OPOA Helps Lane County Family Facing Forged Deed Nightmare

In what can only be described as an example of, “you can’t make this stuff up”, the 2023 Oregon legislature stepped in to resolve a land use nightmare for two Lane County families caught in the middle of a fight between the County and a local land use attorney.

Three Parcels, Two Families, One Bad Actor

The situation began in 2012, when a Eugene land use attorney received verification from Lane County that a 55-acre parcel owned by the attorney was composed of three legal parcels, instead of just one single parcel. Based on the 2012 County approval, the attorney received additional approvals to adjust the boundaries between the three parcels and qualify two of the three parcels for dwellings. The applications were submitted from 2012 to 2017. The County approved each application.

In 2015, the attorney listed one of the three parcels for sale. The parcel, which contained the original homestead dwelling, was purchased by Tom and Shealene Vogel. The Vogels had wanted to live in the country since moving to Oregon after Tom’s retirement from the Navy. They had saved for years to be able to afford a down payment on a rural property if they ever found the right one. Based on the County’s approvals, the title report, and reliance on the realtors involved, the Vogels put their hard-earned savings into their dream and bought one of the parcels from the attorney.

In 2017, the attorney sold the second of the three parcels to Cody and Elysia Johnson, a young couple wanting to live in the country and raise a family. Like the Vogels, the Johnsons relied on the County approvals, the title report, and the realtors in buying their property, which the County had approved for a dwelling. After purchasing the property, the Johnsons built a home on the property and are raising their children. Everything seemed fine until 2021, when it all fell apart.

At some point in early 2022, the County discovered that the deeds the County relied upon as evidence to approve the 2012 decision were fake. Upon hiring a forensic expert to review the deeds, the County determined that the 55-acre parcel had never been three separate parcels and the attorney’s application should have never been approved.

At that point, the County could have determined that since so much time had passed and so many applications had been subsequently approved, it would just let the matter go. Alternatively, the County could have invalidated the applications that impacted the attorney while leaving the Vogel and Johnson properties alone. That made sense, since the Vogels and Johnsons had relied on the earlier County approvals when buying their properties. But rather than being reasonable, the County invalidated every approval it had issued since the original 2012 approval, putting the Vogels and Johnsons in the crossfire of a battle they had absolutely nothing to do with creating.

When the Vogel and Johnson families received notice in the mail that the County was revoking all of the approvals that they had issued, they were shocked. Both families had relied on the County approvals before buying their parcels. The fake deeds and bad acts had occurred years before they purchased their property, and they had absolutely no idea, and no way of knowing, that the original approval was based upon fake deeds. They had been fooled, as had their title company, their lenders, and everyone else who had relied on the County approvals.

OPOA Steps Up to Help

Last spring, OPOA received a call from Shealene Vogel. We agreed to help. The OIA Legal Center and lawyers for each family asked the County to exercise discretion and leave the Vogel and Johnson families alone. The County refused. That’s when the legislature stepped in. The legislature usually avoids disputes involving unique facts and few parties. That’s a job for the courts. But in this case, the Vogel and Johnson families needed the right to keep their homes and property that they had purchased. That would require a change to the law that only the legislature could approve. So, both OPOA and Lane County stepped in and asked the legislature for relief. Working with Representative Charlie Conrad, OPOA successfully lobbied for the passage of House Bill 3362, which recognized the rights of innocent purchasers to keep what they paid for. The law should never punish people who’ve done nothing wrong.

In the meantime, much more work needs to be done to ensure that future innocent purchasers like the Vogel and Johnson families don’t have to suffer the same fate they did. Without intervention by the legislature, innocent purchasers will continue to be left holding the bag for bad acts committed by others. The legislature can fix this permanently and should do exactly that.

The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not represent the opinions or positions of any party represented by the OPOA Legal Center on any particular matter.