Public Record Privacy concern--Any advice is greatly appreciated! (New York, York: sale, real estate)

[DVespa82]

My fiancée and I recently purchased a condo in Queens. We were very alarmed to find that, shortly after the closing, we googled our full names only find every single detail about our closing, including our address and apt number as well as the price we paid, etc. When I wrote to the lady in charge of one of a particular website and requested that she take this info off of her site, she replied that it's public record and she has a right to post anything that the public can access. I contacted my lawyer as well and he said the same thing, even though my fiancée and I paid extra money at the closing to make sure that this information would remain private!

The reason for my concern is that I have an ex boyfriend that's in jail that has continued to contact me despite my asking him to stop on numerous occasions. My worst fear is that once he gets out, he will google my name and find out every single detail he needs to know about my whereabouts. How can I remove my information from public record so that he doesn't have access to my new address and is this even possible??

[UpsonDowns]

I don't think it's possible. Sorry that someone told you that you could pay to have the real estate transaction private. Residential transactions are all posted on ACRIS, the city's real estate records site. The only way I've heard to get around it is to buy your home as a corporation, but that has all sort of other complications.

[jcoltrane]

Public record is exactly that public. Specifically, when a laon is invloved. It is in the interest of the lender to have mortgage and transaction recorded; as well as any other potential creditor.

A cash sale would provide a better opportunity for privacy.

Also, even if it were possible to remove the record of THIS transaction and mortgage. There are other records out there. A credit check is the simplest and easiest way to find you, not considering Googling.

Finding you is simply a matter of time, money, and determination. In that order.

If you would please, what did you pay, and specifically what did you buy that you thought would ensure your privacy.

Luck!

[gvillager]

As everyone else said, it's public record and you can't really do anything about it at this point. However, what you could have done is formed a LLC or a Trust, and then purchased the property in the name of the LLC/Trust. This would have made it a bit more difficult to find you by searching Google.

[Kefir King]

You can maintain privacy in New York about the details of a housing purchase by restricting yourself to a Co-Op rather than a Condo or a private house. Owning a co-op involves only ownership of stock and thus neither price, taxes or even your NAME is public record.


But like everyone implied, privacy is a vanishing commodity.