Citrus County Clerk of Court’s Chief of Staff Traci Phillips and Property Appraiser Cregg Dalton want to remind citizens about the FREE Recording Activity Notice (RAN) program offered by the Clerk’s Office providing residents and businesses fraud protection for their property(s) and official records documents. Although our office has no legal authority to determine if a recorded document is fraudulent, this issue is becoming more common. Our office is proud to provide this service and reduce the risk to our taxpayers.
Property owners can sign up for this service through the Clerk’s website: www.citruslerk.org/RAN. All owners who register must provide their name and an active email address. For those who are not aware of their parcel number, this information may be located on the Property Appraiser’s website www.citruspa.org.
Once registered, owners will receive an automated email when documents are recorded with the registered name in the Clerk’s Official Records. The name you choose to subscribe (business name, maiden name, married name, etc) is the only criteria being monitored. If you have a common name, you may get multiple alerts since it doesn’t distinguish one name from another. If you have multiple variations of your names, such as Chris and Christopher, you may want to subscribe to both, but again, you may get multiple alerts for others with your common name. If the changes have been made by the owner, no additional action is required. If you did not initiate these changes, you should contact our office immediately to verify why these changes have taken place.
“This service is intended to empower the taxpayer by providing them the means to monitor the status of their property,” Phillips said. “This ultimately protects against fraudulent transactions while also alleviating stress on property owners.”
An owner will continue to receive notifications until they unsubscribe or sell the property they signed up to monitor.
This service is not a substitute for a title search. Ownership records are changed based on deeds recorded with the Citrus County Clerk’s Official Records Department.
If an owner believes fraudulent activity has taken place, they should notify the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office immediately.
“At the Citrus County Property Appraisers office, one of our primary responsibilities to every property owner is to educate them on all of the services that are available to them regarding their property.” Dalton said. “In doing so, we have partnered with the Citrus County Clerk of Courts office to promote the Recording Activity Notification (RAN) program. I highly recommend every property owner take advantage of this amazing service the Citrus County Clerk of Court is providing at no cost.”
To sign up for this fraud alert protection, go to citrusclerk.org/ran and click on the “click here to sign-up for alerts” button. The online form requires a valid email address, as those who register will be immediately notified by email should a document be recorded that matches the criteria provided. Assistance is also available at (352) 341-6424, option 2 for any questions.
Need help signing up for our FREE Recording Activity Program, or know someone who does? We've partnered with our friends at the Citrus County Library System who have volunteers and computers available to help you get signed up.