Register of Deeds, John F. Meade, is happy to announce our Consumer Notification Service. Property owners in Barnstable County can sign up to receive an electronic notification in the event a document is recorded in their names at our registry. For more information and to sign up please click here.
Notification Service Disclaimer
If you believe that a fraudulent document has been recorded against your property you should call your attorney and discuss possible legal steps you can take to address the issue. Further steps may include calling the police or the Office of the Attorney General directly but that is a decision you or you and your attorney need to make.
Please be advised that Registry of Deeds has no statutory police or investigative powers. We do not have any power to remove a document from our records on our own initiative or to “flag” a “suspect” document based on the allegation of a member of the public or an attorney or a police department or District Attorney’s Office. Only a Court of competent jurisdiction after a duly noticed hearing can invalidate a document of record. Our notification service is limited to providing notice of recordings and no more than that. We will cooperate with any authorized investigation to the extent the law allows but please understand that we are not an investigative agency, nor can we provide you with any legal advice on how to proceed with addressing an alleged fraudulent recording.
Search Barnstable County recorded land indexes and images from 1704 to the present here on our website.