People who want to keep an eye on property sales and other documents in Deschutes County now have a way to stay in the know.
The office in charge of managing property documents, the Deschutes County Clerk’s Office, announced on Wednesday the Property Recording Alert System, a free service intended to help the public stay informed about local property records.
It works like this: Subscribers log in with an email and password and enter up to 10 names of people whose properties they want to track. If the clerk’s office files a new document in the County’s official records with a matching name, subscribers get an email with detailed information and a link to the documents in the clerk’s Digital Research Room.
Deschutes County spokesperson Kim Katchur said those could include deed records like sales, easements and covenants, mortgage documents like deed of trusts, lines of credit and reconveyances, and liens, such as for construction, homeowner’s associations or taxes.
The new service doesn’t track development plans or permits, because those are processed through the City of Bend. Katchur said it’s important to note that the alert service is only for new documents entered into the system, not existing documents. It also doesn’t monitor by specific properties — only names.
The service is funded through the fees Deschutes County collects for recording official documents.
However, there are ways to opt out for people who don’t want their property information tracked, including the state’s Address Confidentiality Program for domestic violence survivors, a personal safety exemption through state law or changing a tax billing address.
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