County Clerk: Ignore $69.50 Deed Offers

The Westchester County Clerk is alerting homeowners to a scam that offers a certified copy for $69.50.

Clerk Timothy C. Idoni said the letters are from New York Record Retrieval, and the offer costs almost 14 times what it would cost from his office.

“Ignore these mailers,” Idoni said. “You’ll see from the bold print that you can receive the same service directly from our office at a fraction of the cost.”

He said the bold print, which must be included in such solicitations because of a state law, states, in part, that “certified copies of property deeds are available at the county clerk’s office [which] may charge a small fee.” 

Idoni's office oversees the county office in which deeds and other land records, such as mortgages, are recorded and available for public inspection.