Until this year, a Texas owner who found a forged deed on their property had one option: hire a lawyer and sue to quiet title. That is a real lawsuit, with a real retainer, over a house you already own.
Since September 1, 2025 there is a second route. It starts with an affidavit you file yourself, it costs nothing at the courthouse, and if the forger does not answer within 120 days it ends with a judge’s finding recorded against the fake deed. Here is how it works and where it stops working.
What the new law actually added
Senate Bill 1734 amended Subchapter A, Chapter 5 of the Texas Property Code by adding Sections 5.0206 and 5.0207. The bill took effect September 1, 2025.
It did not make deed fraud illegal. That was already true. What it added is a procedure for clearing the fraudulent document out of the real property records without filing a conventional suit first.
Step one: the owner’s affidavit
Under § 5.0206, the owner files an affidavit and a certificate of mailing in the real property records of the county where the purported conveyance was recorded.
The affidavit states the affiant’s name and a description of the property, and it swears that the affiants “have not conveyed title to or an interest in the Property to any grantee other than” the ones listed. Filing it establishes a presumption of fraud under Section 51.901(c)(4) of the Government Code.
The certificate of mailing is the part owners skip and should not. The statute requires that the owner “send a copy of the filed affidavit and a letter notifying the grantor and grantee,” by “registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the grantor and grantee’s last known addresses.” The certificate records that you did it, and the clock in the next step runs from the date it was filed.
Step two: the 120 day window
The grantor or grantee on the suspect deed may file a controverting affidavit “not later than the 120th day after the date a certificate of mailing was filed.”
If they file one, the fast track is over and you are into a dispute that needs a lawyer. If nobody files one, Government Code § 51.901(c)(4) treats the document as presumed fraudulent on exactly that basis: it was the subject of an owner’s affidavit and certificate of mailing, and no controverting affidavit was timely filed.
In practice a forger is not usually eager to file a sworn document attesting to a forgery. Silence is the common outcome, and silence is what the statute is built to convert.
Step three: the petition, which is free
After the window closes the owner petitions the district court for a determination that the recorded document does not convey title or an interest in the property.
Two things make this unlike ordinary litigation. First, under Government Code § 51.9035 the court “may rule on the petition based solely on a review of the attached document or instrument, the attached documentary evidence, and any relevant public records,” without testimony and without notice. Second, the fees are waived by statute: “the district clerk may not collect a filing fee for filing a petition under this section,” and “the county clerk may not collect a fee for filing a district judge’s finding.”
The judge issues findings of fact and conclusions of law. Those get recorded and indexed in the same records as the original document, so anyone pulling title sees the finding sitting next to the fake deed.
Why the recording at the end is the whole point
Section 5.0207 is short and it is the reason this procedure is worth doing rather than just knowing the deed is fake.
Once the finding is recorded, “a bona fide purchaser or a mortgagee for value or a successor or assign” may rely conclusively on the determination that the document conveys nothing.
That is what restores your ability to sell or borrow. A forged deed sitting unanswered in the county records is a title defect, and a title company will not insure over it on your say so. The recorded finding is the thing that clears it.
What it does not do
It does not get you paid. For that, Texas has a separate and older remedy worth knowing about.
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 12.002, a person may not make, present or use a document with knowledge that it is fraudulent and with intent to cause financial injury. A violator is liable to the injured person for the greater of $10,000 or actual damages, plus court costs, reasonable attorney’s fees, and exemplary damages set by the court. Section 12.003 names the property owner as a person who may bring that suit, and § 12.006 requires the court to award a prevailing plaintiff its costs, fees and investigative expenses where the defendant knew or should have known the document was fraudulent.
It also does not help if the dispute is real. If a relative genuinely believes they were given the property, that is a title dispute, not a forgery, and a controverting affidavit will end the fast track in a hurry.
Who this happens to
Forged deeds do not land randomly. They land on houses nobody is watching.
Vacant property. Inherited property where the heirs live out of state. Property where the owner is elderly, or has died and nothing has been probated yet. Long held land with no mortgage, because there is no servicer sending statements and no lender who would notice. If you own something in that description, the cheapest protection is pulling your own property records once a year and signing up for the recording notification alert your county clerk offers, which most Texas counties now do for free.
If the house was already a problem
Most owners who find a forged deed were not planning to keep the house anyway. It was the vacant rental, or the one inherited three years ago that nobody got around to dealing with, and the fraud is simply the moment it stopped being ignorable.
Clear the record first. A title defect has to be resolved before any sale, cash or financed, because the buyer’s title company will find it. Once the finding is recorded, the house sells like any other. If it is in North Texas, this is how a Fort Worth sale works once the title is cleared.
What to do this week
Pull the deed records for your property at the county clerk, online in most counties, and read the chain. Look for any instrument recorded after your own deed that you did not sign.
If you find one, do not call the person who filed it. Take it to a Texas real estate attorney and ask specifically about the § 5.0206 affidavit route, because it is one month old and not every firm has run one yet. Bring the recorded instrument, your own deed, and anything showing where you were when it was supposedly signed.
And if someone now approaches you offering to “handle” the title problem for you, slow down. A property already targeted once is a property on somebody’s list. Here is how to check that a Texas cash buyer is legitimate before you sign anything with anyone, including us.
The short version
Since September 1, 2025, Tex. Prop. Code § 5.0206 lets a Texas owner record an affidavit against a forged deed and mail it to the grantor and grantee by certified mail. If no controverting affidavit arrives within 120 days, the document is presumed fraudulent, and the owner can petition the district court at no filing cost for a finding that it conveys nothing. The recorded finding is what a future buyer or lender relies on. Damages are a separate action under § 12.002, where the floor is the greater of $10,000 or actual damages plus fees.
This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for your situation, and this statute is new enough that county practice is still settling. Talk to a Texas real estate attorney before you record anything.