How are CT towns protecting property owners from 'title pirates' stealing their land?
By Alexander Soule, Staff WriterJune 13, 2026
A Fairfield home under construction in the winter of 2023, after the land owner discovered a thief had forged documents to the title and sold off the parcel to a developer. With New York having stiffened "title piracy" enforcement and Rhode Island on the cusp of doing so, Connecticut legislators have called for state-level action.
With another "title piracy" try in Connecticut, the state has yet to tackle the issue with any new legislation like New York, Rhode Island and several others — though plenty of towns now offer property fraud alert systems that raise the red flag for owners when thieves attempt to sell their land.
Just over 60 cities and towns in Connecticut offer property fraud alert systems through Info Quick Solutions, a Liverpool, New York-based firm which offers online access to property records in those municipalities. IQS offers its property fraud alert system as a free add-on service for the towns that use its systems for town clerks, according to David Owens, director of product, with more than 15,000 residents in those towns having enrolled and a recent uptick in overall interest.
"We offer it for free just because we think it's so important," Owens told CT Insider. "It's a big burden on everybody if it happens."
That was the case three years ago for an absentee Fairfield land owner who discovered a house being built on his property on Sky Top Terrace. He sued multiple firms involved with the transaction, eventually reaching an out-of-court settlement. The land owner cited several Connecticut laws in seeking restitution, including those covering forgery, trespass, statutory theft, "slandering" title to land, and the catchall Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Under existing Connecticut law, taking property with the intent to keep it is a class B felony if property exceeds $20,000 in value, with the possibility of a $15,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison. The same parameters are in place to punish perpetrators of identity theft, which could apply in many instances in which a fraudster marketed property for sale that they did not hold title to.
Real estate fraud in Connecticut
For their own peace of mind, home buyers can get a measure of protection by purchasing title insurance in advance of closing, with insurance carriers doing deep dives into the history of any deed to flag any prior ownership claims or liens that could interfere with a title.
Fifteen carriers underwrote title insurance policies in Connecticut as of 2024, charging premiums of $145 million according to the Connecticut Insurance Department. Rocky Hill-based CATIC had the biggest book of business in Connecticut that year at $55 million. An online rate calculator offered by Old Republic quotes a one-time premium of nearly $1,700 for title insurance on a $420,000 home purchased in Connecticut, the median sale price this year through May.
Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, State Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, and Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly, sponsored bills last year in the Connecticut General Assembly for a study on the issue in Connecticut, which did not advance out of the Insurance and Housing Committee.
In an October 2025 op-ed, state Sen. Jorge Cabrera and Sen. Saud Anwar called attention to the risk as well, saying solutions could include helping towns pay for fraud alert systems; public education on the topic; requiring identification for deed transactions; or new laws to help victims get restitution more swiftly.
The FBI does not track deed fraud specifically, in its annual tally of more than two-dozen categories of crime across states. In 2025 in Connecticut, the FBI tracked 121 cases of real estate crime in which victims lost more than $1.4 million in the aggregate, working out to $11,800 each on average.
Besides deed fraud, other real estate crimes tracked by the FBI include mortgage fraud in which borrowers provide inaccurate information to banks to secure loans; and wire fraud in which cyber criminals pose as real estate professionals asking for electronic transfers of funds by clients or other firms representing them.
The FBI said in cases involving deed fraud, crooks will search for vacant parcels that are not carrying a mortgage or lien, and then reach out to an agent to have the property listed for sale while impersonating the rightful deed holder, including the use of forged or fraudulent documents.
In its own study last year, a Virginia panel found that the potential to create "deep fake" voice or video impersonations using artificial intelligence is making it easier for sophisticated criminals to come across as legitimate property owners.
In addition to setting up title alerts with municipal clerks or monitoring online property records otherwise, the FBI says landowners can protect themselves by checking on the physical property periodically for any signs of activity, or asking neighbors to keep an eye out; and check on any interruption or changes to utility or tax invoices.
In the Virginia study, the panel laid out 35 steps the state could take to attack deed fraud, including requiring real estate agents to verify the identities of property sellers before inking contracts to represent them; and check tax records and send written correspondence to those addresses.
Professionals involved in any closing documents like attorneys could also be required to get seller identification in cash sales or transactions involving vacant land. Another angle would be to give owners the ability to authorize town clerks to "freeze" any transactions involving their properties, similar to payment card freezes. And Virginia wants multi-jurisdictional prosecution authority to reach beyond its borders to collar any bad actors, with a minimum three-year prison term for any convicted of a crime.
In an annual survey of National Association of Realtors members, 92% polled in the Northeast said they were aware of at least one instance of attempted property fraud in the past 12 months, by far the highest number of major U.S. regions studied by NAR.
In about six of every 10 instances, crooks attempt to sell vacant land to people who may not undertake thorough research of a property's title history, or obtain insurance otherwise toward that end.
By a large margin, agents told NAR they believe electronic alert systems are the best way to thwart property fraud. Others include a property title freeze system; giving town clerks the means to easily flag transactions they deem suspicious and investigate them; and providing "safe harbor" provisions for agents to report fraud they discover, without exposing those agents to legal liability.
Equity Protect, a Nevada firm that provides fraud alert systems, lists New York as the only Northeast state that had enacted specific laws to thwart title piracy. Two years ago, New York made deed theft a class B felony crime under the broader category of grand larceny, and the following year added a "private right of action" in civil court and restricted title insurance claims.
Last September, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the first conviction under the law, with a real estate agent pleading guilty to forging a signature to gain title to a Rockland County home under foreclosure. New York also has a new "transfer upon death" form that allows property holders to designate any individuals who would inherit real estate upon their death, in instances in which they do not do so through a will. And in May, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani created a dedicated office to prevent deed theft, an admission to the scale of the problem there.
Another Connecticut neighbor could be next, after the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a bill last month that establishes a felony offense of real estate title fraud under state law and gives town clerks the ability to flag suspect transactions and withhold approval until they have been vetted. A Rhode Island legislator cited the Fairfield case in pressing for the bill, which as of Wednesday had yet to be signed by Gov. Dan McKee.
Arnold Gold contributed to this report. Includes prior reporting by Dan Haar and Peter Yankowski.
June 13, 2026
