From The Real Deal:A Brooklyn City Council member is working on legislation that would require property owners to be notified when their deeds are accessed through online city records, citing a growing threat of real estate fraud.
Brooklyn Councilman wants to restrict deeds access
Councilman Erik Martin Dilan, a Brooklyn Democrat, said criminals were committing fraud by printing and altering deeds that are available online. He said property owners need to be safeguarded, and that the exact images of deeds are too easily accessible online.
The city Department of Finance Web site, known as ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System), maintains a database of deeds and other property records for Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx going back to 1966.
The site gets about 300,000 visitors per month, a Department of Finance spokesman said.
Robert Freeman, executive director for the state Department of State's Committee On Open Government, said the system should not be changed.
"The kind of records that would be subject to the proposal have been available forever," he said, adding, "and what would it cost the city to notify everybody whose deed was accessed? It seems to me that would be an administrative nightmare."
8 comments:
This C.M. must be hooked up
with some hefty campaign contributions
from the NYC real estate industry
to be pushing for this measure.
Not being able to access a deed denies citizens the right to check up on who owns a property
and all the details that accompany it.
What if, for instance, the notorious Tommy Huang
(or family) is attempting to hide something regarding the purchase or ownership of a particular property?
Shouldn't we be able to search the deed for
any revealing info without the Huangs
being notified who did the search?
Huang might use such info to intimidate, if not threaten (as he's done in the past),
the party who conducted the search.
It seems to me that the privacy of the searcher
needs to be protected from unwarranted harassment
from such crooked or dangerous developers!
I believe it call for the image itself only not to be displayed. Otherwise the info should remain in the public domain.
THE IMAGE IS THE INFO
and we have a right to see it !
May the councilmember NOT have his way. Deeds accessed through the ACRIS database is an example of the various types of public information. Every citizen is entitled to knowing about a property owner. The image should by all means be accessible.
Great for news for Seniors who have been victims. Thanks for protecting us.
If you have nothing better to do search Thomas J. Huang and then search Alice Huang on ACRIS. Incredible.
How about letting the people on a block know when developement is planned so they can comment well in advance.
Don't they have property rights, too?
I was searching for NYC Deeds when I came across blog. As a Land Surveyor I can say that this idea will hurt us financially quite a bit. We search deeds every day of the week anywhere between NYC and Albany. If we have to send a person to NYC everytime we need a deeds you can bet that the price of a Survey will go up quite a bit. This is public information and the more that is avaliable online the better. Just about every county clerk in teh country is working on getting the deeds online. It saves tons of money for the county (city) and makes live easier for everyone.
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