Property owners beware: Mail offer for certified deeds

 Saint Louis County Recorder of Deeds, Janice M. Hammonds urges property owners to beware of companies offering to provide certified copies of their property deed for a fee. 

Periodically, property owners in Saint Louis County are being targeted by mailed solicitations for certified deed orders. Property owners receive an official looking letter, offering them to obtain a certified deed for a payment of $59.50 or more. “This is an excessive fee for documents that are easily obtained from our office”, says Recorder of Deeds Janice Hammonds. “Property owners have numerous options to request deed copies: in person, via mail, electronically or by downloading an order form from our website: http://revenue.stlouisco.com/RecorderOfDeeds/ . Requests are processed immediately, and property owners will receive their copy within five working days.” 

Most property deeds are just one or two pages long and do not justify such an exorbitant fee. Saint Louis County charges $3.00 for a copy and $4.00 for a certified copy of a standard ownership deed. Accepted forms of payment include cash, check or money order. 

While it is a good idea for property owners to keep a certified copy of the deed with their personal papers, most property owners already have it. The original deed is usually received during the process of purchasing real estate. If an owner has the original deed, which was recorded at the time of purchase, the need for a copy is unlikely. 

Hammonds urges residents with questions about obtaining copies of recorded documents to ignore the solicitation and to contact the Recorder of Deeds’ office for information: visit or write the Recorder of Deeds at 41 S. Central Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105, or contact the office by phone at 314-615-7102 or 314-615-7103. The office is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

“We also would like to remind property owners that we offer the Property Fraud Alert Program. This notification service is completely free of charge to property owners in Saint Louis County”, Hammonds says. “Property fraud can happen to anyone who owns real property, but property owners who enroll in the “Property Fraud Alert Program” are alerted when a document is recorded with their name match.” 

Signing up is simple: those interested in enrolling may either visit the Property Fraud Alert website www.propertyfraudalert.com and select Saint Louis County from the list of counties offering the service or call 1-800-728-3858. The Saint Louis County website www.stlouisco.com also offers a “click-through” link to the service. 

http://www.stlouisco.com/YourGovernment/CountyDepartments/Revenue/RecorderofDeedsDivision/PropertyFraudAlert.aspx