TheStar.com - Man finds house was secretly sold

TheStar.com - Man finds house was secretly sold: "Man finds house was secretly sold
Owner discovers new family living in house
Police say estranged wife made own deal
Mar. 22, 2006. 10:15 AM
STAN JOSEY
STAFF REPORTER


A Toronto man got a shock when he tried to return his children to his estranged wife at their matrimonial home in Ajax after a weekend visit and found another family living there, police say.
Durham Region police allege that the man's wife sold the home on Delaney Dr. without his knowledge and bought a larger home in Ajax with the $200,000 proceeds from the sale � a situation known as title fraud.
'I've never heard of a case quite like it,' said Det. Jack Haze.
Since their separation, the man usually returned the children to his wife at a specified location.
However, on one day in January 2005, the man missed the appointment with his wife and decided to take the children back to what he thought was their home in Ajax.
'He got the shock of his life when another woman answered the door and said it was her house,' Haze said in an interview.
The Toronto man contacted police, who found that the home had been sold in the spring of 2004 without his permission.
Police allege his estranged wife forged her husband's name on an agreement of purchase and sale, and then had her brother-in-law impersonate her husband at the lawyer's office.
False Canadian citizenship papers, which are 'a dime a dozen' on the street, Haze said, were used as identification for the transaction.
There has recently been a great deal of publicity about title fraud, which involves stealing a person's identity and then selling their home out from under them. In some c"