Deed Fraud in Georgia: How to Set Up Free FANS Alerts on Your Home

A deed can be recorded on your house without anyone calling you first.

That is how deed fraud works. Someone forges an owner's signature on a deed, gets it notarized, and records it with the county. On paper, the house now belongs to them. The homes I worry about most are the ones nobody is watching closely: a vacant house, a rental, a parent's paid-off home.

Georgia has a free way to hear about a filing early. It is called FANS, and most homeowners I talk to have never heard of it.

What FANS is

FANS stands for Filing Activity Notification System. It is run by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA). You tell it what to watch, and when a clerk's office records a document that matches, you get an email or a text. It is free.

An alert tells you that something was filed and in which county. It does not include a copy of the document, and it does not block anything. It also only watches forward, from the day you sign up. Treat it as an early warning, not a lock on your title.

How to set it up

1. Go to fans.gsccca.org and create an account.
2. Add a name alert, using your name the way it appears on your deed. If two people are on the deed, add both.
3. Add an address alert. It is a separate step, and P.O. boxes are not eligible.
4. Choose email, text, or both.
5. Put a reminder on your calendar for eleven months from now. Alerts expire after a year unless you log in and renew.

You do not need your parcel number. Gwinnett County's clerk says the full setup can take about 30 minutes. If the site gives you trouble, GSCCCA support is 1-800-304-5174.

If you get an alert you do not recognize

Plenty of alerts turn out to be harmless, like someone who shares your name or your own lender recording paperwork after a refinance. Call the Superior Court clerk's office in the county named in the alert and ask what was recorded. If it is a deed or a lien you never signed, call a Georgia real estate attorney that same day and report it to the police.

Two more things

Skip the companies that charge a monthly fee to monitor your title. Monitoring is what FANS does, and the clerks do not charge for it.

And if your parents or an older relative own their home, sit down with them and set this up on their own email or phone number.

If you get stuck signing up, or an alert comes in and you cannot tell what the document is, call me at 678-456-4545. I have been reading deeds and closing papers in metro Atlanta for 23 years, and I am happy to take a look. No charge.

Jennifer Orly Lazarian, licensed real estate agent with Virtual Properties Realty. This post is general information, not legal advice.