Saturday, December 14, 2024
Hood County residents will soon be able to tell if any fraudulent activity is detected on their county property records.
During a regularly scheduled Hood County Commissioners Court meeting Nov. 12, the court voted 3:2 to institute property fraud alert software in the Hood County Clerk’s Office.The service — provided by software company Fidlar Technologies — will notify property owners via email or phone whenever a document is recorded in their name, which will help protect against property fraud and title theft.
“I think we all know that title fraud and things like that are serious crimes,” Hood County Clerk Christine C. Leftwich told the court. “It's happening ... In our own county, we have experienced fraud.”
She explained that she had recently worked with investigator Michael Harris on a lien that had been fraudulently filed. While she noted the lien had been successfully removed, she has noticed that many residents come into the annex on a weekly basis to view their records — just to check that their property is free of any fraudulent claims or encumbrances.
"They're getting solicitations in the mail asking them to pay $125 or more to have their property researched. They're being told that they have liens on their property,” Leftwich said. “We get a lot of inquiries weekly of people coming in, and of course, we look those up, and we let them know that there is nothing on their property.”
She went on to explain that NortonLifeLock, another company that offers property fraud protection, recently experienced a glitch, which resulted in the county receiving more than 30 calls from residents claiming they had received alerts for property fraud.
"I did reach out to our IT department who was able to confirm that this was, in fact, an issue with NortonLifeLock,” Leftwich said. “So, it's definitely something that’s on the mind of citizens. It's something that as a county clerk, it has been on my mind. Just being out in the forums in this election cycle, it was something that I was frequently approached about, you know, ‘What can you do?’ ‘Is there something that you can do about this?’”
While the service will be provided to Hood County property owners at no additional cost, the funds for the software will be pulled from the County Clerk Archive Fund. The initial cost of the service agreement is $9,000, with annual ongoing maintenance fixed at $2,500 per year for the first three years. Leftwich added that though she realizes the software will be paid for by the money that was collected from taxpayers, she views this as a way to “give back” to the taxpayers by using a service they’ve been asking about.
She also explained that once the software is implemented, she will provide both the title companies and the Hood Central Appraisal District with all the public data transactions that have taken place throughout each week.
“Fidlar has been in business for about 100 years, and the data that we're giving to Fidlar is the same data that is shared with title companies here locally,” she said. “It also goes to HCAD to ensure that their records are up to date with what the county has, as far as ownership.”
Leftwich added that the contract with Fidlar will allow the county to provide the service to Hood County residents at no charge. She explained that the residents will be able to sign up for the service through a link on the county clerk web page. Through the $2,500 maintenance fee, she noted that Fidlar will also be able to provide customer support to residents if they need to verify a certain transaction.
“I’m just asking the court to approve this contract with Fidlar, so that we can provide this service to the citizens of Hood County,” she said.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Nannette Samuelson said while she does agree that home title fraud is a massive issue across the country, she feels the county would essentially be “picking a winner,” through Fidlar when there are other home vendors available like Home Title Lock and NortonLifeLock.
"The issue I have with this is that I don't believe the government should be going into private businesses with a private company to provide this service,” she said. “There's other services out there that do this. Fidlar, if you look into their background, they started out as a software company providing all kinds of services similar to what Tyler (Technologies) does for us ... so they already have an ability to do this work with getting data from other counties. It feels to me like they're using their convenient way to get data from other counties to create a customer base they'll have automatically.”
Samuelson stated that while she agrees there’s an issue of property fraud, she suggested that Leftwich focus on educating residents about the various companies that provide the same service. She proposed that the county could also look at providing a voucher that would allow residents to choose and sign up for the service that best suits their needs.
In reviewing the cybersecurity amendment, Samuelson also noted that while it provides some protection, it primarily benefits Fidlar. She pointed out a provision stating that Hood County would hold Fidlar harmless from any claims or damages arising from a cybersecurity breach, unless it was due to Fidlar's negligence or misconduct.
“Beyond having to prove that they were negligent or had willful misconduct, we would not really be able to hold Fidlar liable, and I'm not sure that we have that same level of protection,” she said. “There's a list of things that the software vendor is supposed to do, but how would you prove that they did all those things without hiring a permanent IT audit firm to be able to check?”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle said while he appreciates all the work and research Leftwich put into implementing the software, he agrees with Samuelson on several points.
“I have discussed this with some local businesses, and the one part that it's optional for a person to use or sign up for is fine. You're giving them the choice,” Eagle said. “But automatically feeding all the data to them is different, so I still have reservations about this one as well. Nothing against the county clerk on this. I know that she has worked hard on this particular issue, but I'm not sure this is the correct route to go either.”
Precinct 1 Kevin Andrews said that he’s on the “opposite end,” of Samuelson and Eagle, noting that all the data shared through the software will be publicly available information.
"If something's affecting your deed, then you get notified that there's something there,” Andrews said. “I'm assuming that Fidlar doesn't come out and resolve anything with this. This is just a notification that says this has happened, and I don't really see it much as a direct competition for Home Title Lock or NortonLifeLock or any of these other groups.”
“No, I’m with you,” Andrews said. “I think this is all public information, an alert that something has affected your title or deed.”
Leftwich also clarified that the personal information that would be provided by residents would be minimal and would only include their name and their property address. She explained that the system would then match this information against legal property descriptions. If an alert is triggered for a specific property, the resident could contact Fidlar for clarification, where they would be informed whether the recorded activity was legitimate or potentially fraudulent.
"My feeling is, again, this is the same stuff that goes out to title companies locally. We provide the same information to title companies that we provide to HCAD,” she said. “I feel pretty strongly about this, as far as being able to give the citizens a heads up on something that's been filed against their property. Sometimes the person may not learn about any encumbrance until they have a contract on their home, and then they go to try to sell it, and this comes up. It could impact their closing day, or it could impact the contract, and that sale not go through. “Whether you're buying or selling a home, it's a very stressful time, and of course, the last thing you want is to see something come up that you've got an issue with your title that you didn't know about. Then come to find out that, in the end, this was actually a fraudulent transaction, and then you're spent trying to figure out how to get yourself out of that.”
Samuelson said while she agreed with Leftwich, she reiterated that the county would be “giving a private company a leg up.”
"Are they going to try to upsell now that they have a list of all the people in Hood County?” Samuelson asked. “They now have a base of 68,000 to 70,000 customers that they can try to sell other products to, but we (can provide) education to help citizens understand the different options that they have. That’s just another option.”
Precinct 3 Commissioner Jack Wilson made the motion to approve and authorize the signing of the agreement with Fidlar Technologies to institute property fraud alert software for the Hood County Clerk’s Office. Following a second from Andrews, the motion passed 3:2, with Eagle and Samuelson voting in opposition.
