Summary
You might have seen ads on television claiming that someone could steal your home from you. While rare and complicated to do, title theft is possible. But do you need to spend money to protect your home’s title? Here’s the truth about when title monitoring is worth the cost, and when it isn’t
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You might have seen ads on TV claiming that a thief could steal your home from you unless you purchase their monitoring service. But could someone actually steal your home? Let’s separate fact from fiction when it comes to title monitoring.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
Title theft is extremely rare. Properties that are paid off, owned by elderly individuals, or vacant, are the most likely to be targeted.
However, some services advertise that they help you protect your title. These services will check your title status and notify you if there’s any changes. Some of these services, especially those that advertise online, are scams. Other services will watch your title, but few will do anything beyond notifying you if there’s an issue.
The law is very clear that a bank that issues a loan is responsible for clearing the title, meaning that you would not be liable if a bank gives a fraudulent loan on your home. However, if title theft does occur, it will take some work to clean it up. Unfortunately, these title monitoring services often provide little assistance when it comes to fixing the problem.
There is one time when you might want to consider title monitoring. If you have an elderly parent or grandparent, and you’re concerned about title scams. Scams that convince a person to sign over their title do exist. If you’re worried that your loved one might get scammed, a title monitoring service might be worth the expense.