YORK, Pa. — You may have security cameras at your house to make sure your home is secure, but what if what you really need to be looking out for could be found at your county Recorder of Deeds office?
FOX43 Finds Out how title theft and deed fraud is on the rise
"We've gotten a lot of phone calls and a lot of concerned people. In a county position, you should be concerned with what people are concerned with," said Laura Shue, the York County Recorder of Deeds.
She says people have contacted her fearful of deed fraud or home title theft. This could happen when a scammer fakes the homeowner's signature or something else on a deed and then files it with the recorder of deeds.
"We have to rely on the notaries who are professional also and that they're doing their job," she said.
Some Counties in Pennsylvania have a free tool that could alert you to potential fraud
In York County, it's called the Records Notification Service.
People who own property in York County can sign up in less than five minutes on the Recorder of Deeds website. You just need your tax ID number and an email.
If there's any document filed related to that tax ID number, you'll know.
"With this system, you will know and get a notification in your email within days of that happening. At that point you can look into the document and see what it is, maybe it's something you recognize," said the York County Recorder of Deeds.
This type of fraud has happened recently. Shue says a property owner found out back in March when they went to finalize a sale.
"We had found the notary had been fraudulent, contacted the notary and they had never seen those people come in," she said. "Since that event, we did put more security in this office. We have a camera, when things are recorded we know what time that was done so we can look into the camera and see the faces and help the authorities that way."
So far, only 7,000 people have signed up. There are more than 180,000 parcels of land in York County.
"It's one thing that you can take off of your plate because it's being monitored for you," Shue said.
Counties with similar programs
Adams County: Offers ‘PropertyCheck.’ It is a free-of-charge subscription-based feature that allows people to automatically be notified, by email or text, of any recorded document that affects their property. You can sign up here.
Lebanon County: As of Sept. 20, Lebanon County has implemented a record alert program. You must have your UPI number available to sign up. You can sign up here.
Lancaster County: People can set up FraudSleuth on the Recorder of Deeds website. It's the tab on the right.
Cumberland County: There is currently no record notification system, however, anyone can look at their property online through Landex.com to see if any additional documents were recorded under their name. There is a fee to download records.
Dauphin County: Dauphin County does not currently have a notification system, but plans to implement one in the upcoming months.
Franklin County: There is no current system in place, but the Recorded of Deeds is looking into pricing and software.
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