Mamdani creates NYC’s first office to prevent deed theft
Mayor Mamdani and Council Member Ossé. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday announced the creation of the city’s first-ever Office of Deed Theft Prevention to crack down on scammers who take ownership of homes through fraud and deception. The new office comes just days after Council Member Chi Ossé was arrested after defending a Bed-Stuy homeowner facing eviction from a brownstone she has called home for six decades.
Deed theft is when someone steals a house, usually by falsifying paperwork, forging signatures, or tricking owners into signing over deeds. Scammers, who target seniors, immigrants, and people of color, will then evict the homeowner and sell the property at a profit.
According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, complaints about deed theft have increased by 240 percent from 2023 to 2025, with the highest concentration in Central Brooklyn and Southeast Queens. Last year, there were 517 complaints registered, compared to 149 complaints in 2023.
Between 2013 and 2023, the New York City Sheriff’s Office reported at least 3,500 deed theft complaints.
In 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation making it easier for the attorney general and local district attorneys to investigate and litigate deed theft. The legislation, co-authored by James and sponsored by State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assembly Member Landon C. Dais, established deed theft as a crime.
The city’s new Office of Deed Theft Prevention aims to complement the statewide laws by expanding enforcement, flagging suspicious property filings, conducting public education and outreach, and improving data-sharing across city agencies.
“The theft of a home is the theft of a family’s future,” Mamdani said. “Deed theft preys on the New Yorkers who can least afford it. Today, we are bringing the full force of City government to bear to stop it – to protect homeowners, defend generational wealth and make clear that this City will not tolerate the exploitation of our communities.”
The new office will be part of the Department of Finance and work with the Sheriff’s Office, the Commission on Human Rights, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, among others.
Mamdani appointed Peter White, an attorney with Access Justice Brooklyn who has worked to protect homeowners from foreclosure and deed theft, to lead the new office.
“I am deeply humbled to join the Mamdani administration as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention,” White said. “I have worked to protect New York City homeowners throughout my career, and will carry that passion into my new role serving New Yorkers.”
On Wednesday, Ossé and three others were arrested after gathering in support of Carmella Charrington, who is facing eviction from her Bed-Stuy home. As the New York Times reported, law enforcement officers arrived at the home on Jefferson Avenue to execute a judge’s eviction order, but protesters blocked them from entering the building. Charrington was jailed at Rikers last week on civil contempt charges related to the dispute over the home’s ownership, according to the Times.
Attorney General James said her office reviewed the case and said it was not deed theft, but a property dispute involving a conservator representing her father, who received approval to sell the property to an LLC. The LLC moved to evict Charrington, who says it was a fake sale, beginning in 2024.
“I showed up because I could not, in good faith, allow the displacement of a Black family in my district,” Ossé said in a video posted on social media following his release.
The council member said Charrington’s legal measures had not been exhausted and that she “deserved due process.”
“Sometimes the perpetrators use illegal methods. Sometimes, their methods are technically legal. In all cases, the practice is cruel and wrong, and everything that is legal isn’t right or just,” he added.
Ossé has also urged Hochul to halt evictions from properties subject to deed theft complaints or during legal disputes.
Mamdani said the new deed theft prevention office would have a budget of $500,000 in the current fiscal year and $1 million for the next. He promised to create the new office as part of his platform while running for mayor last year, but had originally called for $10 million in funding.
