Another Toronto home was almost fraudulently sold. This time the sale was stopped

Toronto police are investigating a second home in the city being sold by fake owners, but this time the sale was not completed.

The financial crimes unit the said the case is linked to a fraudulent sale first uncovered in Etobicoke earlier this month.

Police are looking to identify a man and a woman allegedly connected to cases. In the first case, the suspects are alleged to have hired a real estate agent and listed the property using fake identification to impersonate the real owners who had been away on a business trip.

Several months after the sale took place, the owners realized it was sold without their consent.

The location of the second home is not being shared publicly. Limited details are known about the attempted sale, but CTV News Toronto has learned the case involves Royal LePage agents.

“This very unfortunate incident was clearly a coordinated scheme aiming to take advantage of real estate professionals and an innocent family,” said spokesperson Anne-Elise Cugliari Allegritti in an statement Thursday.

She said, to the best of their knowledge, this was the first and only incident involving their staff and the agents in question followed all due protocol and had no reason to suspect that any suspicious activity had taken place.

A for sale sign outside a home indicates that it has sold for over the asking price, in Ottawa, on Monday, March 1, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Justin Tang)

“Real estate professionals, like consumers, can also fall victim to sophisticated acts of fraud, which should be handled by law enforcement.”

Cugliari Allegritti added the corporation does not govern day-to-day operations as Royal LePage brokerages are independently owned and operated yet all licensed sales representatives are obligated to abide by industry provincial and federal regulations and to perform due diligence as laid out by the regulating body.

Requirements to verify parties in a home sale

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) tells CTV News Toronto agents are required to legally ensure parties in a sale are who they say they are under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act.

Agents also have obligations to verify the identity of the parties under anti-money laundering legislation.

The most common way to do so would be to rely on government-issued photo identification to verify the identity of the person they are dealing with, said RECO Registrar Joseph Richer in a statement.

“Agents should check the local public land registry information to confirm the owners of every property within the municipality, before engaging to sell a property,” Richer said.

With files from CTV News' Heather Butts