers and lenders. Normally a buyer or lender who paid value is protected unless it knew about the fraud beforehand. Since 2023, New York’s recording law presumes the buyer or lender did know when all of these are true:

  • The property has a mortgage.
  • The buyer and seller are not related parties.
  • The sale is not accompanied by a statement from the mortgage lender, signed before a notary and recorded in the property’s county. The statement says, in substance, that someone is taking over the seller’s mortgage debt, or that the debt has been paid off.

Related parties are spouses and ex-spouses, parents and children, siblings, and a homeowner and that homeowner’s family trust or wholly owned LLC.

This is the change felt most at closings. A buyer or new lender in such a sale who cannot point to a recorded payoff (a satisfaction) or assumption statement starts out presumed to have known of the fraud. It must disprove that to keep its protection. The law sets no recording deadline beyond saying the statement must “accompany” the transfer.

Deed theft as a crime (2024)

Deed theft is now grand larceny, whatever the property is worth:

  • Third degree, class D felony (law): one commercial property.
  • Second degree, class C felony (law): one residential property; one mixed-use property with a residential unit; or two or more commercial properties.
  • First degree, class B felony (law): an occupied home; an elderly or disabled owner; or three or more residential properties.

A felony related to deed theft or real estate fraud can be prosecuted within five years of the crime or two years after the victim discovers it, whichever is later (time limits). The Attorney General describes the 2024 law as giving her office the power to prosecute deed theft alongside district attorneys.

For title, the 2024 law matters mainly because convictions unlock cancellation orders and the presumption of fraud.

Bills that are not law

As of October 30, 2026, none of these has passed either house of the Legislature:

  • S7732 (Brisport), the “Deed Theft: Bank and Lender Accountability Act,” would bar title insurers from paying lenders on claims where the transfer was false or fraudulent (coverage). It sits in the Senate Insurance Committee, sent back there January 7, 2026. The Assembly version, A10147, is in the Assembly Insurance Committee.
  • S7721A / A8863A would let victims sue deed thieves, lenders whose loans helped a theft, and title insurers that carelessly helped one, for triple damages plus fees. In May 2026 the Senate bill was placed on the Senate’s list of bills ready for a final floor vote (called third reading). It was sent to the Rules Committee on June 5, 2026.
  • S6362 / A2745 would further change the buyer-notice rule and the prosecutor notices, including a duty to cancel a notice within 30 days once an investigation ends. Both are in Judiciary committees.

The 2025-2026 session ends December 31, 2026. Bills not passed by then die and must be reintroduced.

NYC: the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention

A mayoral executive order, announced April 24, 2026, created a Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention inside the Department of Finance, the agency that runs the City Register. Its stated jobs include spotting questionable filings, enforcement with the Sheriff and other agencies, and better information sharing. It has no reach outside NYC, and the announcement describes no change to recording rules. Owners report through its intake form.

What title companies and closing attorneys do

None of the following is required by law. It is common practice, and many underwriters (the insurance companies that back title policies) require some of it.

  • Searches. The search covers County Clerk lis pendens and court records, not just recorded documents, looking for prosecutor notices and requests to cancel a deed. A recent deed from a long-time owner to an unrelated LLC, followed quickly by a sale or new mortgage, is a reason to look harder. Only a recorded cancellation order or a court judgment settling ownership clears a fraudulent deed. An acquittal or a press release does not.
  • Seller identity. The American Land Title Association’s seller impersonation guidance lists warning signs: vacant or non-owner-occupied property, no mortgage, a below-market price, and a seller who wants a fast cash closing, will not appear or join a video call, insists on their own notary, or wants proceeds wired. Its recommended steps include calling the owner at an independently confirmed number, mailing letters to the tax-bill address, the property address and the owner’s address shown on the deed that gave them the property, controlling who notarizes, third-party ID checks, and comparing signatures with earlier recorded documents.
  • Seller verification letters. Many title agents mail the owner of record, at the tax-bill and property addresses, a letter asking them to confirm the sale by calling a number the agent supplies. A reply from the true owner, or a returned letter, is evidence either way. New York law does not require the letter.
  • Mortgage payoffs. Because of the buyer-notice rule, closing attorneys get payoffs from the actual loan servicer, confirm the servicer received the money, and follow up until the satisfaction is recorded. Where an existing loan stays in place, a recorded lender statement documents the assumption. The old unsatisfied mortgage guide covers how satisfactions get recorded.
  • Paying the seller. Seller proceeds go only to an account confirmed independently of emailed instructions, or by check.

Details for attorneys and title professionals

  • The exclusion of forcible or unlawful entry cases sits in the paragraph about the 90-day eviction pause, but its text excludes those cases from the whole stay section, not only the 90-day pause.
  • The heir or estate test for a genuine ownership dispute uses the Surrogate’s Court definition of a person interested in the property.
  • The 2023 amendment to the cancellation-order rule replaced the old trigger, a conviction for offering a false instrument for filing, with any crime affecting title, and removed the word “residential” from the rule.
  • S7732 would do its work by adding a new subsection to the Insurance Law’s title insurance provisions.

Official sources

Related guides

Korvane Title is preparing to launch in New York. It is not licensed as a title insurance agent and does not accept title orders. Content on this site is general information, not legal advice.