Every year, millions of seniors become victims of financial exploitation, resulting in billions of dollars in personal losses including title fraud.

Title fraud is a relatively new form of identity theft. Most often, the criminal (1) creates a fraudulent deed and transfers your property to a 3rd party by forging your name and counterfeiting a notary signature with stamp on the deed, or (2) presents a fraudulent ID to an actual notary for signature on a deed that transfers your property to a 3rd party. Homeowners with significant home equity, or who own more than one property (vacation home, rental property, unoccupied real estate) are more likely to be targeted for home title theft but anyone who owns real property can be a victim.

Arizona legislation now requires all Arizona counties to have a recorded document alert system in place by 2025. Currently, Pinal, Yavapai and Maricopa counties have operational Title Alert Notice registries.

Once you sign up for this free Title Alert Notice service, the County will notify you by email if a document is recorded in your name or your business name.  Here are the links for title alert notice in Maricopa and Pinal counties:

https://recorder.maricopa.gov/MaricopaTitleAlert/Default

https://acclaim.pinalcountyaz.gov/PublicRecordsNotificationWeb/

If you own real property- this is a simple (and free) step to help prevent title fraud.

-Stephanie A. Bivens, Esq., CELA

Bivens & Associates, PLLC is providing this information as a public service and is not affiliated with any title alert notice registration service. For more information, please contact your County directly.