Inman News
Without her knowledge, an unknown perpetrator used Aurora Lepe’s name, Social Security number and credit history to purchase a house and obtain two mortgages.
Lepe’s signatures on the documents were forged. Because of nonpayment of its mortgage, lender CTC Real Estate Services sold the property at a foreclosure auction sale.
After the balances on the first and second mortgages were paid off, $51,334 in surplus funds remained.
The lender, not knowing what to do with the remaining funds, turned to the court system. The lender told the judge that the fair and equitable result would be to give Lepe the surplus funds to help compensate for her identity theft and all her inconveniences. Nobody contested.
If you were the judge, would you give the excess funds to Lepe?
The judge did.
Lepe, by a preponderance of the evidence, established that she was a victim of identity theft, the judge found. Although she had nothing to do with the residence being taken in her name, or an unknown perpetrator profiting from the mortgages, she is the only individual who has a claim to this money, he said.
“The mere fortuity that the wrongdoer has disappeared without receiving the surplus and is not subject to legal action should not, as a matter of equity, preclude Ms. Lepe from being able to recover the funds not in the possession of the identity thief,” the judge said.
No one else has claimed the funds, and as a result of the identity theft and foreclosure, Lepe has had her credit ruined, he commented.
Therefore, the $51,334 remaining after the foreclosure sale and the paying of attorneys’ fees shall go to Lepe as restitution in this unusual situation, the judge ruled.
Based on the 2006 California Court of Appeal decision in CTC Real Estate Services vs. Lepe, 44 Cal.Rptr.3d 823.
Corra warns about identity theft all of the time. In this case the victim of identity theft benefited in what can be deemed a quirky case. But most of the time the victim of identity theft incurs financial loss as well as the loss of time and a whole mess of frustration, trying to clean up the mess. Someone has taken their good name and did their best to ruin it.
Corra always suggests that you periodically order a Social Security trace on yourself to see who may be attached to your Social Security number. Although identity theft could happen anywhere, it often doesn’t hurt to run criminal checks on those who have access to your house. For extra measure, and if you have children, it pays to run either the sexual offenders registry report or the nationwide criminal check, which includes the sexual offender’s registry.
