Property Fraud Alert

Transylvania County Register of Deeds has launched a program that offers residents and businesses free protection against property and mortgage fraud.

The Property Fraud Alert system notifies a Transylvania County property owner when a Real Estate document has been recorded in your name in the Register of Deeds Office. It alerts you via email and keeps you up to date each time a Real Estate transaction has been recorded.

Ownbey said her office has “received several phone calls inquiring if we offer this service and we believe it is important to offer a Fraud Alert program to those who entrust their property documents to us.”

To sign up for the alerts, users simply need to go to www.transylvaniadeeds.com then, under the Online Services Tab, click Fraud Alert. The online form requires an email address as those who register will be immediately notified by e-mail should a document be recorded that matches the criteria provided.

Users can set up alerts by name or business name, and can register multiple names as needed. Even so, the alert is only as effective as the correct spelling of the name that is being monitored. Users can set up multiple alerts to monitor different spellings of their name or business names.

Once registered, you will receive an email Alert Notification each time a document has been recorded in your name in the Register of Deeds Office. The email will give the recording time and date, instrument number, and book and page. You will then go to the public access link, www.transylvaniadeeds.com under the Search Deeds tab, where you will be able to search the instrument number or book and page to see the image of the recorded document. This will allow you to see if this is a fraudulent recording.

After Notification, if this does appear to be a fraudulent recording, the property owner will contact either the parties whose names are on the document, the attorney, the lending institution, the bank, or the mortgage company for information about the recorded transaction.

This service does not give the Register of Deeds Office the authority to remove any document that has been recorded, but rather is to make you aware that an instrument has been filed in your name.

For more information call the Transylvania County Register of Deeds Office at (828)-884-3162.