New Southington Service Fights Property/Mortgage Fraud

SOUTHINGTON, CT — The town this week has unveiled a new service regarding property records in town hall that aims to combat the growing problem of property/mortgage fraud.

Southington Town Clerk Kathy Larkin said the town has made operational an alert system whereby a home/property owner is notified via a text and/or e-mail if someone is using their name to forge documents regarding their house or property.

Larkin said the service is free and property owners just have to sign up via the town's website.

According to a statement from Cott Systems — the Columbus, Ohio-based records management systems company that has partnered with Southington — property fraud happens when "someone forges your identity, transfers your property into their name and records the document."

"This fraudulent activity can make it appear as if that person owns your home or property and you may not have any idea that this happened," wrote Cott Systems.

Larkin said someone doing this could, for example, obtain home ownership loans or mortgages in your name and make off with the cash.

This is when Cott Systems' "PropertyCheck" service comes in via Southington's RECORDhub account.

With Southington Town Hall being on the receiving end of many calls of concern from property owners, Larkin said the town decided to offer this service as a way to give owners peace of mind.

"It's starting to go across the state," Larkin said Friday morning about this type of activity. "We have not heard of anything such as this happening in Southington."

The way this service works is if someone starts using your mortgage and property record information, a text or email alert automatically goes out to the legitimate property owners.

Then, Larkin said, its up to the property owner to contact legal authorities, either and attorney or, even, local law enforcement to determine the next steps.

Property tax and land deed information is a public record and can be found in any municipalities town or city clerk's office.

Larkin said the problem, so far, doesn't appear to have hit Southington, but the town just wants to be ready to help should scammers start targeting local property owners.

Said Larkin: "We're not aware of anything like this happening here, but it's obvously happening somewhere."

To activate these PropertyCheck benefits, residents of Southington can sign up for alerts at: www.southington.org . Go to Departments-Town Clerk and click on PropertyCheck and follow the directions to sign up or click on this link.

For more information on Cott Systems, click on this link.

For more information on the Southington Town Clerk's office, click on this link.