Black Knight, Inc. said its iOnTitle solution can help prevent fraudulent transactions from taking place while many county recorder offices remain closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lisa Roessler, Black Knight’s vice president of title strategy and business development, said the COVID-19 pandemic has increased opportunities for real estate fraud.
“The unfortunate reality is that criminals seek out weaknesses to exploit in order to execute their schemes,” Roessler said in a release. “Today, many county recorder offices have been forced to close for an indeterminate length of time in response to stay-at-home orders resulting from COVID-19.
“Sadly, this creates a sizeable opportunity for those who would seek to commit real estate fraud in the midst of this confusion,” Roessler said. “Any delay in the public recordation of a real estate transaction creates a period where multiple title orders – for multiple mortgages – can be initiated on a single property. If funds are transferred before this activity is detected, losses could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per incident.”
Black Knight said its iOnTitle solution monitors the chain of title on a property from the moment an order is initiated through the post-closing period. If another order is identified prior to close, title agents using Black Knight’s TitlePoint and iOnTitle are notified immediately, helping to reduce the chance for fraud.
The company said iOnTitle also lets clients know when delayed documents have been recorded, and can detect when re-conveyances are recorded, payoffs were made, and whether lien positions on new mortgages are properly identified as subordinate liens.
“iOnTitle is an important tool to help prevent fraud at any time,” Roessler said. “But today’s circumstances make the insight this solution provides more critical than ever. The conditions are ripe for fraudulent real estate activity, and title agents and those they serve must be armed to defend against such activity. When ‘blind’ closings are an ever-increasing possibility, it is crucial that title agents have a clear view into any orders placed on a property, before, at and beyond closing.”