Q&A
Council Member Hudson questions DOF on property title notifications and fraud detection
0:21:23
ยท
3 min
Council Member Crystal Hudson inquires about the Department of Finance's processes for notifying property owners of title changes and detecting potentially fraudulent activities. DOF representatives explain their notification system through ACRIS and mail, as well as their internal flagging and review procedures for suspicious title changes.
- DOF automatically notifies property owners by mail within 3-5 days when changes are recorded in ACRIS
- The department has multiple flags and checks in place to identify potentially fraudulent title changes
- A quality review team examines suspicious transactions, looking at factors such as transfer history, consideration amount, and repeat offenders
Crystal Hudson
0:21:23
Sure.
0:21:24
Just a couple.
0:21:24
Thank you.
0:21:26
What efforts does the Department of Finance via ACRIS or another system currently undertake to proactively notify title holders when changes to that title have been registered?
Jacob Capistran
0:21:37
Repeat your question again.
0:21:38
Sorry, councilwoman.
Crystal Hudson
0:21:39
Sure.
0:21:39
What efforts does does the Department of Finance, via ACRIS or another system, currently undertake to proactively notify title holders when changes to that title have been registered?
Jacob Capistran
0:21:51
Apologies for making repeat that question.
Alexander Knipenberg
0:21:52
No.
0:21:53
No.
0:21:53
It's okay.
Jacob Capistran
0:21:54
Every every property owner in New York City, will receive a notification when, a recording happens through ACRIS.
0:22:02
The it goes out via mail.
0:22:03
And so that is one that is one way.
0:22:06
I believe that's our most direct and effective effort of notifying a property owner when something happens on their property, against their property record.
0:22:13
Debbie Pacheco, do you have anything to add?
Annette Hill
0:22:15
Also, we do a lot of outreach with so, at all the outreach sessions, we ensure that, we talk about the notification program.
0:22:27
We give our brochures on how to sign out.
0:22:30
But like they, Jake just mentioned, Director Jake just mentioned, the way we get information is as soon as it gets recorded you will get a notification.
0:22:43
Every you don't have to sign up.
0:22:44
It's an automatic for all New Yorkers who has property get a notification, and that usually goes out within 3 3 to 5 days.
Crystal Hudson
0:22:52
Okay.
0:22:53
Thank you.
0:22:53
And then, does do you have currently have internal processes to flag potentially illicit title changes?
Jacob Capistran
0:23:01
Yes, council member.
0:23:02
There's a number of flags, dep assistant commissioner, our city registrar, Colette, to testify back in September.
0:23:10
Right.
0:23:11
There's she runs an amazing team and an amazing, wonderful team of examiners.
0:23:15
And so there's an there's dozens of flags in our in ACRIS.
0:23:17
And so a majority of of, recordings that happen, they happen online.
0:23:21
Folks do them from their own from their homes, from their computers.
0:23:24
We have an internal flag system, and anytime a document that, you know, flags sets off a flag, our examiners will and anytime a document that, you know, flags sets off a flag, our examiners will carefully review them, make sure, you know, double check to there's clear signs of of deed fraud and deed theft, and she went over it articulately in the last hearing.
0:23:43
But anytime it's not in you know, it it warrants further review, it then goes to an internal audit team, essentially, and the examiners take an even closer look than that.
0:23:52
And if we still feel as though this is a fraudulent document, then it goes the sheriff's office.
0:23:56
And so there's a number of checks and balances that the examiners do.
0:24:00
Deputy Michelle, if you wanna go over some of them.
Annette Hill
0:24:02
Yeah.
0:24:02
The quality review team really looks to ensure that, we look at the prior deeds.
0:24:08
We wanna make sure that there is a direct transfer, we can't do a title search, but we do look to see if there's a direct transfer.
0:24:15
We look to see if there hasn't been a recording on the property within the last 40 years, we'll go back and we'll look at the records.
0:24:22
We ensure that the assessed value it's not being transferred for 0, 0, consideration.
0:24:30
Anytime it's a zero consideration, we pull that and we look at it.
0:24:34
And we look at the assessed value.
0:24:36
There's several things that, we also several flags in our system eludes the, examiners that this potentially could be fraudulent, as, Director has just mentioned.
0:24:48
And one of them will tell us if the same we have repeat offenders.
0:24:52
If somebody has come in before and they actually put something on they try to record something that was fraudulent, it alerts us right away and it goes to our quality review team and will notify the sheriff.
Crystal Hudson
0:25:03
Okay.
0:25:03
Great.
0:25:04
Thank you so much.