Andrew Langlois: Steps to prevent fraudulent changes to real estate deeds

To The Daily Sun,

Thanks to Mr. Frank Roche for publishing Saturday’s article on real estate scams. A property my family owns in Gilford had seven scam attempts in 2023, another two in 2024, and, recently, five or six more this year. Only through the diligence of our local real estate agents have these attempts been prevented.

In addition to the measures that Mr. Roche mentioned in his article, there is a capability to enroll a property in a program at the Belknap County Register of Deeds to send an email alert if a change is made to a deed on a reader's property. Unfortunately, this alert is only sent when the change is actually recorded. One can then start efforts to undo a fraudulent change, but it requires legal action. 

How much better it would be if there were a requirement to send an alert to the owner, followed by a five business day waiting period after the alert before any recorded change becomes final? The Legislature should seriously consider implementing this or a similar mechanism to create a window to stop and reverse a pending fraudulent transfer.

Andrew Langlois

Gilford