As outlined in this article, new home owners have been receiving a misleading solicitation in the mail directing the homeowner to pay $89 to receive a copy of their deed. The letter from the “Local Records Office” has a return address of 911 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12206 which is apparently a UPS store in a strip mall.

The City of New York provides copies of deeds for $4/page certified or $1/page uncertified if you go to this link here. The deeds I have seen are only like 1 or 2 pages. One thing I found odd is that while Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx allow you to order copies online, Staten Island only accepts cash (?). I guess the city is saying that Staten Island really is a second rate borough.

In the meantime, if you receive a letter from the Local Records Office and would like to file a consumer complaint, here is a link to the NY Attorney General’s office. Based only on online comments this scam seems to be going unabated for at least several years, and it wouldn’t take crack investigative work to identify who is behind it. Upload a copy of the letter in your complaint to the AG, and hopefully they will send a SWAT team to capture the offenders.