Philadelphia launches new tool to stop deed fraud

The City of Philadelphia is committed to protecting your home and your right to generational wealth. City officials recently launched a system to prevent deed fraud before it happens. The system is the first of its kind in the country. It's the result of seamless collaboration among the Revenue, Records, and Law Departments. Find out more below.

A collaborative effort

Recording deed transfers is the Department of Records' job. But accessing certain data, like the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Death Master File, was challenging. The Department of Revenue, however, already had access to the SSA's data sets. Revenue's Data and Research Unit saw the opportunity and offered its support to Records in this area.

Both departments worked together to build the country's first deed lookup tool. The tool is only accessible by Records staff. As always, the Law Department is on hand to ensure taxpayers' confidentiality is protected.

The best part? Records staff can now use the SSA's Death Master File to verify if a deceased property owner's name was forged on a deed.

What is deed fraud?

Deed fraud is when someone steals a property by filing a fraudulent deed. It typically happens when a person pretends to be the property's legal owner. They create a fake document that makes it look as though they own your house. They can also forge a dead homeowner's signature on a deed and record it as their own.

Once the deed transfer is recorded, the fraudster can sell the house or take out a loan against it. The real owner or relatives of the deceased owner may not find out about the scam until much later. They then have to go through a long and expensive court process to get their property back.

But there's good news

The City's taking steps to protect homeowners. It has rolled out a fraud verification system to stop fake deed transfers or home theft. The system instantly checks deeds submitted in person or by mail to ensure they're legit.

From now on, when someone sells a house in Philadelphia and tries to transfer the deed, the system will check if the legal owner is listed in the Death Master File. If the legal owner shows up in the death master file, it means the attempt to transfer the deed happened after the owner's death.

What happens next?

The lookup tool flags the deed transfer as potentially fraudulent. The Department of Records won't record a deed if it finds that the legal owner passed away before the ownership transfer happened.

This is good news for all Philadelphia property owners, especially:

• The relatives of deceased homeowners and
• Potential buyers.

What if there's an error?

If you think your deed transfer was flagged incorrectly, you can show proof that the property's legal owner:

• Was alive,
• Signed the deed, and
• Approved the ownership transfer.

The Department of Records will happily review your supporting documents and record your deed if there was an error.