Macomb
County proposes real estate fraud alert system
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(Photo: Christina Hall/Detroit Free Press)
Fraud on real estate transactions?
It’s real and a problem that Macomb County
Clerk/Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh wants to curb.
Her office is proposing a fraud alert system
to make real estate transactions safer and help protect private property rights
by reducing the risk of fraud through the use of real estate consumer alert
notices.
The letters will include the property address
and book and page number where owners can look online for free to search
their records. Documents will cost $6.
The fraud alert system would cost about
$61,782 a year, starting Jan. 1, money that is available in the Register of
Deeds Technology Fund.
“This is a big one,” Sabaugh said today of the
effort, one of many by her office has made to make services easier for users,
such as kiosk check-ins and text alerts for jurors. “Your home is your castle …
help protect that home.”
Deputy Register of Deeds Craig Jones told
county commissioners that said the office sees three kinds of fraud,
including a tax or contractor’s lien on a property that owners have no
knowledge of. If a person doesn’t search his or her property, fines and
penalties can add up, he said.
The office also sees situations among siblings
where one child will ask their mother or father to sign documents and the
parent doesn’t know what they are signing and other siblings are unaware.
The system would send consumer protection
courtesy notices to all the names on the property, which could be helpful to
landlords, officials said.
It could also help property owners who have
paid off their mortgages but the register of deeds’ records still have the file
open. That would prompt the property owner to call their bank or credit union
to make sure those records are discharged, officials said.
Jones said the system probably will be up by
the beginning of 2016. The Register of Deeds has handled about 162,000
documents this year, which is up a little from last year, he said.
The office worked with the FBI for the project
and Jones has an agency contact should fraud be reported.
According to a packet given to county
commissioners on the proposal, Michigan was 11th in the nation with significant
mortgage fraud activity.
The Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds
Office offers a free service to help people verify their personal land records
to fight fraud, according to its website. The service allows property owners to
see if unauthorized documents have been recorded against their property in that
county’s Register of Deeds Office. It also has a fraud alert system to
alert someone by email or phone of any recordings in their name or business
name once they register, according to the website.
In Wayne County, the Register of Deeds has a
property records fraud unit to receive complaints, investigate, charge and
prosecute people for criminal and fraudulent land record activity, according to
its website. The office collaborated with the county prosecutor and sheriff to
establish the first in the nation property fraud task force.
Preventing real estate fraud is something
everyone should be monitoring, Sabaugh said.
“If you plan to do anything – moving or taking
out a home equity loan – you can’t do it if there is a cloud on your title,”
she said.
Morris Hagerman is a local real estate agent with Real Estate One in Royal Oak, Michigan. He serves Berkley and the other Woodward 5 communities, including Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods. Hagerman is also a member of the Berkley/Huntington Woods Area Chamber of Commerce. You can contact him by phone at 248-854-8440, email at morrishagermanproperties@gmail.com or visit his web page.
Fraud is a problem in the real estate business. Many times, fraud happens when you are not making any changes in the real estate your own or have control over. People will file changes in the property ownership and you may not know about it until you do make a change. It could be a relative making changes on the ownership of property on your parent's home, a mortgage scam or, even a mistake like a contractor placing a lien on your property.