Berrien County has a new tool for property owners to keep track of their property. It’s a free notification service that alerts subscribers each time a document is recorded in the Berrien County Register of Deeds’ office containing your search criteria. At this week’s Berrien County Commission meeting, Registrar Lora Freehling explained that for instance, if you discharge a mortgage, if an easement is recorded, if there’s a notice of commencement, you can receive an alert.
“I highly recommend and encourage you all to sign up for it — all property owners within Berrien County to sign up for it. It’s a good feature. You’ll get notifications if something is recorded in our office.”
Commissioner Teri Freehling added that it’s also a way to combat potential fraud.
”It notifies them if there is a transaction that they’re unaware of. Because we do know that there is a rise in fraudulent transitions of titles and things like that. Sometimes the wheel moves so slowly that you are not notified, as the property owner, until a month or two months later.”
Registrar Freehling said while Property Alert cannot prevent fraud from happening, it provides an early warning allowing the property owner to take appropriate action should they believe fraudulent activity has occurred. To access the Property Alert tool, just visit the Berrien County Register of Deeds web page, click on Property Alert, and follow the prompts to set up your monitoring account.
