The Ocean County Clerk’s Office is offering an additional means of property protection to homeowners and business owners with its new, free Property Alert Service, which sends email alerts any time a document affecting a particular property is recorded by the office.
Freeholder Director John P. Kelly, who serves as director of law and public safety, said the program “provides a layer of protection against property and mortgage fraud.”
As County Clerk Scott M. Colabella explained, “Scammers record fraudulent documents like fake deeds or record fake liens against property owners. In some instances, fraud on real property is not discovered for years. To address these concerns and protect one of the most important assets a person has, my office now offers this free service that immediately notifies you by email whenever a document with your name is recorded in the county clerk’s office.”
Colabella pointed out that identity theft is a growing consumer complaint, and property fraud is a form of identity theft on the rise. Thousands of documents are recorded annually at the clerk’s office; of the 131,893 documents recorded in 2015, 24,492 were deeds and 22,778 were mortgages.
“Based on the volume of deeds and mortgages recorded monthly, it’s not impossible for some items to be potentially fraudulent,” Colabella stated. “This program will help property owners prevent potential scams from affecting them.”
Property owners can sign up for the service by visiting countyclerkpas.co.ocean.nj.us/PropertyAlert.
“It’s as simple as registering your name or business name and your email address, and you will be automatically notified electronically if a document is recorded with your name,” noted Colabella, who collaborated on the project with the Ocean County Department of Information Technology.
“Any tools that can help protect our residents from fraud and scammers are useful and benefit our property owners,” Freeholder Virginia E. Haines, liaison to the IT Department, commented.
“While this service can’t prevent fraud, it’s important to be notified early that someone may be trying to steal your property without your knowledge,” said Colabella.
“As long as a document meets statutory recording guidelines, New Jersey law requires the clerk’s office to record the document. I am pleased we can offer this new program to help our constituents detect information that may be fraudulent.”
— Juliet Kaszas-Hoch