Alachua County Property Appraiser’s Office Introduces New Program to Avoid Risk of Property Fraud

GAINESVILLE – The Alachua County Property Appraiser’s Office is excited to introduce a free monitoring service to help residents protect their property. The office has developed a new software called Property Watch. Property owners can sign up for this service through the Property Appraiser's website.

All owners who register must provide the following information: a name, a date of birth, a Florida Driver’s License/ID number, a property parcel number, and an active email address. For those who are not aware of their parcel number, this information can also be found on our website.

After this registration process, owners can expect this service to continuously monitor their property. The areas that will be monitored for changes include the owner’s name, the mailing address, any change in exemption or agricultural classification status, and splits and combines to parcels. An automated email will be generated to owners only if changes are made in these areas when processed by the Property Appraiser’s Office.

If the changes have been made by the owner, no additional action is required. If the owner did not initiate these changes they should contact the Property Appraiser’s 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,” Ayesha Solomon 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 if they have sold 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 Alachua County Records Division. Although the Property Appraiser’s Office office has no legal authority to determine if a deed is fraudulent, this issue is becoming more common.  If an owner believes fraudulent activity has taken place, they should notify local law enforcement.

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