How do you protect your home from title theft?
Two free things. Sign up for your county's property fraud alert, which emails you when any document is recorded against your name. Freeze your credit, so a thief who forges a deed can't borrow against the house. The Federal Trade Commission says the paid "title lock" subscriptions don't do either job: they only watch the public record after the fact, and they insure nothing.
One thing people get wrong: the owner's title policy you bought at closing covers problems that existed before you owned the home. It does not cover a forgery recorded after you bought. So the alert is your protection, and if something has already been recorded against your home, that is a legal problem, and the people to call are Vanderpool Law; we handle title for a living.
A forged deed conveys nothing. You still own your home. The problem is the cloud on the record and the work of clearing it, and that work is legal work: a lawsuit to set the forgery aside and a recorded judgment that says so. Your owner's title policy won't pay for it, because it insures the title as it stood the day you bought, not what someone forged afterward. A monthly "title lock" won't either; it only watches the record you can watch for free.
Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice, on home title theft and "title lock" services; county Register of Deeds fraud-alert programs.What title theft actually is, and what stops it
"Title theft" is a forged deed or a forged deed of trust recorded against your home, usually so the thief can borrow against it or sell it to someone who doesn't know. The forgery is recorded in the county register's office, which is why the county's own alert is the first line of defense: you learn the day it happens, not a year later.
What to do, step by step
Look up your county's Register of Deeds online (the office that records deeds). Ask whether they offer a free service that alerts you when anything is recorded against your name or your property. Many Tennessee counties do. Sign up. That's it.
If your county doesn't offer one, you can do the same thing by hand. Call the office and say you want to make sure nothing has been recorded against your property since you bought it. The first time, ask for the book and page number, or the instrument number, of your deed; write it down. After that it's one call every few months: "anything recorded after this instrument?" It's a chore, and a county alert is better, but it works.
And freeze your credit with the three bureaus. A thief who forges a deed usually wants a loan against the house; a frozen file stops the loan.
Sign up for the alert, or make the call. Freeze your credit. If a document ever shows up that you didn't sign, call Vanderpool Law that day. That's the whole plan, and the first two parts cost nothing.
Something recorded against your home that you didn't sign? Call us today. The sooner it's challenged, the simpler it is to clear.