Platte County Recorder of Deeds Christopher Wright is on a mission to inform Platte County residents of any fishy business regarding their property deeds.
Christopher Wright
Wright spoke at a recent meeting of the Parkville Board of Aldermen regarding his new fraud awareness notification system. Through that system, taxpayers may sign up for email notifications through the recorder of deeds website (co.platte.mo.us/recorder) any time there is activity on a deed recorded in the county.
“We check our bank accounts, we check our Starbucks points, but nobody checks their property,” Wright said.
Property deed fraud is a growing problem, and while he said it’s not currently a major problem in Platte County he wants to remain on top of the situation. The county had four cases last year.
“That’s four cases too many,” Wright said. “We have decided we are going to be proactive in protecting the hard-working people of Platte County.”
To that end, Wright is supporting Missouri House Bill 2377 and spoke to legislators last week in Jefferson City. Introduced by state Rep. Sean Pouche, the bill would implement a record notification system for every county and make it mandatory for the county to offer such a service, but voluntary for property owners to sign up.
Wright wrote the legislation and has advocated for it on behalf of property owners statewide. Arizona and Florida have already implemented similar laws for statewide notification.