Woman Claims Shoddy Record Keeping At NYC Department of Finance Allowed Deed Thief To Steal Family Home

70-year old Jennifer Marin, a Manhattan woman whose home in Queens was stolen by a deed thief in 2013 is suing the NYC Department of Finance for $485,000 claiming that its negligent record keeping practices caused her financial and emotional grief.

Jennifer Marin told the Daily News as she filed the lawsuit against the NYC Department of Finance, “They knew how to find me to send me water bills, but they couldn’t find me to tell me that somebody stole my house?” 

Marin said she had to spend more than $100,000 in legal fees to clear her title in court and to evict the accused thief, Darryll Beatty, 50, from her property. She estimates another $385,000 in damage to her home and lost property.

The squatter, ex-con, Darrell Beatty, 49, was arrested on grand larceny and other charges last October for allegedly forging a deed to Jennifer Marin’s Laurelton home — and then moving into the three-bedroom house with his two sons and their pit bull. Beatty posted bail Oct. 22 and moved right back in.

The judge who heard the case ordered Beatty out of the house, but Beatty filed an emergency court papers to stay there while he continued to fight the eviction.

“I was duped in this situation also,” Beatty told the Daily News back in October, sticking to the claim that he had paid a man named Khalid Moore $10,000 to rent the home last summer. Marin’s attorney showed there was no proof Beatty paid anyone any money, and that Beatty’s name was on a phony deed for the house that he’d filed with the city.

But when Beatty finally did leave with his kids and the Pitbull, Marin found a basement littered with dog feces, thousands of dollars in vandalism and trash all over the house. Her parents’ antiques were missing or trashed in the garage. All of her furniture and her car were gone.

Marin said she is still struggling with the insurance company to be covered for the damage and with contractors bidding to restore the house to a livable state.

The NYC Department of Finance Commissioner, Jacques Jiha told news outlets earlier this year that when he took the job, he was surprised to learn how easy it was for thieves to steal homes by registering phony deed transfers with the registrar’s office.