Guy forges documents to take sole ownership of a shared house. Must he pay it back?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My friend was in a relationship with a shitty dude for a few years, had a kid together, and just split up in September.

A year or two ago they bought a double wide together. Rather, she supported him through a personal injury lawsuit, the proceeds from which he used to pay for the trailer. So he paid, BUT, they both signed their names to the title.

After they break up, come to find out, he forged her name (she saw a copy, it was a terrible and obvious forgery of her signature) to transfer sole ownership to himself.

She would press charges if there was a chance she could get her half of that trailer back. But if not, she’d rather he not go to jail so he can continue to work and she can go after him for child support.

Yahoo answers and “askalawyer.com” type sites have apparently told her she has no chance of getting compensated because he “paid” for the trailer, title forgery or no. I can’t possibly see how that is correct, hence why I came here.

I think she should press charges. The worst that could happen is a criminal gets the justice that’s coming to him. It’s a pretty open and shut case that he did it. GIVEN that he is successfully prosecuted, will he have to give back the half of his house he stole from her?

In the general case, if I forge some documents, or embezzle funds, or just straight up rob someone at gunpoint, and I’m subsequently convicted, do I have to pay it back? What are the relevant legal differences between these scenarios?

Am I right that regardless of who actually handed the money over, ownership is decided by whose name is on the title? Or else what are titles for?

(I understand, you’re not my lawyer, et cetera and so forth. I’m just looking for general factual answers regarding the law.)

2

I think the legal argument will be that he didn’t steal half the house. He certainly tried to, and deserves to be criminally prosecuted for this. But forging a signature on a transfer-of-title document doesn’t serve to actually transfer the title. IOW, he never has actually, legally owned the full house.

But IANAL, and she will certainly need to speak to one.

3

Legal advice is best suited to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

4

Legalities aside the practical consequence is that if she goes after him and wins she -

1: Now has ownership of half of a used doublewide trailer occupied by her ex

2: Both are more than likely saddled with hundreds to thousands in legal fees from the litigation

3: Receiving regular CS may become a more dicey proposition if her ex gets financially or criminally entangled by the prosecution and this impacts his ability to make a living. If people are living on the edge it doesn’t take much of push to topple them over.

Is ownership of half of a used occupied doublewide trailer worth it? In the end if I was in her position and receiving regular CS I’d have to think hard about it. You can win the battle and lose the war.

5

Is he current on his (her) property taxes?

6

Yeah, can’t she pay for a consultation or perhaps go to a legal clinic or legal services?

7

Thanks, Colibri. On second thought, this is more suited to IMHO.

The thing is, this friend is homeless and temporarily living in my house with her 1 year old. She makes minimum wage part time working at a hotel. And she’s a single mom. $4000 (half of what they paid for the house) would be a huge, life changing windfall at this time in her life. Or, since he probably won’t be able to just give her 4 grand, if there was a way she could move in and kick him out, she wouldn’t be homeless anymore. So yeah, even though it’s a crappy double wide in a trailer park, it could be a very big deal to her right now.

Add to the fact that this guy is about the laziest and lousiest person I’ve met. I highly doubt she’ll ever see a dime of child support from him, considering he has an older child from a previous relationship who he never sees and doesn’t support.

He isn’t even employed right now, since he failed a drug test after an accident at work. And he just got his power turned back on (I think his parents or his new girlfriend paid, not sure which), so I wouldn’t be surprised if he owed property taxes.

I honestly want her to press charges just because he’s an asshole and deserves to be punished, whether or not she gets anything out of the deal. But I’m not really unbiased here.

Also, her parents offered to pay the $750 a lawyer quoted her, on the condition that she press charges. But that is probably just the beginning of the lawyer fees, and she’s not even sure if she’d be better off pressing charges or not.

8

Paying a lawyer (or having the parents pay) one thousand or (more realistically) two thousand dollars to chase a 4000 half interest in an 8000 dollar trailer is about the most egregious waste of money I can imagine.

If he is really that much of bum she needs to get away from him and move on with her life. IMO paying lawyers to fight over a POS trailer is not the game plan to accomplish that.

9

Agree that paying a lawyer doesn’t make sense.

At est - the house is till half his - so it isn’t like she can kick him out. What he did was probably still a crime - and it is free to press charges.

She either:

  1. Presses charges. Best course of action IMHO. We both know he isn’t getting a job or paying her child support :). He’d probably be more likely to - if he was on probation for forgery (probably not going to jail for this).

I don’t know her of course, but know plenty of women attracted to loser men. They rationalize why they shouldn’t press charges - and almost never do.

In many states restitution can be ordered in a criminal case - and a judge could probably fix this. A local lawyer - should be able to tell her whether this is likely as part of a free consultation. Then it would be up to her to file charges on her own.

  1. Cuts her losses.

BTW -FWIW - this is the classic case given for why to buy title insurance (not her-but the next person to buy the trailer). She in theory could go after the next person to own it as title was transferred illegally. Of course, this really doesn’t help her - but a good reminder why to buy title insurance (not sure if they even offer for trailers).

10

Actually… they PAID $8k for it. $8k for a double wide sounds like it was pretty old when they bought it. Who knows what it is worth now. There is no way that, even if her name were on the title, she’d get half the amount paid for it. She is only due half the amount it sells for at this time.

AND if it doesn’t sell, then she’s will probably be liable for at least half the amount of the lot rent for where it is sitting right now.

AND if she wants to live there, then that will be its own separate court battle for eviction, IF a court would even evict him from a home that he half owns and that has not been ‘awarded’ by the courts.