New York’s deed theft laws, 2023 to 2026: what they do

The law signed on November 14, 2023 (S.6577/A.6656) lets the Attorney General and district attorneys:

• Pause a case. Ask a court to stay an eviction, foreclosure or ownership case while they investigate deed theft. The court must grant it while an investigation is open or charges are filed.
• Flag the title. File a notice warning buyers and lenders that the ownership of the home is in question.
• Void a forged deed. Ask a court to cancel fraudulent deeds and loan documents. The Attorney General can now do this too, not only district attorneys.

After a deed theft conviction, the law presumes the transfer was fraudulent in a civil case over the same home.

The 2024 state budget made deed theft a crime of its own under the larceny law, for the first time. It also protected homes passed down in families, which the Attorney General names among the most targeted:

• Limits on forced partition sales by people who are not heirs.
• A right of first refusal, so an heir can match an outside offer for another heir’s share.
• Transfer on death deeds, which pass a home without a formal will.

In August 2025 the Attorney General brought the first indictments under the new law, which also gives her office original jurisdiction to prosecute deed theft.

In 2025 the state strengthened cease and desist zones, which let homeowners stop unwanted real estate solicitations. In June 2026 it announced stricter Department of State rules for notaries, $4.5 million for enforcement, outreach and education, and $40 million for the Homeowner Protection Program.

Every scheme in the news runs through the public record: a deed, a transfer, a new loan, each one recorded. We use our data and leverage the links and joins between those records to uncover the anomalies that deed theft, deed fraud and predatory deed transfers leave.

Your Homeowner Research Document shows every record on your property, connected and dated, with alerts when anything new is recorded. How the research works.

• New York State Homes and Community Renewal: Deed theft law signed (November 2023)
• Governor of New York: Actions to combat deed theft (June 2026)
• New York Attorney General: First indictments under the new deed theft law (August 2025)
• New York Attorney General: Deed theft

Checked in September 2026.