The Lee County Clerk of Court says that people don’t realize how easily their property could be stolen. To help, his office came up with a property fraud alert service. It notifies property owners when a document is filed in their registered name.
“What this service does for free is send people an email letting them know that a document was filed, so they can look into that transaction in 24 hours,” said Lee County Clerk of Court Kevin Karnes.
The property owner can then call law enforcement in their jurisdiction.
A property can be registered by owner’s name only, though you may want to add your parcel ID number, which is easy to find on the Lee County Clerk of Court website. You can register and get the alerts on your phone, at leeclerk.org/propertyfraud.
“It applies to everybody who owns property in Lee County. So there are 550,000 parcels of land in Lee County, and that would cover both residential and commercial properties,” said Karnes.
He adds that all clerks' offices around the state offer this service for free.
“One stolen home is too much, in my opinion,” said Karnes.
For more information, go to leeclerk.org/propertyfraud
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