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The owner of a mansion in Raleigh, North Carolina, has found himself in an expensive legal fight after a stranger stole the deed to his residence.

The New York Post reported that Craig Adams, a dentist who owns an 8,300-square-foot home in a gated community, discovered that a person named Dawn Mangum falsely filed a warranty deed on his property and tried to put it up for sale at $4.25 million. Adams was only made aware of the deed theft when his homeowners’ association alerted him that Mangum was seeking gate access to the community.

Adams then discovered the Wake County Register of Deeds approved paperwork that his property was transferred to the “Dawn Mangum Trust” without seeking verification that the transfer was legitimate. Although Adams could show that he was still the property’s owner, the register’s office claimed they could not void the fraudulent transfer.

“They say there’s absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this,” Adams said. “Once it’s filed, their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman.”

When contacted directly, Mangum said she thought the property was abandoned and claimed she was willing to return the ownership to Adams. But the register’s office insisted it could not reverse the deed without a court order. And while the register’s office has a free fraud alert system that notifies homeowners when actions are recorded under their name, Adams was not contacted because he was not named in the phony deed paperwork.

Adams added that he hoped his situation could help push for changes in the state’s law on deed transfers.

“The biggest thing that needs to happen is the laws from the state legislature need to come down to the register,” Adams said, declaring North Carolina requires “a simple set of checks and balances, authenticate the document, authenticate the signature, authenticate who owns the home.”