One area that is ripe for problems in that regard is real estate. Every year, unsuspecting individuals and businesses become caught in duplicitous and illegal activities pertaining to property or real estate transactions.
They even pay for services from private companies when those same services are available for free from the County Assessor. One of the services that the San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder β specifically the Recorder Division β provides is the examining and recording of all documents that deal with establishing ownership of real property or land in the county. The department also officially records other documents such as deeds of trust, reconveyances, liens and lien releases.
These official transactions become part of the public record. An important mission of the department is to balance the accessibility of these public records with safeguarding the confidentiality of those records to the maximum extent possible.
While the Grantor-Grantee Index has been made available online for your convenience, you will note that the names of the property owners have been omitted from the files that you are researching. This has been done to protect the public from identity theft. To find out consumer protection information, visit U. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Coupled with the effects of identity theft, any individual can be a potential target for real estate fraud.
However, law enforcement statistics have shown that the elderly and the more economically challenged are much more susceptible to fraud. Below are some common warning signs of real estate fraud:. You receive official property documents indicating a transfer of property and you have no previous knowledge of the transaction;.
