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California Takes Major Step Toward Combatting Title Fraud

Friday, 12 September 2014 04:38 AM

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Two counties in the Golden State are making it tougher to commit real estate title fraud.


Los Angeles, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 11th, 2014 / Oakland and Macomb counties in California are the first two counties in the whole nation to take a major step in preventing real estate title fraud.

"The two counties have created a ‘Super Index’ of properties in their counties. This is a new search system that gets and big boost from Google and more help from Xerox," said Wendy at EverythingTitle.com. "This giant searchable database is not going to eliminate title fraud, but it is going to make it a lot harder to perpetrate."

One form of fraud in California that this database will help shut down is back tax fraud. Wendy explained someone will pay part of the back taxes owed on a home and then place a lien on the property. With that, the person can create a fraudulent deed backed up by legitimate paperwork.

"Thanks to the new database, exposing this kind of scam is much easier," she said. "But exposing it properly is still best done by an experience titled searcher."

The ability to make fake property titles is not something that is going to go away, she said. Criminals can easily make legitimate looking titles using nothing more that desktop publishing software, she said.

"However, the database these communities have created will make exposing that kind of fraud so much easier," Wendy said.

The problem for a homeowner, even with this database in place, is the expense of combatting the fraud. Wendy said a homeowner can reasonably expect to have the faked title and deed thrown out, but that costs money.

"Title insurance covers that expense. If someone comes up and presents a claim on the property, title insurance covers the defense of the property," she said. "While the person who made the fake title can, and should be, charged with a criminal offense, that too takes time. In the meantime, the civil claim on the property will continue to be pressed. Title insurance protects a homeowner from this kind of fraud."

For more information about title insurance, please visit http://www.everythingtitle.com, or contact Wendy at (310) 927-0351

Visit http://www.everythingtitle.com for more information.

Contact Info
Name: Wendy
Organization: Everything Title, Inc.
Phone: (310) 927-0351

SOURCE: Everything Title, Inc.

 

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