California Counties Consider Boosting Land Document Recording Fees To Fund Prosecutions Of Deed Theft & Other Real Estate Rackets

In San Diego, California, The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

• San Diego County is eyeing a fee hike for certain property filings to raise more money for real estate fraud investigations.
  
  The assessor’s office is studying that possibility in light of a new state law that aims to help counties, especially those hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis, catch up on backlogs of housing-fraud cases.
  
  As of Jan. 1, the maximum fee amount counties can tack on for filing select real estate transaction paperwork rose to $10 from $3 for each filing. The money generated from this fee has long gone toward a trust fund for real estate probes and prosecution.
  
  The previous maximum of $3 per filing was “insufficient to adequately fund real estate fraud prosecutions and needs to be increased,” according to SB 1342.
  
  Affected documents include notices of default, which signal the start of the foreclosure process, and trustee deeds, which are filed when a foreclosure is completed.
  
  So far, at least two counties in California, Riverside and Ventura, have recently upped their filing fees. Riverside increased its fee to $6 per filing. In Ventura, it’s now $10.
  
  Other counties are expected to follow suit. Some are proceeding with caution because the fee hike may be challenged in court by the Sacramento-based Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. The group argues the fee increase is a special tax that’s unconstitutional if it’s put in place without a two-thirds vote of county residents.
  
  “It’s certainly grounds for a lawsuit,” said David Wolfe, the group’s legislative director, who called the fee hike massive.
  
  Twenty-two counties in the state, including San Diego, charge filing fees to maintain real estate prosecution funds, based on an October report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
  
  Because of the fund, California counties were able to lock in 200-plus real estate-crime convictions from 2011-2012, the report states, including 23 in San Diego County. Those convictions represent $656.6 million in monetary losses.
  
  If no legal challenges surface, San Diego County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Ernie Dronenburg would like to propose a filing-fee hike to the county Board of Supervisors early in the year for approval.
  
  Foreclosures and mortgage defaults in the county have fallen drastically since the height of the recession, but the fallout from the housing crisis still lingers. “We’re always struggling for resources to try to combat the (real estate fraud) problem,” said Stephen Robinson, who heads the economic crimes division for the San Diego County.
  
  Robinson said the fund is important because it has helped pay for a real estate unit that includes three lawyers, three investigators, two paralegals and a secretary.
  
  Additional resources are welcome because mortgage-fraud cases are time-consuming and complex.
  
  “There are definitely cases that we could work if we had additional resources,” Robinson said. “It would be difficult for a police department to say, ‘I’m going to give a detective one case to work on for six months.’”
  
  Foreclosure-scam victim Frank Washburn supports raising fees if it means increased prosecution of real estate criminals.
  
  Washburn, of Chula Vista, admits he was duped out of $2,500 from a solicitor who claimed he could buy Washburn more time in his home, which was going through foreclosure. Washburn found the solicitor convincing because he came bearing official-looking documents.
  
  “I mean, more power to them,” said Washburn, 46, referring to counties that have implemented fee increases. “I hope they put an end to it.”
  
  Los Angeles County also hopes to propose a filing-fee increase to its Board of Supervisors as early as the spring, said David R. Lopez, deputy in charge of the real estate fraud unit in Los Angeles County. “Any increase would help,” Lopez said. “One additional body would help. (Caseloads) are stacking up in Riverside, here, and all over the state.”

Source: Fee hike to fight real estate fraud.