Home Document Scam Alert: Santa Clara County

Well, we certainly hate to rain on the post-parade celebrations of Independence Day… but as dozens of local news sources reported two days ago, there is a scam going around that every homeowner in Santa Clara County needs to know about.

Beware of mail with the sender listed as ‘Local Property Office’ which offers homeowners their property deed – for $89! Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone states “It's simply outrageous. No homeowner should pay $89 for assessment information…”. Property deeds cost only $6 online – and many other property documents are available for free on the County of Santa Clara’s Official Website: https://www.sccassessor.org/.

Note that 490,146 property owners should have received official mail from the County Assessor’s Office the week of June 29th, providing their assessed value information for the year 2018-2019. (This notice had the county seal as shown below.)

If you are a homeowner who needs any information about your property, we recommend starting with the ‘Property Record Search’ located on the Office of the Assessor, County of Santa Clara web page HERE. You may also call (408) 299-5500 with any questions.

Helpful Links

Contacting The Assessor’s Office

Office Of The Assessor FAQ’s

New Homeowner Information

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: The most common type of scam we have seen in real estate transactions over the last two years is wire fraud. We always instruct our clients NOT to wire money until they have called the Escrow Officer to verify the account number over the phone AND to verify receipt of funds in the proper account once sent. PLEASE do not wire money to any account that changes throughout the transaction; many scams involve emails sent with ‘new’ or ‘updated’ wire information. This is a huge red flag that your agent should warn you about ahead of time!

Resources Used:

http://padailypost.com/2018/07/03/county-assessor-warns-of-home-document-scam/

https://m.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Assessor-Says-Property-Scam-Tries-To-Sell-13045766.php

https://m.facebook.com/county.of.santa.clara/

All our best,

Mark & Jason