Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Property Fraud Prevention topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County recorder outlines new property-fraud subscription offering; commissioners and recorder answer questions
Summary
The county recorder and a representative of CSI/EquityProtect described a proactive property-fraud protection subscription available to county parcel owners; commissioners questioned mailings and differences between reactive and proactive services.
Deb, Kosciusko County recorder, introduced Dusty Wicker of CSI and a partnership with EquityProtect to offer a proactive property-fraud protection subscription to county property owners. CSI and EquityProtect provide a property-risk score for parcels and an option to subscribe to monitoring and an incident-response smart policy that EquityProtect described as a prevention and recovery product.
Dusty Wicker, a CSI representative, said the county is among the first to sign an agreement that allows reduced subscription pricing for local residents; he described how EquityProtect classifies parcel risk (low, medium, medium-high, high) and cited county-level statistics showing roughly 20% of parcels categorized as high risk, with additional parcels at medium-high risk because of features such as second homes on lakes.
Dusty said EquityProtect can notify a homeowner if someone attempts to record a document that affects title and can require confirmation from the homeowner before release. He also described a "smart policy" that will assist subscribers with recovery costs if fraud occurs. Dusty emphasized the service is optional, county participation costs the county nothing and subscription revenue supports the vendor.
Commissioners and the recorder asked whether EquityProtect had performed mailings or outreach; Dusty and Deb said EquityProtect had not performed county mailings without recorder approval. The presentation prompted questions about overlap with existing recorder services such as DocSpot (reactive record-alert service) and how proactive monitoring differs from reactive notifications. The recorder said DocSpot remains available at no cost; EquityProtect provides an optional, proactive layer for homeowners who want additional protection and an insurance-like smart policy.
Outcome: No county purchase or mandatory enrollment was approved. The recorder’s office provided links to EquityProtect and to existing public services; commissioners asked staff to monitor local uptake and to coordinate any future county-level outreach with the recorder.
