Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Australia. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of mortgage and real estate frauds perpetuated on unsuspecting property owners.
Landgate's latest online subscriber service, TitleWatch, provides a fast, easy and economical way to monitor any dealings that occur on a nominated Certificate of Title.
TitleWatch alerts a property owner to expected and more importantly unexpected changes to a nominated title.
Titlewatch provides a subscriber with one of six automatic email notifications informing them of the current status of a dealing, starting at the moment a document is lodged at Landgate. A dealing is any action against a Certificate of Title and most commonly includes changes to ownership, address and mortgage details, caveats and easements.
Western Australia's Registrar of Titles, Bruce Roberts said WA was not immune to real estate fraud even though there hadn't been as many cases as in New South Wales and other eastern states.
Mr Roberts said TitleWatch could also be used to check any nominated title.
"For the homeowner, TitleWatch allows them to get notice of changes that have occurred to their title at an affordable price while at the same time, it offers a valuable service to professional customers such as accountants, lawyers and real estate agents who can monitor properties on behalf of their clients."
The Landgate system checks if there has been any action on all Certificates of Title twice a day. If a Certificate of Title has a TitleWatch subscription and there has been a change to the action status of that title, Landgate will automatically send an email notification alerting the subscriber to the updated status.
A 12 month TitleWatch subscription costs only $26.95 which includes GST. This covers all automated email notifications and quarterly updates that relate to a single Certificate of Title for a 12 month period.
For more information, view the TitleWatch webpage.
Landgate is Western Australia's primary source of land information and geographic data, providing the accuracy government, business and individuals rely on.
