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MICHIGAN
New Alerts on Oakland County Properties Could Prevent Loss and Fraud
By, Katherine "Kate" Tomasik, Senior Attorney, Trott Law
Oakland County, the second largest county in the state of Michi-
gan, has launched a free new online program designed to mitigate
the mortgage and deed fraud. e system, called Property Records
Notification, or PRN, will inform property owners of recorded activ-
ity against their property. PRN is an effort by Oakland County to
combat mortgage and property fraud. e unveiling of PRN is the
first of its kind in the country, according to Lisa Brown, the Oakland
County Register of Deeds. Oakland County was the second in the
country to launch Super Index in 2014, an online searchable database
within millions of recorded documents maintained by the County.
is alert system could be a valuable resource for most property
owners, or mortgagees, who might not check their property records
on a regular basis, and thus unaware to threats of fraud. Users can
sign up at www.ocmideeds.com/alerts, and will be notified of deeds,
mortgages, liens, or anything recorded against their properties
within Oakland County. is service might be especially useful for
mortgage lenders with performing loans, where many of the liens or
recorded activity might otherwise go unnoticed on these properties.
In addition to potential fraudulent activity, such as forged mort-
gage discharges, PRN alerts could be likewise useful for mortgage
lenders in helping mitigate non-fraudulent property threats, such as
unpaid tax forfeitures or association liens. Left unpaid, these liens
could lead to a tax sale or senior lien foreclosure which jeopardizes,
and possibly extinguishes, the unwitting mortgage lender's property
rights. Signing up to PRN could allow mortgage lenders greater
opportunity to preserve its interest when receiving immediate alerts
of recorded activity on its Oakland County properties, and allow
the mortgage lender an opportunity to advance funds to preserve its
interest before it's too late.
