Westchester County Clerk Tom Roach says that in view of the growing crime of stealing houses by filing fraudulent deeds his office is exploring introducing an electronic system to quickly notify people when a new deed has been filed for property that is recorded in their name.
“Under state law we will send a letter when a property changes hands to the last owner to say, ‘hey, you sold your house,’ it doesn’t say it that way, but the idea is if you didn’t you can immediately take action,” Roach said on Jan. 27. “We are now exploring a way to use an electronic version of that, which would immediately trigger a message alerting you to that, so the sooner you take action the better.”
Roach said that when New York State Attorney General Letitia James recently held an event at the White Plains Public Library dealing with deed fraud people from his office were there.
“We were able to offer free certified copies of deeds and we served more than 60 people in that way,” Roach said. He pointed out that people can go online to the County Clerk Office’s website for free look to see what paperwork is on file related to their property.
“You can see what’s been filed regarding your property and if you see that the last thing filed was your deed that you were involved in you can relax,” Roach said.
In July of 2024, a new law establishing deed theft as a crime in New York state and expanding the Office of the Attorney General’s ability to prosecute deed theft went into effect. Deed theft is now legally considered grand larceny, and can be prosecuted as such.
The legislation was co-authored by Attorney General James and sponsored by State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Landon C. Dais. The law established deed theft as a crime and amended the statute of limitations to give homeowners and prosecutors more time to seek justice, and grants Office of Attorney General original criminal jurisdiction to prosecute deed theft. Prosecution must begin within five years of the theft or within two years after the rightful homeowner realizes their deed has been stolen, whichever occurs later.
Roach, who at the beginning of January succeeded Tim Idoni as county clerk said that he was excited to be able to take part in a naturalization ceremony on Jan. 7 that made 87 people citizens of the U.S. He said he asked some how long it had taken them to be able to become a citizen and found that it typically was 10 years.
“Judge Charles Wood presided and I was able to lead the soon-to-be-citizens in their oath. It becomes emotional because you realize how hard these people worked to become a citizen,” Roach said. “It’s a celebration not only for the people who are becoming citizens but for us as Americans to have this new wave of people, full of ambition, who want to get to work and want to make our country a better place.”
