An alleged squatter who police say changed the deed to a $4 million property into his name said he thought the house was foreclosed on when he took possession of the deed and that homeowners should be careful because the schemes are easy to pull off.
North Carolina native Dawn Mangum never met Raleigh dentist Dr. Craig Adams when he allegedly changed the deed to her $4.5 million property into her name.
Since her arrest on Monday on a felony charge of attempting to obtain property by false pretenses, she has changed her attitude and claims it is all a big mistake.
Mangum has been accused of going to the Registry of Deeds and, without any evidence, claiming ownership of the Alpine Creek Drive home.
When reached by ABC 11Mangum said he believed he was allowed to claim ownership of an abandoned property since it was briefly incorrectly listed as foreclosed on.
“My thing is not about taking away someone’s house, but about finding abandoned properties and restoring them,” he told the outlet.
North Carolina native Dawn Mangum never met Raleigh dentist Dr. Craig Adams when he allegedly changed the deed to her $4.5 million property into her name.
She was arrested on felony charges on Monday and is now changing her attitude and claiming it is all a big mistake.
Since her arrest, which landed her in jail on $150,000 bail, she told ABC 11 she would like to restore Adams’ property and that she stopped all paperwork once she realized the house was not actually in foreclosure.
However, there is no reverse button under North Carolina law and the only way for Adams to fix the property records is to take Mangum to civil court, a feat he believes will cost him about $8,000.
“Something like that makes you feel violated, vulnerable, scared,” he said. WRAL“A lot of my patients come to me and say, ‘How can this happen? It’s absurd.'”
After putting her 8,300-square-foot home up for sale, she said Mangum filed paperwork with the Wake County Register of Deeds in an attempt to seize her home.
He believes Mangum was planning to squat in his home (where he still lives with his wife) and planned to use the deed as a way to delay eviction.
According to Adams, the woman did not have to provide any proof to the deeds office that she actually owned the house and “no inquiry was made as to who owns the property.”
“If there had been a simple check, my name would have appeared,” he insisted to the outlet. “There are no accountability measures… none.”
In fact, Adams is certain he wouldn’t have found out about the alleged fraudulent deed if the homeowners association’s property management company hadn’t called his neighbor.
Dr Craig Adams told DailyMail.com he plans to resolve the issue by hiring a lawyer and taking him to court at great expense.
Mangum has been accused of going to the Registry of Deeds and, without any evidence, claiming ownership of the Alpine Creek Drive home (pictured)
Mangum had called the company to gain access to the community, according to ABC 11.
“I probably would never know,” he told WRAL. “It’s pretty scary for North Carolina citizens because anyone can go downtown and make a false claim on someone else’s property.”
Even after explaining to the Recorder of Deeds that Mangum filed the paperwork fraudulently, he was told he would have to prove it in court to fix the property record.
A county spokesperson told WRAL that the Register of Deeds “is not required to verify the legal validity of a deed when it is submitted for recording, nor is it required to verify the credentials or legal standing of the notary or the drafters of the document.”
“With more than 500 documents processed daily through the Wake County Register of Deeds office, it would be impossible to verify the legitimacy of each document or the credentials of each notary, and the Register of Deeds office also does not have access to a database of North Carolina commissioned notaries to verify,” they said.
According to Adams, the woman did not have to provide any proof to the deeds office that she actually owned the house and “no inquiry was made as to who owns the property.”
Pictured: A copy of the document Dawn Mangum filed with the Wake County Register of Deeds Office.
Craig Adams was listed as a debtor on the property and said he would not have known about the deed change if the HOA’s property management company had not called his neighbor when Mangum tried to gain access to the gated community.
‘Registry of Deeds staff are not attorneys and are explicitly prohibited from providing legal advice or acting as attorneys in verifying a document.’
After becoming aware of fraudulent acts, the staff alerts the Tax Administration Office to freeze the change of tax information on the property and notify the police.
Attorney Cara Dudek-Petri Gibbons said that while it’s rare, deed fraud does happen and is “something that property owners need to be aware of,” she told WRAL.
Typically seen in properties that are owned by LLCs or paid off.
Unfortunately for Adams, Dudek-Petri Gibbons said fraud victims are left “spending money to clean up something they did nothing to prevent from happening to them.”
Regardless of his criminal case, Adams still has to proceed through civil court to correct the record.
Mangum is expected back in criminal court on Oct. 8.